MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday it is not right that the US State Department supports opposition activists in Russia.
“[Russia’s] diplomatic service doesn’t cooperate actively with the Occupy Wall Street activists, yet your diplomatic service actively cooperates [with Russia’s opposition] and supports them,” Putin said in the interview with Russia Today.
Putin said diplomatic services should mend ties between states and not get involved in domestic affairs. “I believe, this is wrong,” the Russian president said as he visited RT’s new Moscow broadcasting center.
Meanwhile, Putin said “any opposition is good, right and helpful” if it acts within the law. He added that if people are dissatisfied with the laws, the opposition should try to change them in a “democratic way.”
When protesters break the law, the government should use legal methods to “put everyone in the legislative field,” Putin said. “This is what's happening both in the United States and Russia,” he said. “But when we do that we are criticized, but when the United States does this, it is considered as a norm. These are the so-called double standards,” he added.
