MOSCOW. Dec 12 (Interfax) - The American bill concerning the potential recognition of Russia as a sponsor of terrorism advances blatant lies along the same lines as attempts to rewrite the history of the Second World War, Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma foreign affairs committee, told journalists on Thursday.
"The bill on the recognition of Russia as a sponsor of terrorism is effectively an initiative turned upside down. Yet again American senators are trying to call white things black. It was the U.S. policy of dislodging inconvenient regimes in the Middle East which effectively led to the creation of Islamic State [a terrorist group banned in Russia]. And in order to realize the same objectives, Washington still continues playing up terrorists in Syria," Slutsky said.
Russia has to fight international terrorism within and outside its borders, and it is the Russian military which is helping to fight terrorists in Syria, he said.
"And to call our country a sponsor of terrorism is extremely dishonest and irresponsible. This is a downright planting of political lies along the same templates as the current rewriting and falsification of the history of the Second World War," Slutsky said.
Earlier the media reported that the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee had backed a bill on the Secretary of State's duty to decide whether Russia should be declared a sponsor of terrorism.