CNN reported Wednesday that Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak is considered by US intelligence to be one of Russia's top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington, citing current and former senior US government officials.
But asked by CNN's team in Moscow about the report, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova insisted Kislyak was "a well-known, world-class diplomat."
She added, "He was deputy minister of foreign affairs in Russia, who has communicated with American colleagues for decades in different fields, and CNN accused him of being a Russian spy ... of recruiting? Oh my God!"
Sessions is facing calls from senior Democrats to resign for failing to disclose in his confirmation hearings two meetings he held with Kislyak last year. He has denied misleading Congress.
Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, Zakharova dismissed media reports about the encounters between Sessions and Kislyak as "shameful," an "attempt at total misinformation" and a kind of "vandalism."
