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United Russia warns Ekho Moskvy against extremist calls

Radio editor in chief Alexei Venediktov did not agree

MOSCOW, February 2 (Itar-Tass) —— United Russia members have threatened to bring Ekho Moskvy Radio to account for placing extremist materials in its website. The reaction was caused by a letter of Boris Berezovsky who lives in London.

The United Russia party's leader in the State Duma, Andrei Vorobyov, expressed his position directly in the radio website. In his view, the letter has an open call for a violent overthrow of the constitutional rule, that is direct crime. "I reserve the right to make a deputy's request to law enforcement authorities to inquire into the fact," the legislator warned.

Ekho Moskvy is popular radio, but the popularity sometimes costs too much, he noted. "As a citizen, I personally was outraged by the position with regard to Beresovsky's address," he wrote. "To be a revolution mouthpiece for your professional radio is not becoming. It is dangerous and disrespectful to our listeners, since they trust you," he stressed.

Radio editor in chief Alexei Venediktov did not agree. Answering to the party leadership representative, he said that Ekho Moskvy was first of all “a ground for discussion of various society groups with various political views, sometimes, regrettably, quite radical, but existing in the society”.

As for Berezovsky's open letter, the text is removed from the site, Venediktov said. "Frankly, I saw no calls for violent change of the constitutional rule, but after reading comments to the text, where some radically-minded visitors took it so, I decided to remove the text before your letter and give it to my lawyers for a deeper analysis," he explained, adding that sometimes most innocent texts in the website, including some of United Russia members, stir up absolutely incredible emotions and comments.

After Beresovsky's text disappeared from the radio site, first deputy secretary of United Russia's board Sergei Zheleznyak made it clear that the matter was not settled yet.

"As the head of the State Duma's subcommittee for informational policy, informational technologies and communications, I tomorrow, February 2, will have to request the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communication, Informational Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) and law enforcement authorities to take action in accordance with the law in connection with the fact of placing extremist materials in the radio station site," the party's press service quoted him as saying.