MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. US Senator Michael Lee, a Republican from Utah, told TASS after his visit to Russia that while in Moscow he had met with head of Russia’s Audit Chamber Alexei Kudrin and discussed the role of free trade.

"I also met with Chairman Kudrin. It was good," he said. "I talked about the fact that I believe that free trade is a good thing."

"We live in a day and age when through the miracle of e-commerce and miracles of modern transportation more people of the world have more access to other people than anyone has ever had in the past," he said. "This has been a very good thing especially for the poor and the middle class in the US and in Russia and in countless other countries throughout the world. Free trade and unhindered commerce has done more to lift people out of poverty than any government program ever could and ever can and ever will."

"And for that reason I think it is important for us to focus on the fact that when we take steps in the opposite direction, when we hinder people’s access to each other through restricted government policies we threaten not just economic growth we threaten the same phenomena that allow people to get out of poverty," he stressed.