Maria Zakharova and Colin Powell
Maria Zakharova has gone too far this time. This is below the belt.

Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova is known for her quick wit and devastating zingers.

But this time she crossed the line. This time she went too far.

During an eventful press briefing in Moscow on Thursday, Zakharova responded to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's recent claim that there is well documented evidence showing "the Russians were playing around in [US] electoral processes".

Maria was not impressed:
Our opponents have no proof, nor can they have any. Needless to say, they have nothing to show us because they can't just pour hackers into a test-tube.
It's over. Shut it down. There's no way to recover from this.

Maria added:
I would like to point out again that there are absolutely no grounds for such accusations that have been replicated and spread around in the United States for months in various versions. We have heard this for a while and have asked many times for any evidence or any kind of supporting materials in any form, but to no avail. There has been no response. So far, the evidence has been limited to a fictional dossier by Christopher Steele and the infamous January report by US intelligence services that was initiated during the Obama administration and which looks more like a school essay with not a single true fact.

All the stories about Russia's alleged interference are a fake through and through, one that has been artificially generated for use in US domestic political squabbles.

We have become used to this. And those who write these things will have to get used to our refutations which we will continue to publish. Such statements by high-ranking US State Department representatives cannot but cause disappointment.

These signals from our American colleagues clearly contribute to nothing but complications in our dialogue and are at odds with to what we hear during our bilateral contacts. In the past few months, we have been working in a completely different direction. Specifically, we have set our sights on establishing pragmatic and mutually beneficial relations, on dropping any artificial or contrived elements that hinder normal interaction.

Once again, we urge our partners to be more serious about what they say and do. It is time to put an end to this farce.
The sad farce will continue, of course. And maybe the US really is preparing a Russian hacker test tube show-and-tell for the Security Council?

Stranger things have happened.