The "ABC News" stove-piping that was clearly cooked up at the instigation of the State Department about the alleged "psychological pressure" on employees of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and their systematic "intimidation" is groundless and detached from reality.
The voiced complaints are below the level of cheap spy detective stories. They are brought down to trivial fantasies about hacked personal e-mails, slashed tires and mysterious burst-ins. What is shocking is the dogmatic and contradicting to the facts statement of the State Department Press Secretary that "contrary to the behavior of the Russians" the American side treats diplomats from Russia "with utmost respect".

We do not think that professional aspects of diplomatic activity and risks linked to it should be discussed in public. These risks are particularly high in the United States in view of the scope and scale of secret operations carried out by American security services that are patronizing the Russian diplomats.
But since the matter has been brought up in Washington "publically", we have a lot to share. For example, about the targeted pursuit of the head of the Russian center for culture and science and it's employees, which was accompanied by telephone calls, conspicuous surveillance and bold attempts to enforce a "dialogue". Or about the fact that our diplomats are constantly approached with recruitment offers, suffer from rude provocative tactics by using illegally obtained personal information, including information on the state of health of family members. We can also recall the time when there was the use of force against not only employees of our Embassy in the USA, but their spouses as well, who were apprehended and severely interrogated while being handcuffed. Despite our numerous appeals, the American side did not present any apologies.
In the meantime, the American diplomats in Moscow themselves can't serve as an example of law-abiding behavior and observance of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provisions in so far as they relate to respecting the receiving State's laws and regulations.
Since the beginning of this year alone, over 20 cases of traffic rules violation committed in terms of the U.S. Embassy employees' trips in Moscow and other Russian cities have been recorded. The Russian Foreign Ministry has sent several notes to the U.S. Embassy demanding to take disciplinary measures against the violators, in particular, against those involved into the flagrant incident taking place on the past New Year's night when a representative of the U.S. mission in Russia crashed into cars parked outside the Embassy compound. No reply has been received to these notes, however.
We advise our colleagues from the State Department not to add more negative sentiment to the already existing gloomy background in the development of our relations. This is not the way to solve problems; it is the way to make them even worse.