The United States is not involved in any opposition rallies in Russia, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said on Wednesday.
“That’s not true…People came there because they had something to say, not because the Americans did something…It’s your affairs, not ours,” he said in a live show on the Ekho Moskvy Moscow-based radio station, speaking in Russian.
Russia saw the largest anti-government rallies for some two decades in December, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest suspected poll violations at the parliamentary polls in December that were slanted in favor of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party.
Soon after the elections, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Russian polls were “neither free nor fair.” Putin responded to the criticism by saying that the protests had been encouraged by the United States.