On Monday, Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported that Russia might start supplying S-300 Favorit air defence systems to Syria for free soon to boost Damascus' capability of repelling air attacks.
"Some media [outlets] are artificially exaggerating the issue, and it is clearly being done prematurely," Shein said in an interview with the Israeli Ynet newspaper, adding that no decision on supplying the systems has been taken yet.
According to the diplomat, the issue arose in light of the recent Western coalition’s strikes on Syria, and "in the context of discussions on how Syria could be protected from such actions by Western states."
READ MORE: Lavrov on Russia's S-300 Supplies to Syria: It's No Secret, But Not Decided Yet
On April 20, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik that Moscow was no longer bound by a moral duty not to supply Damascus with S-300 systems after Western strikes on Syria on April 14.