|
On June 14, 2000, the leaders of four deputies’
associations of the State Duma made a joint statement on
the need “to urgently accept the proposals of a number of
well-known Russian politicians and release Vladimir Gusinsky
under their personal guarantees”.
At the same time, it was also proposed
that any further investigations of Vladimir Gusinsky’s and
other cases should be conducted in the conditions of “maximum
openness”.
“Only then will we be able to avoid the
damage to the state's prestige inside the country and abroad
- Only then will we be able to preserve the social accord
that has developed in the country with regards the presidential
initiatives in reforming the structures of state power,”
the authors of the statement stressed.
The statement was signed by the leader of
the OVR faction Evgeni Primakov (the text of the statement
was agreed by phone with Evgeni Primakov who is accompanying
Vladimir Putin on his visit to Spain), the Deputy Speaker
of the Duma from the SPS faction Irina Khakamada, Deputy
Speaker from the Yabloko faction Vladimir Lukin, and the
Head of the group “Regions of Russia” Oleg Morozov.
“We have no reason to doubt Vladimir Putin’s
words that he did not know about the preparations for the
arrest [of Gusinsky], but this leads to another question
: who is interested in a split in society at the very moment
when the President of Russia is conducting such complicated
reforms,” the authors of the statements ask.
The document also covers a number of other
issues, including the following: “whether this arrest is
a political act”. The authors of the statement do not rule
out such a possibility, referring to the fact that the arrest
of Vladimir Gusinsky coincided with a period when the head
of the state was “on a visit abroad, and the deputies of
the State Duma were working in their electoral districts”
(Ed. when the Duma had no sessions and deputies were on
temporary leave).
“We have been declaring the equality of
the citizens before the law irrespective of their capital
and the degree of their proximity to power, but do the forms
and methods of the investigation applied to the head of
a well-known independent holding, Media-Most, represent
a threat to the freedom of speech and the development of
business?”
This question is also posed by the heads
of the four deputies’ associations of the Duma. They also
stressed that all these questions require immediate answers.
As it has become known from a well-informed source in the
parliament, the initiative to adopt such a document came
from the leader of the OVR faction Evgeni Primakov. Copies
of the joint statement of the leaders of the four deputies’
associations were also forwarded to the other factions and
deputies’ groups of the Duma with the proposal to join this
document. Based on Interfax reports.
See also:
Sergei
Ivanenko: ordinary citizens may follow Vladimir Gusinsky-s
way
Grigory
Yavlinsky thinks that the action against Vladimir Gusinsky
is targeted at intimidating society and the mass media
|
On
June 14, 2000 a meeting was held between the leaders of
three factions of the State Duma - the Yabloko, SPS and
OVR factions - to discuss the arrest of Vladimir Gusinsky
(Ed. Head of a major independent media holding).