MOSCOW. Jan 19 (Interfax) - Moscow believes that the United States may try to interfere in Russian parliamentary elections and is prepared to counter such attempts, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.
"Everything must be done to prevent foreign interference in our election campaign from happening. Judging from the previous elections and the current situation, they will be interfering again. The United States and its NATO allies will be leading that process," Volodin said at the opening meeting of the State Duma's spring session on Tuesday.
The United States cannot dictate "high standards of democracy" to other countries due to its "archaic" electoral system: for instance, there is no unified institution of international election observers, and postal voting does not stand up to criticism, Volodin said.
"We will not allow those who have led their party and political system into degradation, which results in the encroachment upon fundamental civil rights and freedoms, to speak in the voice of a mentor to us," he said.