FILE PHOTO: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends the annual end-of-year news conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2019. Sputnik/Alexei Nikolsky/Kremlin via REUTERS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin on Wednesday rejected criticism of Russia’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak after China said its largest source of new, imported cases, had come from transmissions in its far northeast, bordering Russia.

China’s northeastern province of Heilongjiang has become a front line in the fight to keep out imported cases as infected Chinese nationals return overland from Russia.

“We hear that there is now an exchange of criticism over coronavirus between different countries, which is played like ping pong. We consider this to be a thankless exercise,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.