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Interview with Skopino maniac causes outcry, media blackout for convicts

The documentary about the Skopino maniac, Viktor Mokhov, was uploaded to TV host Kseniya Sobchak’s YouTube channel on March 22

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The head of the Journalists’ Union of Russia, Vladimir Solovyov, has come out with a call for a legal ban on interviewing convicts in the mass media.

His proposal follows a popular outcry over TV host Kseniya Sobchak’s documentary about the Skopino maniac, Viktor Mokhov.

"In this particular case we have a loophole in our legislation Kseniya Sobchak has taken advantage of. In the United States there has been the Son of Sam Law since 1977, which prohibits criminals, in particular, those convicted of grave crimes, from profiting from writings or shows about their crimes. I would ask our legislators to take a closer look at this case and give thought to banning such representatives of the criminal world, even though they served their term, from profiting from their wrongdoings in the newspapers and on TV shows," Solovyov said on the Govorit Moskva radio station.

"Of course, this case cannot be regarded as journalism. It’s scandalous show business," he added.

The leader of one of Russia’s parliamentary parties, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, on Tuesday, called for a legal ban on interviewing those who have served prison terms for violent crimes. Also, he urged for prohibiting the host, Kseniya Sobchak, from ever airing any television content in retaliation for the controversial interview.

"Sobchak has interviewed the Skopino maniac. Let us propose a bill that will outlaw any interviews with convicts responsible for violence against other people or murderers," Zhirinovsky told the media before the beginning of the State Duma’s session on Tuesday.

"Sobchak must be banned from any programs that go on air," Zhirinovsky said, adding he had instructed his aides to dispatch a corresponding message to Konstantin Ernst, the CEO of Russia’s Channel One (Sobchak’s current employee).

The documentary about Mokhov was uploaded to Sobchak’s YouTube channel on March 22.

In 2005, a court in Skopino, the Ryazan Region, sentenced Viktor Mokhov to 16 years and ten months in a tight security penal colony for abducting two young women (aged 14 and 17) in Ryazan. He raped both victims and kept them in the basement of an outbuilding of his home in Skopino for nearly four years. At the beginning of March, 2021 he was released. For a period of six years, he will remain under police supervision.

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