Russian lawmakers denounce US sanctions against state media network

The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have repeatedly said that Moscow has not meddled in the US election, but is watching it closely.

 

Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told RIA news agency that the US moves were aimed at preventing alternative views from being made known.

 

“That is the reason behind the rabid reaction of the US authorities, which is totally at odds with the principles of freedom of speech and defending the rights of journalists.” Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma lower house’s foreign affairs committee, branded the sanctions “a witch-hunt, pressure on freedom of speech and vulgar censorship”.

“The agents of the ’empire of lies’ are waging war on everyone who tells the truth about the policy of contemporary neo-colonialists,” said Slutsky.

 

There was no immediate Kremlin reaction to the sanctions.

 

The Kremlin in June dismissed as absurd US intelligence assertions that Russia sought to meddle in the election and has said that US spies were intent on casting Russia as an enemy.

 

President Vladimir Putin had suggested in the past that, for Russia, Joe Biden would have been preferable to Donald Trump, though he spoke with irony about Biden.

 

Ahead of the announcement of the sanctions, Russian lawmaker Maria Butina said any suggestion of meddling in the election was nonsense. Moscow, she said, felt that the only winner of the election would be the US military-industrial complex.

 

“The US claims were and are pure rubbish and a witch hunt,” Butina, who spent 15 months in US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia party, told Reuters.

 

“Russia thinks it does not matter who wins the US elections the only winner is the US private military-industrial complex. That is what matters“ and nothing else,” Butina said.

 

First Published: Sep 05 2024 | 8:47 AM IST