MOSCOW, February 2 (Itar-Tass) —— A State Duma deputy from the United Russia Party and the first deputy secretary of the United Russia General Council presidium, Sergei Zheleznyak, addressed the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to give a legal assessment to the actions of Echo of Moscow radio station, which posted a letter from a business tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London on the station's website.
“Today, on February 2, I, as the head of the State Duma subcommittee for information policy, information technologies and communications addressed in the Federal Service for Supervision in Telecommunications, Information technologies and Mass Communications and the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request a legal assessment to the fact of publishing the foresaid letter of Boris Berezovsky in the media and take actions required by the legislation,” Zheleznyak told reporters, noting that he “considers it inadmissible and unacceptable to drag the media in the criminal activities of political saboteurs.”
Zheleznyak recalled that he already addressed the radio station, because the publication on the website contained, according to him, “open appeals for disruption of federal elections and forceful overthrow of the state power that is a serious violation of the current legislation.”
Zheleznyak’s colleagues in the faction were also making active statements over the issue. The scandalous material was removed from the website of the radio station.
However, another first deputy secretary of the United Russia General Council presidium Andrei Isayev noted that it is an extremist publication. “We insisted on the removal of this extremist text,” Isayev elaborated, recalling that “Berezovsky makes an appeal to the youth for an actual forcible overthrow of the constitutional power in Russia and said that one should not be afraid of blood in the streets and the inadmissibility of presidential elections in the country.”
“All these statements are persecuted under Article 280 of the Criminal Code for extremism. The media, which published this text, according to part 2 of the foresaid article are accomplices in extremism,” the deputy said, noting that “it is necessary to investigate the foresaid incident compulsorily.”