“If someone from a newspaper or from somewhere else wanted to verify this information, this is solved in one minute. The British could calmly call the Americans, and the Americans would answer them for sure that this is all a lie, ”the ambassador said.
At the same time, the diplomat noted that such accusations reflect the realities of the British media and political life in the country as a whole.
Yakovenko stressed that in this situation we are talking about the prestige of Britain and about the prospects for bilateral relations with Russia, which are impossible in the absence of "political culture" and journalistic ethics.
The ambassador also expressed the opinion that Britain does not intend to conduct a dialogue with Russia on the case of poisoning of the ex-Colonel of the GRU Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Earlier, the Russian embassy in the UK demanded an apology from Mail on Sunday for slandering Yakovenko.
The British edition wrote that Yakovenko, while working at Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in the 1980s in New York, was allegedly expelled from the country for spying.