I have the impression that the American Congress members—I understand that they receive money for their international lobbying; they do not hide it—but it seems to me that they have work to do. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), stated this at Wednesday’s press briefing.

This how she responded to the question by an Azerbaijani reporter who expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the call of about 60 US Congress members to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressurize Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with a request for the release of Armenian prisoners being held illegally in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku ahead of the COP 29 climate conference to be held in Baku.

"But I mean, you know, the monstrous revelations of a global, essentially pan-American scandal. We're talking about this whole Hollywood crowd, and how they've been corrupting children for decades, suggests that the American congressmen have some work to do at home.

If they see their elected offices as just a matter of getting money from international lobbyists, maybe the whole thing should be renamed and not an entity named ‘Congress,’ but an entity renamed ‘American lobby’ or ‘lobbying agency’ and you can just send money there, and those people will work.

But since the Congress members are the people to whom the American population delegates their rights and powers to fulfill their civil interests, maybe they should take care of their problems as well," stated the Russian MFA spox.