MOSCOW, October 17 (Itar-Tass) — Members of the Russian Public Chamber believe a criminal case against Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov is logical.
“It is clear that the video is authentic, so criminal proceedings are logical. There were statements in it about possible terrorist acts, about the seizure of power, they must be certainly checked,” president of the Aspekt centre for social and political studies, Georgy Fedorov, believes. “I don’t think that Udaltsov is a terrorist, but he should have understood that he was negotiating with our geopolitical enemies. It seems he lost vigilance for the sake of money,” he stressed.
Another member of the Public Chamber, executive director of the public committee “For Openness of Justice”, Denis Dvornikov, called the institution of criminal proceedings “a normal legal procedure”. “Initiation of a criminal case is prerequisite for investigatory actions, it helps to collect evidence, this is a door open for more thorough checks,” he explained. “May be it will show that Sergei Udaltsov was set up,” he said.
Vladimir Slepak from the Public Chamber said “the video is material evidence and it is impossible to forge the video footage of a meeting in which eight people take part”. “An expertise was made, the fact of a meeting which discussed criminal plots has been established, and criminal proceedings have been launched,” he stressed.
Slepak said “it is evident that this is not about politics, this is a crime. Udaltsov was asking for money within the context of possible terrorist crimes”. He expressed indignation over the fact that Udaltsov “tries to present it as political activity”.
Criminal proceedings have been instituted against Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, his aide Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhayev, an aide of State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomaryov.
Earlier on Wednesday their houses were searched within the framework of a criminal case over preparations for mass riots launched after investigation had checked facts stated in the controversial documentary film “Anatomy of a Protest 2” shown by NTV television.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said earlier on Wednesday that a phonoscopic expertise of video materials received from NTV television had been made and no signs of editing had been revealed.
“It was established that the voice, including in items filmed by a hidden CCTV camera, belongs to Udaltsov, while the meeting segments of which are shown in the film, took place in the second half of June 2012 in living quarters in Minsk, the capital of the Republic of Belarus,” he said.
“Taking part in the meeting from the Georgian side were the chairman of the Georgian parliamentary committee for defence and security, Givi Targamadze, Georgian Consul in Moldova Mikhail Iashvili, as well as three of their aides. The Russian participants in the meeting were Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, his aide Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhayev, the aide to State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomaryov,” Markin added.
Besides, within the framework of the criminal case investigators will check information about possible preparations for committing acts of terrorism.
The second part of the controversial film “Anatomy of Protest” appeared on NTV on Friday, October 5. Its authors exposed mechanisms used for providing funding to the so-called non-system opposition in Russia. They claimed that some funding could be provided by former Bank of Moscow CEO Andrei Borodin through Givi Targamadze, former head of the defence and security committee in the Georgian parliament. According to the authors of the film, Sergei Udaltsov was one of the actors in spurring the protest movement in the country.