Stand down Sean Spicer. There's a new prince of PR in town, and he's right here at the Russian embassy in Canberra.

Bald, expressive and increasingly Soviet-red in complexion, Russian ambassador to Australia Grigory Logvinov took journalists on an hour-long traversal of Cold War history and Russia's relations with the West that veered from euphemism to blatant denial and surreal obfuscation.

For political journalists used to short, sharp, stage-managed press conferences, Wednesday's offering turned into a game of brinkmanship. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There was no evidence Moscow was responsible for poisoning a former Russian spy in Britain, Logvinov insisted, just as there was no proof Russia shot down MH17 over Ukraine. He denied the two Russian diplomats expelled by the Australian government were actually spies, and ridiculed a series of photographs in The Australian depicting activity at the embassy.

One of the people pictured was "very spy-ish looking", Logvinov conceded, but was actually the embassy's chauffeur. "You see three women, also very spy-ish," he said. "One of them is [our] chief account[ant], the second is wife of our embassy's chef, the cook, and the third I don't remember who [it] is."