MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian lawmakers denounced as an infringement of freedom of speech U.S. punitive measures towards state media group RT as a part of what officers in Washington described as a marketing campaign to affect the November presidential election.
The U.S. justice division on Wednesday filed money-laundering fees towards two staff of Russian state media community RT for what was described as a scheme to rent a U.S. firm to supply on-line content material to affect the election.
Earlier U.S. intelligence assessments have discovered that Moscow tried to meddle within the 2016 and 2020 elections. Russian officers have steered that the USA has additionally meddled in its home affairs.
The Kremlin and the Russian International Ministry have repeatedly mentioned that Moscow has not meddled within the U.S. election, however is watching it carefully.
Konstantin Kosachev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s higher home of parliament, informed RIA information company that the U.S. strikes have been geared toward stopping various views from being made identified.
“Russian media in this sense have become increasingly popular and in demand,” Kosachev informed RIA.
“That is the reason behind the rabid reaction of the U.S. 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 decrease home’s overseas 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,” mentioned Slutsky.
There was no fast Kremlin response to the sanctions.
The Kremlin in June dismissed as absurd U.S. intelligence assertions that Russia sought to meddle within the election and has mentioned that U.S. spies have been intent on casting Russia as an enemy.
President Vladimir Putin had steered previously that, for Russia, Joe Biden would have been preferable to Donald Trump, although he spoke with irony about Biden.
Forward of the announcement of the sanctions, Russian lawmaker Maria Butina mentioned any suggestion of meddling within the election was nonsense. Moscow, she mentioned, felt that the one winner of the election could be the U.S. military-industrial advanced.
“The U.S. claims were and are pure rubbish and a witch hunt,” Butina, who spent 15 months in U.S. jail for appearing as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker for the ruling United Russia social gathering, informed Reuters.
“Russia thinks it does not matter who wins the U.S. elections – the only winner is the U.S. private military-industrial complex. That is what matters – and nothing else,” Butina mentioned.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned in an interview revealed on Sunday that Russia noticed U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris as a extra predictable opponent than Trump, however mentioned there was no prospect of an enchancment in relations with Washington anyway.