US Plotting Against Russia? Russian State Duma Speaker Says Obama Administration Turns People Into 'Zombies' With False Facts

The speaker of Russia's State Duma, or lower house of parliament, accused the United States Monday of plotting "provocations" against Russia in an article published in the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta. The article by Speaker Sergei Naryshkin is the latest instance of growing anti-U.S. rhetoric in Russia amid economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. over the conflict in Ukraine.

"You might ask what is the U.S.'s final goal," wrote Naryshkin. "The answer remains the same: Their external debt is huge, and bankrupting other states is their habitual method." Naryshkin said in the same article that U.S. sanctions against Russia, which target both public and private entities, as well as industries, are aimed to ruin Russia's economy.

The sanctions were imposed following reported Russian support for separatists in the eastern Ukraine conflict, as well as the earlier annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Russia imposed its own retaliatory sanctions in August 2014 that have continued to hurt a Russian economy that relied heavily on imported goods, especially for food sources.

Naryshkin also condemned the United Nation's Security Council's attempt to create a tribunal to investigate who shot down the MH17 passenger plane over eastern Ukraine in July 2014. Many suspect that pro-Russian separatists, or even the Russian military, may have been involved.

Naryshkin called the Security Council tribunal "misguided and illegitimate," insisting that the U.S. must have been behind the plan. Russia, a permanent member of the council, vetoed the creation of such a tribunal.

"I think the U.S. will continue turning people into zombies with their false information," Naryshkin wrote, accusing the U.S. of "presenting whatever they want as reality, and creating new pretexts for unleashing anti-Russian sentiment in Europe."