MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. A Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) commission probing foreign interference in Russia’s internal affairs considers the call of the United States and other NATO countries to avoid travel to Russia as an attempt to hinder international election observation, Vasily Piskarev, chair of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, said.

"Last weekend, the diplomatic services and embassies of the United States and other NATO countries issued coordinated recommendations to their citizens to avoid travel to our country in connection with possible terrorist attacks in Russia. <...> We expect more than a thousand observers from about 100 countries to participate in the upcoming [presidential] election. In this regard, we consider NATO's destructive information campaign as another dirty provocation and an attempt to prevent broad international observation of the Russian election," the commission's Telegram channel quoted Piskarev as saying on its Telegram channel.

The lawmaker recalled that the Romanian Foreign Ministry "addressed such recommendations directly and exclusively to citizens of their country who plan to work as observers at the Russian presidential election." He pointed out that this is not the first campaign of the Western countries "to intimidate Russian guests and Russian citizens, aimed at international isolation" of the country.

"There was an outbreak of such statements by Western diplomats and media, for example, before the Sochi Olympics in 2014. As is known, they failed to disrupt the Olympics in Russia. The provocateurs will not achieve their goals this time either. The commission will continue its work to identify attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our country," Piskarev emphasized.

The Federation Council, or upper house of Russia’s parliament, designated March 17, 2024 as the date of the presidential election. The Russian Central Election Commission then announced that voting will take place over three days, from March 15 through 17, making it Russia’s first three-day presidential election.