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Late on December 16, 2000, special correspondent of the investigations
department of “Novaya Gazeta” Oleg Luriye was attacked. He has
over the past year investigated the Mabitex case (Ed. there have
been allegations that Pavel Borodin, at the time head of the presidential
department, received backhanders from the company responsible
for refurbishing the Kremlin). The day before the attack Oleg
Luriye had spoken on the “Vox Populi” programme (Ed. a popular
talk show on NTV) and had been extremely critical of the Administration
of the President and some oligarchs.
Oleg Luriye was attacked by his garage, where he was going to
put away
his
car. Five attackers locked the journalists’ wife in the garage
and
severely
beat him.
Robbery was not among the motives of the attackers, as they did
not take
any
money or belongings of Oleg Luriye.
Yabloko’s representative and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma
Committee
for
Security,
Yuri Schekochikhin, thinks that the attack against Oleg Luriye
“was
targeted at frightening journalists who adhere to the principle
of
freedom
of speech and therefore coincides with President Putin’s policy
on
suppressing the free press.”
Yabloko points out to all Russian citizens that this is not the
first case of assault against “Novaya Gazeta” journalists, moreover
this newspaper is well-known for its independent position towards
the authorities. The “unknown attackers” who a year ago attacked
the correspondent of “Novaya Gazeta “Igor Domnikov who died due
to these injuries, have still not been found.
Deputy of the Yabloko faction Alexei Melnikov stated that on
Monday the Yabloko faction would forward a deputies’ inquiry to
the competent agencies, demanding an accurate investigation of
the attack against Luriye. Melnikov also said that Yabloko would
protect independent journalists with all the legal methods at
the party’s disposal.
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