MOSCOW, April 17. /ITAR-TASS/. A total of 55,000 Russian citizens have signed a declaration on their voluntary inclusion in the list of individuals embraced by US sanctions, the organizer of the action, Artyom Kiryanov, the Vice President of the Union of Young Lawyers told reporters.
The action started out at the end of March as part of the usagoaway.ru project.
“The US doesn’t like the Russians’ resolve to defend the fellow-countrymen in Crimea but the freezing of overseas assets and a ban on issuance of US visas are dismal arguments in a situation where the case in hand is Russia’s role on the international arena and the right to conduct an independent foreign policy and to defend its interests,” Kiryanov said. “The West’s activity shows we’re on the right track.”
As ITAR-TASS reported earlier, several dozen people took part in an action of protest near the US embassy’s compound in Moscow on Thursday. They protested against the sanctions, which the US had imposed against Russia.
The posters the demonstrators were holding said, ‘Obama Keep Hands Off Our Compatriots!’, ‘Americans Don’t Scare Hogs with Your Sanctions!’, ‘Your Sanctions No Scare for Us’, ‘US Stop Blackmailing the Russian Bear’.
The picketers hoped to submit five bid boxes with the papers containing signatures to the US ambassadorial staff, but it was not known at the time of reporting whether the embassy was going to react to the activists’ willingness in any way, Kiryanov said.
“Quite naturally, we’ll try and hand these boxes to them, each box containing the signup lists with 11,000 signatures, but if they refuse to take them, we’ll send the boxes to them by mail.” He said.