Moscow: Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, known for his outrageous remarks, said that meteorite fragments had not rained down on Russia but that the light flashes and tremors resulted from US weapons tests.
"Those aren't meteors falling, it's the Americans testing new weapons," Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, said.
He said US Secretary of State John Kerry had wanted to warn Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about the "provocation", but could not reach him.
This was a reference to US State Department comments earlier this week that Kerry had spent several days trying to speak to Lavrov by phone to discuss North Korea and Syria.
Zhirinovsky said outer space has its own laws.
"Nothing will ever fall out there," he said.
"If something falls, it's people doing that. People are the instigators of wars, the provocateurs."
IANS
First Published: Saturday, February 16, 2013, 11:32