Russian politicians are mounting a fierce defence of US President Donald Trump's national security adviser, who has resigned following reports that he misled White House officials about his contacts with Russia.
Michael Flynn handed in his resignation late Monday night, conceding that he gave "incomplete information" about his calls with Russia's ambassador to the US.
Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, said in a post on Facebook that firing a national security adviser for his contacts with Russia is "not just paranoia but something even worse".
He said the resignation suggested Trump had been backed into a corner or that his administration had been "infected" by anti-Russian feeling.
"Either Trump has not gained the requisite independence and he is consequently being not unsuccessfully backed into a corner, or Russophobia has already infected the new administration also from top to bottom," Kosachev was cited as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
Kosachev's counterpart at the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, Alexei Pushkov, tweeted shortly after the announcement that "it was not Flynn who was targeted but relations with Russia".
Leonid Slutsky, head of the lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee told RIA: "It's obvious that Flynn was forced to write the letter of resignation under a certain amount of pressure.
"The target was Russia-US relations, undermining confidence in the new US administration. We'll see how the situation develops further."
