Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has accused Bangladesh of banning Russian ships from calling at its ports.

Zakharova said in a recent press briefing that “several dozen” Russian ships had been denied entry into the South Asian nation’s ports.

She blamed the Bangladeshi authorities’ “unfriendly step” on pressure from the US, claiming that the ban was “by no means their own initiative, but under the threat of secondary sanctions”.