MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. By criticizing Russia over the denial of registration for the presidential race to the oppositionist Alexei Navalny the US made a blunder, as it unveiled its support for this individual, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting with the editors-in-chief of printed media and news agencies.
"The individual I mentioned [Navalny] isn't the only one who was denied registration but for some reason they [the Americans] didn't mention others." Putin said. "This obviously exposes the preferences of the US Administration and other foreign governments and makes clear whom they would like to promote to Russia's political sphere and to see as Russian leaders."
"They made a blunder in this sense," he said. "They had better kept silent."
"On the whole, it’s not who received the registration and who didn’t that matters because this is natural practice," Putin said. "The main thing is to ensure that we understand it properly here at home and abide by the provisions of law."
"It’s important to realize that encroachments on law are inadmissible whoever the encroachers are," he said. "This applies to the election race, too."