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Lower house speaker warns against loosely branding foreign agents as ‘opposition’

The people in question are far from being altruistic, being bankrolled from abroad, according to the lawmaker

Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

Speaker of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin

© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, October 17. /TASS/. Agents of foreign influence bankrolled from abroad have nothing to do with the opposition, Speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin said on Thursday at a meeting with President of Venezuela’s Constituent Assembly Diosdado Cabello.

"Those who regularly run to embassies, who are financed from abroad and try to portray themselves as opposition members have nothing to do with the opposition. These are agents of foreign influence. They carry out a mission aimed at destroying our countries, and provoking unrest in the interests of other countries," he explained.

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Volodin was confident that they are far from being altruistic. "The United States transfers money to their foreign bank accounts. They are supported, attempts are made to promote them, ‘appointing’ them as opposition leaders. They are supported by media, through the use of Internet technologies. As soon as claims are made against them, efforts are undertaken to shield them from justice," he specified.

Nevertheless, people are able to distinguish between those who represent the interests of their countries’ citizens and those who wear sheep’s clothing in order to try and seize power in the interests of the wolves who finance them."

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