<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The outspoken deputy of Russia\u2019s communist party said Monday that any foreign official \u2014 including from the United States \u2014 found guilty of \u201cinterfering\u201d in Russia\u2019s upcoming presidential election should face the death penalty or up to 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the worst crime that there is, other than rape and murder,\u201d said Leonid Kalashnikov, who\u2019s also a key committee chief in Russia\u2019s State Duma or lower house of parliament, according to news reports in Moscow.<\/p>\n
While the death penalty has been constitutionally banned in Russia since 1996, Mr. Kalashnikov suggested in an interview with the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that a \u201cconstitutional order\u201d may be needed to restore it and deal with any foreign meddling in the election slated for March 18.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking a second consecutive \u2014 and fourth overall \u2014 term in the election, which will be the first of its kind in Russia since 2012.<\/p>\n
According to a report by The Moscow Times, Mr. Kalashnikov\u2019s comments came as a top Russian diplomat claimed Monday to have evidence of ongoing U.S. attempts to undermine the electoral process.<\/p>\n
Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Rybakov made the assertion at a meeting of the Russian Federation Council or upper house of parliament, during which he claimed that Moscow is ramping up its efforts to identify and block the alleged \u201cinterference\u201d by U.S.-backed operatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russian Foreign Ministry streamlined efforts to collect the relevant information,\u201d Mr. Rybakov said according to the state-owned Tass news agency in Moscow. \u201cThat concerns both attempts to meddle in our affairs and broader detrimental efforts of this kind that the U.S. stoops to committing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While few details were given on the actual nature or goals of the alleged U.S.-backed meddling, Mr. Rybakov claimed broadly that \u201copponents\u201d of Russia are attempting to \u201csway young people and work in the regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe focus of this struggle will center on the information space,\u201d he said. \u201cInformation warfare will grow far bitterer, and that\u2019s something we will have to live with during the upcoming period.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tass news agency claimed to have obtained an annual assessment Monday by an upper house \u201ccommission on the protection of state sovereignty\u201d that exposed \u201cnumerous signs of interference from abroad\u201d in Russia\u2019s electoral process between 2011 and 2017.<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, made international headlines Monday by asserting that the United States has a \u201crich tradition\u201d of interfering in the internal affairs of Russia and other nations around the world.<\/p>\n
The flurry of allegations from Moscow come amid ongoing federal government investigations in Washington over accusations that Russian operatives engaged in an expansive hacking and digital propaganda campaign aimed at undermining the 2016 U.S. presidential election.<\/p>\n
Last month saw the U.S. Justice Department level indictments against 13 Russian citizens and two entities on charges their meddling activities amounted to conspiracy to defraud the United States.<\/p>\n
Mr. Putin said in an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday that Russia will \u201cnever\u201d extradite the 13 individuals charged, even as he insisted they didn\u2019t act on behalf of his government.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press noted that the United States has no extradition treaty with Moscow and can\u2019t compel it to hand over citizens, and a provision in Russia\u2019s constitution prohibits extraditing its citizens to foreign countries.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The outspoken deputy of Russia’s communist party said Monday that any foreign official — including from the United States — found guilty of “interfering” in Russia’s upcoming presidential election s The outspoken deputy of Russia\u2019s communist party said Monday that any foreign official \u2014 including from the United States \u2014 found guilty of \u201cinterfering\u201d in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22,41,34,266],"class_list":["post-2509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worlds","tag-law-crime","tag-moscow","tag-politics","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pornvas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}