- 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.