- Mister President, thank you
so much for taking my question. President Biden has said
that he would respond if cyber attacks
from Russia do not stop. I'm curious --
what did he tell you? Did he make any threats? And a quick follow-up if may,
sir. The list of your political
opponents who are dead, imprisoned,
or jailed is long. Alexei Navalny's organization
calls for free and fair elections,
an end to corruption. But Russia has outlawed
that organization, calling it extremist,
and you have now prevented anyone who supports him
to run for office. So my question is,
Mister President, what are you so afraid of? - Well, let me just reiterate
what I just said on the so-called, quote/unquote,
foreign agents and people
who portray themselves as the nonsystemic opposition. I think I've responded
to your CNN colleagues, but I think these are
the rules of the game, so I have to repeat it when
I repeat it to your question. Okay, fine by me, I can do it. The United States has a law
that spells out that the United States will support specific entities
and organizations in Russia. At the same time, the Russian
Federation was labeled as an adversary. They went on the record
and said publicly that they will stymie
the development of Russia. It begs the question, what kind of organizations
the United States and the West will be supporting and pay them
if we are an adversary? It's quite clear that like the
United States back in the '30s, we've labeled them
as foreign agents, but we haven't banned them. I mean, they can operate
alright. If you're labeled as a foreign
agent, it does not preclude you
from operating in the country. Well, if it's an extremist
organization, that's a whole new story,
whole different story. The organization
in question publicly has called for riots
and public disorder. It has openly instructed people
on how to Molotov cocktails, so it's to use them
against the law enforcement. It called for the participation
of underage person in riots. America has just recently
went through a, well, grievous chain
of events after a certain
African American individual was killed,
and an entire movement, the Black Lives Matter
movement, appeared. I'm not gonna go into details. I will spare you them. But we have seen pogroms. We have seen looting
and violations and riots. We sympathize
with the Americans, but we do not want
for the same thing to happen
on the Russian soil, and we'll do anything
possible to prevent this. And it's not about me
fearing anything. If you want to think that. Okay, can you please
give the mic? - You didn't answer
my question, sir. If all of your political
opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned,
doesn't that send a message that you do not want
a fair political fight? - Alright, about my opponents
being jailed or imprisoned. People went into US Congress
with political demands. 400 people are now
facing criminal charges. They are facing prison terms
of up to 20, maybe 25 years. They are called home-grown
terrorists. They are being accused
of many other things. 70 people were arrested
right there on the spot. 30 of them are arrested. On what ground? Not quite clear. I mean, none of the official
authorities from the States are informing us about it. So we don't know that. One of the participants,
a woman, was shot dead on the spot. She was not threatening
with arms or anything. Why am I bringing this up? Many people are facing
the same things as we do, and I am stressing this -- we are sympathizing
with the United States, but we do not want
the same thing repeating here. A couple of more questions,
please.
