© Maxim Shemetov/ReutersPeople take part at a rally calling for opposition candidates to be registered for elections to Moscow City Duma, the capital's regional parliament, in Moscow, Russia. The placard reads: "I have a right to my candidate".
How would Americans react if a Russian news agency encouraged US citizens to "go out on the streets?"
Transcript:
US Ambassador John Huntsman and the leadership of the German television and radio broadcasting company Deutsche Welle have been invited to Okhotny Ryad. Deputies want to know how come the social media account of the US Embassy posted the detailed route of the procession on August 3rd. The German channel tweeted "It is our civic duty to go out on the streets." It's hard to see as this anything other than a call to violate the law. That's what the Foreign Ministry said, actually. Now it's the senators who are wondering who can benefit from this abroad.
Varvara Nevskaya has the details on that. We have her on the line.Via Vesti
- Greetings, Varya. What are the preliminary results of the commission?
- Hello.
Today, the Federation Council summed up the preliminary results of the monitoring which was carried out in connection with repeated attempts to intervene in the state affairs of the Russian Federation, as senators previously stressed. In particular, it was about the election race for the upcoming election day which will take place very soon. The meeting of the commission began with a speech by its head, Andrei Klimov, who once again emphasized that, after studying a large number of factors, it had become clear that foreign adversaries were not interested in the Moscow State Duma election itself but in the resonance that the opposition could raise around the events. Let's listen to his comments.Andrei Klimov, the Federation Council: "We understood that events that, alas, are becoming a reality and about which we spoke about on May 30th, are primarily related to the processes associated with the elections to the Moscow City Duma. We also realized that our foreign opponents were not interested in the Moscow City Duma itself, with all due respect to this authority. All this was done to compromise the federal Russian authorities. both domestically and abroad, and attempts to destabilize the domestic political situation in the capital of our country."Traditionally, experts from the central election commission, the Foreign Ministry, and the prosecutor's office were invited to the meeting of the working group. The Acting Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Foreign Ministry said the Foreign Ministry regularly monitors all attempts to intervene in the internal affairs of Russia, and that such attempts and statements, in one way or another, call on people to support the actions of the protesters and the opposition. These statements were collected and recorded. Let's listen to his comment.Ilya Timokhov: "In our opinion, this is the clearest example of intervention. It is carried out through a selective analysis of events and a one-sided presentation of events. It is done through biased official statements, through direct and indirect calls for participation in unauthorized rallies, and through calls for resistance to the authorities. Especially odious statements, addressed to us, were made by Washington, as is tradition."
Aleksey Zhafyarov, a representative of the Prosecutor's Office, made a statement at the commission today that the Prosecutor's Office believes that the actions of the police during the so-called riots were carried out as correctly and professionally as possible. Zhafyarov also noted the fact that many of the provocations that we saw in recent months were organized by foreign agents whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation. Let's listen to his comment.Aleksey Zhafyarov: "We said at the last meeting that the Prosecutor's Office was working to recognize their activities in Russia as undesirable. I would like to warn our citizens that participating in the activities of undesirable organizations is punishable in accordance with Russian law. Such actions are subject to administrative or even criminal liability. Therefore, when it comes to taking part in the protest events sponsored by our "friends," we would like our citizens to understand that these actions could be qualified as an administrative or criminal offense."Studio?
The commission also stated it would continue to collect all the evidence of all attempts to intervene in the internal affairs of the Russian Federation. It would then provide the parties involved with its assessment and then engage them in a dialogue.
- Thank you, Varya.
We had Varvara Nevskaya speaking about the first findings made by the senators who addressed foreign interference in Russian internal affairs.
Comment: Russia has taken steps to rid itself of most of the troublemaking NGOs the US has tried to install, but it is like playing whack-a-mole. The CIA, Soros and other meddlers will always be able to find malcontents to fund. Still it seems the Russian government has a handle on the problem.