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LDPR leader demands to punish MP Ilya Ponomaryov for participation in "anti-Russian" event in Lithuania

On May 2 Ilya Ponomaryov spoke at a round-table meeting, held under the auspices of the Ronald Reagan House, to which representatives of the Russian opposition were invited
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, May 14 (Itar-Tass) - LDPR leader Vladimir Zhironovsky has demanded to punish MP Ilya Ponomaryov for participation in "an anti-state" conference in Lithuania.

"They gathered in Lithuania this time, including Leonid Gozman who runs his own program on state radio which gives both job and money to the person who goes to the anti-state, anti- Russian gathering and was apparently paid for that by the services which had invited him," Zhirinovsky said.

"Russian MP, Ponomaryov, was there as well, with a shameless smile on his face while extremists had been riding in his car in Moscow, using the telephone paid for by the State Duma," Zhirinovsky said.

"Ponomaryov also goes out there to attend the get-together on the occasion of the holiday, only instead of celebrating Victory Day they are planning a different victory there," Zhirinovsky warned.

Zhirinovsky blamed the leadership of the Just Russia faction, to which Ponomaryov belongs, " for picking up such people."

"Several criminal cases have been opened, and let us hope that law enforcement bodies will carry them through to the end," Zhirinovsky stressed. "Ponomaryov's conduct is admissible. Imagine a member of the U.S. Congress arriving in Venezuela to attend a rally of anti-U.S. forces," Zhirinovsky asked a rhetoric question. "He would have been arrested immediately upon return to the United States, " Zhirinovsky said, answering his own question.

"Deputies have no right to take part in events abroad, if such events are aimed against their own state. They have the right to host their own events, but if such events have an obviously anti-state character, then the Duma should make its resolution," Zhirinovsky said.

On May 2 Russian MP Ilya Ponomaryov spoke at a round-table meeting, held at the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences at Vilnius University, under the auspices of the Ronald Reagan House, to which representatives of the Russian political opposition were invited.