MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. The latest bill on sanctions against Russia, submitted to the US Congress, is aimed at distracting attention from the United States’ internal problems. The real purpose of its authors is to score political points, the chairman of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, said on his Telegram channel on Thursday.

"I always wonder if the authors of such initiatives give thought to the consequences, and how well familiar with the Russian-US agenda the congressmen are," Slutsky said, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin in a conversation with his US counterpart Joe Biden at the end of December mentioned the possibility of total severing of relations between the two countries in case of the introduction of sanctions.

"Or is this part of a general plan for fanning anti-Russian hysteria and emasculating security guarantee talks?" Slutsky said.

He stressed that "in order to distract attention from internal problems and score political points the image of an external enemy is being used with growing intensity."

"In the meantime, this has no bearing on the real situation at all," he added.

Slutsky pointed out that it was "the US policy in the Middle East that brought into being first the Islamic State and then Jabhat al-Nusra (terrorist organizations outlawed in Russia)," whose militants Russia is confronted with in Syria.

"Most certainly it is not Russia that sponsors international terrorism," Slutsky said. "But let us not point an accusing finger…"

Republican Party members in the US Congress have proposed a bill on declaring Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism" and the armed forces of Donbass as "foreign terrorist organizations." The draft envisages sanctions against senior Russian officials and major businessmen.

The bill was uploaded to the website of the Washington Post. The US Congress website says the bill has been accepted for consideration.