"Whatever the sanctions imposed by Western governments, no one punished the Russian people more than President Vladimir Putin," says Vladimir Kara-Murza, Coordinator of Open Russia, in an article for The Washington Post. - While Western measures are directed against specific individuals and organizations close to the regime, the Kremlin's "asymmetric response" hit the population of Russia as a whole ". In Russian social networks bitterly joke: "In response to new names in the" Magnitsky list, "the Russian government decided to bomb the city of Voronezh". Kara-Murza recalls the events of 2012: "When the US adopted the Magnitsky Law, which denied Russian officials involved in human rights violations, in obtaining US visas and storing assets in the US, the Kremlin promised an" adequate response "and ultimately banned US citizens adopt children from Russian orphanages. Journalist Valery Panyushkin wrote: "I know only two organizations in the world that harm children in order to frighten their enemies: Hamas and the United Russia party,. "It is known that at least two Russian children who were in the process of adoption in the US died in shelters. How many lives are crippled by this law, can not be calculated, "- writes Kara-Murza. The next round of "bombing of Voronezh" fell in 2014. The so-called counter-attacks by the Russian government simultaneously reduced the range of products and led to an increase in prices for millions of Russian consumers. "When at the beginning of this month the US Treasury announced new sanctions against oligarchs and high-ranking officials from Putin's entourage, few doubted that Russian citizens would feel" retaliatory steps "in their shoes again," the publicist continues. The Duma began to consider a bill that calls for the legalization of the theft of US intellectual property, restrictions on the import of alcoholic beverages from the United States and its allies, and a ban on the import of US-made medicines. Vice Speaker of the Duma Peter Tolstoy advised the Russians to replace foreign medicines with "hawthorn and oak bark". "Later, he made it clear that his words were" a joke, "writes the author of the article.

- But, unlike Tolstoy and his colleagues, who will undoubtedly still have access to foreign medicine (and enjoy the familiar taste of Hennessy and Jack Daniel? S), whatever laws they adopt, millions of Russians will not have the time to joke ". "There is a sad irony in the fact that anti-Russian measures are coming from the government of Russia itself," concludes the author of the article. - Although the propaganda machine of the Kremlin has diverted public attention from this fundamental fact for years, it can not do this indefinitely. In the end, to deceive the whole people can only be for a while ".