Russia's foreign ministry in a statement on Wednesday said it had summoned the French ambassador and lodged "a strong protest" over comments about an assassination attempt on a Russian official in the Central African Republic.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna last week dismissed the claims by the head of a Russian private militia who blamed France for the attack. She called it "a good example of Russian propaganda and the fanciful imagination that sometimes characterises this propaganda."
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin Editing by David Ljunggren and Mark Porter)
