Russian embassy ‘completely unaware’ of delegation that met Zuma, slams report as desperate

The Russian Embassy said the report was unverified and fake news.

The Sunday Times ran a front page story about how President Vladimir Putin had put pressure on the South African government to approve a multi-billion nuclear deal.

Russian intelligence, police and military officials had allegedly came via Mozambique and spent a few hours in a meeting with Zuma which led to him axing Blade Nzimande from his Cabinet and appointing David Mahlobo as his energy minister.

“We are highly disappointed to see yet another example of sensationalism and fake news in South African press, especially, in an evident attempt to emulate the worst kind of groundless anti-Russian attacks by some of the global mainstream media.

“We consider this slanderous piece, which is (as usual) based entirely on hearsay and unnamed ‘sources’ for information, unfit for a serious publication such as Sunday Times claims to be,” said the Embassy in a statement.

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