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Putin knows nothing about Slutsky scandal, calls for legal settlement

The Russian president believes that such matters should never be turned into a media campaign

State Duma member Leonid Slutsky Mikhail Metzel/TASS

State Duma member Leonid Slutsky

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, June 7. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has heard nothing about a scandal over State Duma member Leonid Slutsky, who is in the focus of alleged sexual harassment row, but believes that such matters should never be turned into a media campaign, but settled in the legal fashion.

"I’ve heard nothing about this affair," Putin said while answering media questions after the question-and-answer session on Thursday. "But I do have my opinion on that score, of course. Such affairs are surfacing today in some western countries, in Hollywood. Certain incidents that happened, say, ten, twenty, thirty years ago, are brought to the fore again."

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"I do not believe that we must turn such matters, in particular, concrete cases, into some sort of campaigns. In any civilized country there are legal procedures for considering such conflicts," Putin said.

He remarked that such controversies should be settled with law enforcement agencies and in courts of law.

About the high-profile campaign by Hollywood stars against one of the producers and the worldwide tide of complaints by women, who claim that in the past they fell victim to sexual harassment, Putin said he was particularly surprised by the timing of the charges.

""Why wasn’t that done ten years ago, when this or that incident allegedly happened?" he said, adding that the interests of absolutely all people regardless of gender, creed or age must be protected.

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