Russian cop crash-tackles 'CIA agent' outside US embassy

A US diplomat has been tackled to the ground by a Russian policeman outside the US embassy in Moscow after being mistaken for an undercover CIA agent, heightening tensions between the two nations.

After a man in a beanie and coat exits a taxi and starts to walk towards the US embassy’s front doors, the officer leaps out from his post and crash tackles the man into the building’s outer wall.

The scrap continues with the US diplomat attempting to fight off the cop who pins him to the concrete steps of the embassy.

The diplomat has no choice but to kick at the concrete to thrust himself backwards towards into the embassy doorway.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said the diplomat punched the officer after he was stopped at the embassy checkpoint and asked for identification.

Russia has also suggested the diplomat was an undercover CIA agent and accused Washington of “provocation”.

However footage of the incident, which occurred on the night of June 6 and has been screened on state-owned Russian television, contradicts the ministry’s version of events.

The attack offers further proof of the deteriorating relations between Russia and the US over the nations’ opposite views to conflicts in regions such as Ukraine and Syria, Bloomberg reports.