SIRIUS /Federal territory/, December 8. /TASS/. Washington's sanctions against the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and other scientific organizations can only be seen as US attempts to restrain Russia's development, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with participants of the Congress of Young Scientists.

"What we can state is that these restrictions and sanctions are being introduced on the grounds of ensuring the security of the United States. How does your institute threaten the security of the United States? This is complete nonsense," he said, commenting on restrictions against MIPT and other Russian scientific organizations.

According to Putin, such measures have only one explanation: they are an attempt to contain the development of Russia.

Elaborating on this topic, the head of state recalled the situation in the mid-1990s.

"We [Russia] were all good and everyone liked it when they sent us potatoes as humanitarian aid. Thank you for that, many did it sincerely," the Russian President said.

But in general, as soon as Russia began to get out of its difficulties and began to develop, it turned into a competitor for the Western countries and they started to pursue the policy of containment against it, Putin went on.

Earlier, the US Department of Commerce put MIPT on the list of legal entities that, according to Washington, are the "military end users" of the products. This is according to a notice published on November 24 in the electronic database of the US Federal Register. Organizations on the list are subject to a stricter export control regime.