Putin Claims Arrested DC Rioters Are Political Prisoners

NBC News reports:

Asked about Biden’s criticism that Russia had added to global instability, he accused the U.S. of doing the same in Libya, Afghanistan and Syria. And the Russians aren’t cracking down on internal dissent, he said, any more than the U.S. is doing with its laws against foreign agents.

He even pointed to the arrests of hundreds of suspects in the U.S. Capitol riot and the death of one rioter as proof that the U.S. also targets its citizens for their political opinions, just as Russia is accused of stifling dissent. (The FBI has arrested people for the violence inflicted on the seat of government in Washington, D.C., rather than for their political opinions.)

“We have a saying: ‘Don’t be mad at the mirror if you are ugly,'” he said. “It has nothing to do with you personally. But if somebody blames us for something, what I say is, why don’t you look at yourselves? You will see yourselves in the mirror, not us.”

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Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed back on allegations that his government was behind a string of recent cyberattacks in the U.S., hacked elections and cracked down on political dissent, calling the claims “farcical.” https://t.co/A8lco1wM7Z

— The Hill (@thehill) June 14, 2021