Russia says it is "pleased to know" people from Russia voted in New Zealand's Bird of the Year competition.
The selection, won by the hoiho, was hit by controversy after whispers of overseas interference.
- NZ Bird of the Year: How Russia influenced the vote
- Why Russia was so interested in the Bird of the Year competition
The results showed 335 people from Russia attempted to vote, the fourth-highest from an overseas country behind Australia, the UK and the US. Ultimately, 193 votes from Russia were included in the final count.
But the Russian Embassy in Wellington has responded, saying "from our perspective, there is nothing strange here".
"First of all, the Russian community here in New Zealand is quite big and a lot of people are traveling back to their homeland quite often and keep in touch with their family and friends back in Russia," press secretary Artur Zakaev told Newshub.
"Despite that, you might be surprised, this particular competition sparks keen interest of the Russian media each year.
"For example, major Russian news agencies like TASS, RIA, RG and others were covering this story this and last year as well as multiple other stories about New Zealand."
A spokesperson for Forest and Bird, which runs the competition, said it welcomes overseas voting in the contest.
"We've had a look at the IP address and done a data scan on all of the votes, and it looks pretty clean from our point of view," Megan Hubscher told Radio New Zealand.
"The competition is open to anyone - people from Britain or Australia or Russia [who] want to get in on the action, they're more than welcome to."
Zakaev says the Russian Embassy in Wellington will be taking part next year.
"Unfortunately we didn't take part in the voting as we simply didn't know about it," he told Newshub.
"We are looking forward to participating next year."
Newshub.
