Putin: Kerry Lied to Congress

During a televised meeting of the Russian presidential human rights council, Russian President Vlaimir Putin accused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry of lying to the Congress, claiming that Kerry had denied that al-Qaeda was fighting with the Syrian opposition in that country's civil war. “They are lying, of course, in an ugly way. I watched the debates in Congress,”  Putin said. “A congressman asks Mr. Kerry: ‘Is al-Qaeda there? There has been rumor that they are gaining strength.’ He says: ‘No, I am telling you firmly: there are none of them there.’” “The principal combative unit [among the Syrian rebels] is the so-called Nusra, which is an al-Qaeda unit,” Putin continued. “And they know this. I even felt quite awkward. We are communicating with them and assume that they are decent people and he is telling an outright lie. He knows that he is lying. This is sad.” Putin seemed to be referring to an exchange during Tuesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing between Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Kerry. Sen. Johnson told Kerry: “This is more of an impression I have as opposed to any exact knowledge, but it seems like initially, the opposition was maybe more Western-leaning, more moderate, more democratic, and as time has gone by, it’s degraded, become more infiltrated by al-Qaeda. Is that basically true?” “No, that is – no, that is actually basically not true. It’s basically incorrect,” Kerry said. “The opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process and to an all-inclusive, minority-protecting constitution, which will be broad-based and secular with respect to the future of Syria.”


http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/chill-putin-says-kerry-s-lying-hagel-says-russia-supplied-syria-s
http://stream.wsj.com/story/syria/SS-2-34182/SS-2-316431/
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130904/183168334/US-Lied-When-It-Said-Theres-No-Al-Qaida-in-Syria--Putin.html

UPDATE:
State Department: Kerry is “not losing sleep after such a preposterous comment"
http://en.rian.ru/world/20130905/183190564/Putin-Remark-on-Kerry-Preposterous--US.html