MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. The US Department of the Treasury’s permission to US media to perform cash transactions in Crimea and the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics is a sure sign of attempts to create a legal basis for intervention in the internal affairs of Russia and the newly-recognized republics, the chief of the State Duma’s commission for investigation of foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs, Vasily Piskaryov, told the media on Friday.

He stressed that even in the context of sanctions imposed on Russia the United States allowed its media to perform financial transactions in Crimea and the Donetsk and Lugansk republics with the aim of creating news bureaus. In particular, a "special license enables them to higher stringers, interpreters and other personnel."

"On March 11, the United States allowed its non-governmental organizations to participate in so-called humanitarian projects in the aforesaid territories. The aim is to build an illusion of democracy that we have observed in Ukraine for many years, to establish contacts with youth, and to launch projects in the field of civil society, education and ecology," he said.

"Quite obvious are the main guidelines the US government is traditionally focused on with the aim of fomenting protest activity through subordinate mass media and NGOs. In fact, they are building a Trojan horse. In this way the Americans are trying to create a legal basis in the territories of the independent DPR and LPR, and also in Crimea, for attempts to meddle in the internal affairs of these republics and our country, too," Piskaryov said.

He pointed out that the State Duma’s commission for the investigation of foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs would invite the DPR and LPR legislators to exchange experience of resisting such threats.