Undiplomatic behavior? US official drawn into spicy scandal

The American embassy in Moscow has filed a protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry over a spicy video that appeared on the web allegedly featuring a US diplomat. The US State Department says the footage is a fabrication.

The controversial video, posted on the Internet in August, allegedly shows the 34-year-old diplomat talking on his mobile phone in the street, then cuts inside to a hotel room where a man resembling Kyle Hatcher is alone. After that it cuts into a darkened room where a man and a woman are having sex. It’s not clear whether it is Hatcher or not.

"We had our security office back in Washington take a look at that and they are convinced Kyle has done nothing wrong. I have full confidence in him and he is going to continue his work here at the embassy," said John Beyrle, US Ambassador to Russia.

According to him, the video was a montage of lot of different clips, “some of them which are clearly fabricated".

American officials reportedly suspect the footage was fabricated by the FSB – Russia's Federal Security Service.

John Beyrle filed the protest of over an "attempted smear" of Kyle Hatcher.

“This kind of effort to discredit an American diplomat really has no place in the sort of relationship that we are trying to build with the Russian Federation”, Beyrle said in an interview with ABC news.

Hatcher is responsible for contacts with religious and human rights groups in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry hasn’t commented on the issue so far.

Meanwhile, it’s not the first sex scandal involving diplomats this year. In July, a British deputy consul in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg was sacked after he was secretly filmed having sex with two prostitutes.

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