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Senior Russian lawmaker calls US sanctions ‘Obama’s revenge on voters’

Moscow believes that by imposing the sanctions in the waning days of his presidency, Obama is trying to disrupt his successor’s plans

© AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. The latest anti-Russian sanctions by US President Barack Obama appear to be his "revenge on US voters" amid the "total political defeat," a deputy State Duma speaker said.

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"The outgoing Obama administration’s actions increasingly resemble a revenge on US voters and are getting more and more destructive," Irina Yarovaya told TASS.

"No matter how many diplomats Obama expels, it’s his aggressive and Russophobe policies that were discarded by US citizens," she added. "By retiring with a scandal, you only demonstrate your bad manners and admit a total political defeat."

On many occasions, Russia has strongly denied any role in cyberattacks against US political institutions, including leaks of sensitive information that marred the electoral campaign of Democrat Hillary Clinton. However, the outgoing Obama administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russia’s military intelligence and security services and expelled 35 Russian diplomats over Moscow’s alleged role.

Moscow believes that by imposing the sanctions in the waning days of his presidency, Obama is trying to disrupt his successor’s plans. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the sanctions pursued two goals - "first is to further spoil the Russian-US relations, which are already at their lowest, and, apparently, to deal a blow to the foreign policy plans of the future administration of the US president-elect."

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