Russia's foreign ministry on Thursday dismissed claims by a former diplomat who resigned over the war in Ukraine, casting him as a low level turncoat who was far less significant figure that a famous Soviet traitor.
Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at Russia's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said in an article published on Oct. 17 that President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine had set Russia on a path towards turmoil.
When asked about Bondarev's critique in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova compared him to Andrei Vlasov, a Soviet military commander who defected to the Nazis in 1942.
"I would like to say to you that he is on a very different scale to Vlasov," Zakharova said when asked about Bondarev by Reuters at a briefing in Moscow.
"And to you, I would sincerely advise you to keep to journalism," she said.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
