By RFE/RL
A senior pro-Kremlin lawmaker has suggested U.S. food giants Coca-Cola and McDonald's should stop selling their products in Russia.
Aleksei Pushkov, chairman of the International Affairs Committee in the State Duma, the lower parliament house, made the remarks on Twitter on March 5.
Pushkov wrote, "Don't McDonald's and Coca-Cola want to support [U.S. President Barack] Obama's sanctions and rid us of their products?"
"They would be true to principles and we would be healthier," he added.
The United States and European Union have imposed have imposed sanctions on Russian individuals and companies over Moscow's interference in Ukraine.
Part of Russia's response has been a ban on many Western food imports.
McDonald's and Coca-Cola have been popular in Russia for years.
Several McDonald's restaurants in Russia were temporarily shut last year, ostensibly for consumer-protection reasons, in what many observers believe was a politically motivated campaign.
Twitter, a social-media site Pushkov has frequently used to criticize the United States, is based in the United States.
The Russian military says more than 2,000 servicemen are taking part in "large-scale" air-defense exercises in southern Russia, Crimea, and the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The military's Southern Federal District said on March 5 that 500 pieces of heavy weaponry or military equipment were being used in the drills conducted by air-defense units, whose job is to repel attacks by aircraft and missiles.It said drills were taking place at 12 training grounds in Russia's Southern, North Caucasus, and Crimean federal districts as well as at bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
It was not immediately clear how long they would last.Previous exercises in western and southern Russia have raised concerns among neighbors, as well as accusations that Moscow has used them as cover for sending forces into Ukraine to support rebels in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people since April.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries in 2008 -- both moves that have been widely condemned by other nations.