MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Appeals by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to release blogger Alexey Navalny are attempts to apply pressure on the Russian legal system, US officials should respect Russia’s sovereignty, head of the Russian State Duma's commission investigating foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs Vasily Piskarev stated on Thursday, according to the commission’s Telegram channel.
"An attempt to apply pressure on operations of our system of justice this time was made by Jen Psaki whose comments were immediately supported by Western media outlets with calls for new sanctions against Russia. In turn, we are urging Ms. Psaki to respect our laws and our sovereignty," the lawmaker said.
According to him, "there is an impression that salaries of the US officials depend on the number of attempts to violate Russia’s sovereignty and introduce sanctions against it." "Yet there is nothing new in such statements by American politicians, and their regularity combined with cookie-cutter publications in media outlets only confirms the systemic nature of the attempts to meddle into our internal affairs," he concluded.
Earlier at a briefing, the White House representative stated again that the US is concerned about Navalny’s condition and urges to release him.
The blogger who received two suspended sentences for embezzlement was placed on the wanted list for repeated violations of rules of his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. On January 17, he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport having arrived from Berlin. On February 2, Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court converted Alexey Navalny’s suspended sentence to 3 years and 6 months in a medium-security prison.