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Russia’s 2021 Parliamentary Elections

Diplomat: If US tech giants fail to show up at upper house, it’s an admission of meddling

Maria Zakharova emphasized that Russian officials had a lot of questions for representatives of Silicon Valley-based Big Tech companies

View of Silicon Valley Uladzik Kryhin/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

View of Silicon Valley

© Uladzik Kryhin/Shutterstock/FOTODOM

MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. Silicon Valley-based Big Tech companies will corroborate their involvement in meddling in Russia’s State Duma elections, if they fail to participate in a meeting of the Federation Council’s Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Interference in the Domestic Affairs of the Russian Federation, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated on TV Wednesday.

"Will representatives of US companies show up, or won’t they? If they don’t, it would amount to automatically admitting their involvement in these processes. And if they do, we will listen to their explanations, because we have a lot of questions," she emphasized.

On Wednesday, Andrey Klimov, who heads the committee, told TASS that Google and Apple representatives were invited to the meeting because the legislators had a number of questions for them.

On September 10, US Ambassador John Sullivan was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where he met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov. According to the ministry, the Russian senior diplomat presented evidence of the US tech giants having violated Russian law ahead of the upcoming elections.

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Foreign policy Internet & Telecom Russia’s 2021 Parliamentary Elections

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