MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) - There is a need to ponder why it is that statements LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky made in Poyedinok (The Duel) talk-show on television received such a wide support of citizens who took part in the voting during the show.
Mikhail Starshinov from the United Russia faction, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Nationalities Committee and member of the central office of the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF), told reporters on Monday he had nothing to add to the assessment of Zhirinovsky’s statements some of his colleagues made and suggested that the Ethics Commission of the State Duma should take up the matter, if there is such a request.
“I believe it is much more important to comprehend why his statements got so wide a support of the population the results of the voting showed,” the politician said.
Starshinov stressed that any calls for incitement of interethnic strife in Russia were intolerable and should be decisively suppressed. “Manifestations of disrespect and at times even of outright rudeness of some citizens to others should be suppressed as firmly,” he said.
In the opinion of the ONF representative this should be pondered in earnest also by chiefs of the regions concerned.
In his statements in Poyedinok talk-show past Thursday Zhirinovsky, among other things, suggested limiting internal migration of North Caucasus people. Then leader of Yabloko party Sergei Mitrokhin requested that the Investigative Committee should bring Zhirinovsky to responsibility as, he believes, the article on instigation of hate or animosity applies to the politician’s pronouncements. Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, commenting on his official website in the Internet on Zhirinovsky’s statements, expressed perplexity as to how deputies of the State Duma can tolerate such a conduct of their colleague. Deputies representing Caucasus republics in the State Duma reacted to the statements of the LDPR leader, too. For instance, Gadzhimet Safaraliyev, United Russia member, chairman of the Nationalities Committee, who represents Dagestan in the State Duma, told Itar-Tass that for his statements about North Caucasus republics Zhirinovsky should be deprived of the right to speak in the State Duma for at least six months.
A source in the lower house of parliament told ltar-Tass on Monday that heads of the Duma factions would discuss this week the situation that resulted from Zhirinovsky’s statements and would try to find the ways of settling the conflict of the LDPR leader with heads of Caucasus regions.