Lavrov says Trump-Zelenskiy call blown out of proportion

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said the controversy over a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been blown out of proportion and dismissed a suggestion that Russia was behind it.

“(U.S. House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi said today that behind the incident – that is being blown out of proportion – around the telephone conversation between President Trump and President Zelenskiy, that it was Russia behind it all,” he told reporters at the United Nations. “It’s paranoia.”

Democrats in the House of Representatives have launched an impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower complaint that Trump solicited a political favor from Ukraine’s president during the phone call that could help the Republican get re-elected.

In an interview on Friday, Pelosi suggested Russia may have been behind the matter. “By the way, I think Russia has a hand in this,” Pelosi told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program on Friday.