RUSSIA accused US intelligence services on Saturday of running a “psy-ops” campaign through the Bloomberg media outlet as it refused to rule out military provocations in Ukraine.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was speaking after a Bloomberg article claimed that Chinese President Xi Jinping had told Russia not to invade Ukraine during the Winter Olympics “in order not to ruin the celebration.”

She said the story had been concocted by US intelligence services and that the “one diplomat in China” it cited was in fact a US national.