The Russian Foreign Ministry representative thus responded to recent statements by the Bogota government, which last week called Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine a genocide.

“We pay attention to the statements of Colombian President Ivan Duque on Russian-Colombian relations. We regret they are written in the spirit of negative rhetoric imposed on other countries by the U.S. Administration,” she said.

Zakharova expressed her wish that the people of that South American nation strengthen internal peace and harmony in accordance with the final peace agreement signed in 2016 and endorsed by the UN Security Council.

She considered it is in the interests of Moscow and Bogota to maintain constructive and mutually beneficial cooperation in the commercial, economic, humanitarian, educational, cultural and sports areas, in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.

“We hope that the wisdom of the representatives of the Colombian political circles will allow us to preserve the traditionally good relations between our countries and peoples, to further develop and multiply them with the future Government of Colombia,” she said.

On Wednesday, the Russian ambassador to Colombia, Nikolai Tavdumadze, accused the Colombian authorities of creating “tension” between the two countries.

The government of Ivan Duque would be trying to “artificially generate and/or aggravate tension in relations in order to damage them,” the Moscow representative in the South American nation said in a statement.

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