MOSCOW, January 19. /TASS/. Speaker of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Vyacheslav Volodin has said that individuals who were tracked down and arrested after storming the US Capitol in Washington DC will become genuine political prisoners.

"Those who participated in unauthorized political actions everywhere were anointed by Washington as fighters for freedom and democracy. When the same thing happened in the United States itself, they labelled these people as domestic terrorists who face 15-20 years in prison. These will be real political prisoners. Let’s call a spade a spade," he said on Tuesday opening the spring session of the State Duma.

The United States has always stirred up and supported violent unconstitutional activities in many countries, interfering in their sovereign affairs, Volodin stressed. "In Europe, the post-Soviet space, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America," he specified.

"Washington will have to admit that either this is a policy of double standards or they have people who have suffered for their political views," the speaker pointed out. According to Volodin, it has become obvious to everyone that the country, "which lectures the whole world about the standards of democracy," has nullified its own ‘democratic’ ideology.

On January 6, Trump supporters stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC to stop lawmakers from officially certifying the results of the November presidential election in a last-ditch attempt to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from becoming the new president. Five people, including a police officer, were killed during the unrest. Biden’s inauguration is scheduled for January 20.