Western politicians and spin doctors cannot accept Russia’s growing influence on the international arena and want to destabilize the country by trying to tarnish President Vladimir Putin’s reputation, parliament members have told reporters.

“Broad discussions [about Russia] are being held in the West and the tone of these discussion is not favored by the authorities,” Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Upper House Committee for International Relations, told RIA Novosti.

“People talk about recent failed attempts of Washington and Brussels to politically isolate Russia and tear its economy to shreds, encourage mass social protests and spoil our relations with neighboring countries, impose the West’s will on Syria and damage the authority of the United Nations. If the Western leaders leave it as it is right now and allow these tendencies to fix themselves in the public opinion, this would mean that they accept the defeat of their geopolitical plans and abandon the dream of a unipolar world order,” he said.

READ MORE: Kremlin warns of planned ‘information attack’ against Putin

The senator explained that these plans had been thwarted because of Russia’s growing international influence, which, in turn, was closely connected with Vladimir Putin’s work and personality. “It is likely that our opponents lack some real arguments and have to use their last reserve ‘artillery’ – attacks on our president’s personality and attempts to destabilize the country and push away any potential allies through discrediting the head of our state,” Kosachev said.

He added that a number of Russian opposition politicians would eagerly use the attacks on Putin for their own purposes in view of the forthcoming parliamentary polls.

The head of the Lower House Committee for Security and Countering Corruption, Irina Yarovaya, also said that the plans to launch a new anti-Putin campaign in the Western mass media were a reaction to the strengthening of Russia’s positions in the international arena.

“The anti-Russian sanctions invented in the USA and imposed on its allies have already become a punishment for Europe. The refusal to enter the Russia-led anti-terror coalition has led to a wasting of time, the undermining of European values, and numerous casualties. Now the USA wants to evade the punishment for damaging the EU’s economy and citizens, and is starting an information attack on our country,” RIA Novosti quoted Yarovaya as saying.

READ MORE: Putin warns security services of foreign plans to target Russian elections

The head of the Lower House Committee for Labor and Social Policies, Olga Batalina, also pointed out that the smear campaign against Putin looked like an attempt to influence the Russian elections in order to bring pro-Western politicians to power. “Putin’s high ratings demonstrate that Russians are united in their estimates of the presidential course and of society’s unity, which keeps Russia stable. Attacks on our president are attempts to destabilize the situation and help the pro-Western politicians controlled by the US State Department to come to power in our country,” the MP said.

She added that as there were no real facts to base the attacks on, Russia’s enemies resorted to “floods of real dirt and lies” to achieve their goals.

The comments came soon after Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Western mass media intended to launch a new slander attack on Vladimir Putin, albeit using the same old tricks. Peskov also blamed Western special services and public groups connected with these services for attempts to destabilize the situation in Russia ahead of the elections by attempting to discredit senior officials and, above all, Putin.