MOSCOW, June 16. /TASS/. The speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, has warned US Congress members against the erroneous decision to tighten anti-Russian sanctions.
"Our colleagues from the US parliament currently lack the ability to listen. The inability to hear and talk leads to errors, as a rule. And people may suffer from these errors," Stater Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said at a meeting with First Deputy Chairman of the Austrian National Council Karlheinz Kopf, commenting on the amendments adopted by the US Senate to expand the anti-Russian sanctions.
According to the State Duma speaker, "everyone sees what has happened as a result of the mistakes and now they have been recognized by the United States, in Iraq and Libya."
"Now, Syria is a new hotbed of tension where the terrorist organization seeking to become a state [the Islamic State terrorist grouping outlawed in Russia] has been in existence up to date precisely due to the inability to listen," Volodin said.
Russia "is open for a dialogue," including with the US side, Volodin said.
"We have a position and we are safeguarding it but we are not imposing it on anyone. We would like the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states to apply to all. Russia is not meddling in the internal affairs of other states and would like others to behave likewise towards it," the State Duma speaker said.
The US Senate supported almost unanimously on Thursday an initiative that stipulates legislatively sealing some restrictions that are in force against Russia.
Besides, the bill requires the US White House to approve the easing of the sanctions regime with the Congress. The bill now has to be debated in the US House of Representatives.