GUSINSKY’S SUPPORTERS NOT ALLOWED TO VISIT
Izvestia, December 22, 2000, p. 2
The Spanish Prosecutor’s Office has turned down a request from representatives of Media-Most to visit media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky in jail at Soto-del-Real. The prison authorities have confiscated Gusinsky’s mobile phone, thus cutting him off from any external contacts.
Media-Most deputy CEO Igor Malashenko, Evgeny Kiselev (NTV), Alexey Venediktov (Echo of Moscow), Sergey Parkhomenko (Itogi), Makhail Berger (Segodnya) and Gusinsky’s lawyer Henry Reznik said in Madrid that Gusinsky is in jail because Russian authorities misinformed the Spanish justice system. The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office is taking such statements quite calmly.
FRAUD AT THE PLESETSK SPACE CENTER
Izvestia, December 22, 2000, p. 2
On December 21 the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office launched several criminal proceedings against officers of the Strategic Missile Forces based at the Plesetsk space center. Moreover, the prosecutor’s office has started an audit of the space center’s accounts.
Plesetsk representatives have refused to comment on the situation. According to a source in the Strategic Missile Forces and the Arkhangelsk government, a group of senior officers from the Plesetsk space center are accused of stealing non-ferrous metals, equipment and money. The Main Military Prosecutor’s Office says commanders at Plesetsk could be replaced as a result of the investigation.
IS IT JUST A WARNING?
Tribuna, December 22, 2000, p. 1
Investigators into the attack on Iosif Ordzhonikidze, deputy mayor of Moscow, do not think it is out of the question that certain officials from the Moscow municipal government could be involved in this crime.
According to the Interior Ministry, it is possible that those behind the shooting did not intend to kill Ordzhonikidze. It could have been a warning from certain officials in the Moscow government.
TAMARA ROKHLINA’S SENTENCE REDUCED
Trud, December 22, 2000, p. 1
The Moscow regional court has amended the sentence given to Tamara Rokhlina (the Naro-Fominsk court sentenced her to eight years of imprisonment for murdering her husband Lev Rokhlin). According to the new decision, Rokhlina will only have to spend four years in jail.
Anatoly Kucherena, Rokhlina’s lawyer, said he may make a further attempt to convince the court to change its decision and release Rokhlina.
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ARRIVES IN MOSCOW
Tribuna, December 22, 2000, p. 1
President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine has met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The presidents discussed a broad range of topics linked to bilateral cooperation. The presidents intend to meet with Russian business leaders on December 22. After that they will leave for St. Petersburg.
Ukraine and Russia have many unresolved differences. Russia has agreed to Kiev’s proposal to repay only part of its debts for Russian natural gas.
NAZDRATENKO HAS SURRENDERED
Moskovsky Komsomolets, December 22, 2000, p. 2
Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko of Primorye (Maritime territory) has dropped his defamation suit against Konstantin Pulikovsky, presidential envoy for the Far Eastern federal district.
The deputy governor of Primorye has commented that the regional government’s intention was to use the lawsuit to bring out the truth, because it considered some of Pulikovsky’s statements biased. A commission of the main control department of the presidential administration has been working in Primorye for the past week. Pulikovsky’s deputy has been cooperating with the commission. According to the deputy governor, he saw “all the documents which prove our innocence”. That’s why the regional government considers its goal has been achieved, making further legal action unnecessary.
DUMA CONCERNED ABOUT ETHICAL STANDARDS
Izvestia, December 12, 2000, p. 3
The Duma ethics committee has received about 400 complaints about the behavior of Duma deputies. It decided to consider all these complaints simultaneously. To do so, the committee has held parliamentary hearings on the condition and prospects for the creation of a parliamentary ethics system in Russia. Based on the results of these hearings, the committee has prepared recommendations according to which in March or April 2001 “a plan of basic measures aimed at creating an ethics code” will be approved.
