Russian lawmakers came to the defense of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, saying Russia was his critics’ ultimate target.

Flynn resigned after it was revealed he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his phone calls with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak and the Justice Department told the White House that he might be subject to blackmail.

In a Facebook post, Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper chamber of the Russian Federal Assembly, said Flynn’s ouster was “not just paranoia but something even worse,” The Associated Press reported.

“Either Trump hasn’t found the necessary independence and he’s been driven into a corner… or Russophobia has permeated the new administration from top to bottom,” Kosachev said in a Facebook post.

Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly, tweeted “it was not Flynn who was targeted but relations with Russia.”