“While I can’t speculate what this visit entails, you know, we've seen these visits of leaders happen over the course of the last two years," she added, in an apparent nod to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. 

"I was not officially notified of any action. I have not seen a warrant. I was not contacted by any law enforcement or anyone else whatsoever," Simes told the newspaper.

"I am in Moscow and have not been to the US since October 2022. Accordingly, there is not, and could not, be anything in my house related to my current life and activities."

"There was no advance warning of the raid, and we still don’t know what the FBI’s objectives are. Based on their actions so far, this looks like an intimidation effort first and foremost," he told Sputnik.

"Such technical abilities are not possessed by private individuals - it was necessary to lay 1.5 tons of explosives at a depth, and then make a remote explosion. And now they are presenting us with a version that claims some Ukrainian activists had rented a yacht, loaded explosives on it, forgotten their fake passports and left behind traces of explosives," Schmidt told Sputnik. 

"The situation on the border with Ukraine remains tense," the minister said, noting active operations by the Ukrainian Security Service.

“Sending [Ukrainian] troops to Kursk [region] means taking them away from the Donetsk region. Troops in the east said they weren’t yet convinced that sending Ukrainian troops into Russia would pay off,” the newspaper concluded.