Ilya Klebanov and Sergei Kiriyenko broke the law – this was the conclusion of the deputy from the Yabloko faction Sergei Mitrokhin, after his return from Udmurtia, where he was sent by the State Duma to observe the elections of the President of the Republic on October 15, 2000.

In particular the violation concerns paragraph 5 of article 37 of the Federal Law “On the Basic Guarantees of Election Rights and the Right to

Participate in Referendums for RF Citizens” which prohibits state officials from engaging in propaganda during the election campaign. During the election campaign Ilya Klebanov, Deputy Prime Minister of the RF Government and Sergei Kiriyenko, Representative of the RF President in the Volga Federal District and subordinate to the federal inspector Sergei Chikurov, directly called on the electorate to cast their votes for one of the candidates – Chairman of the State Council of the Udmurtia Republic Alexandr Volkov.

“Kiriyenko’s position would appear to represent a direct justification of the administrative arbitrary rule of Volkov, who used his control over the republican mass media for self-adulation and libel against his opponents. In addition, by adopting this position Kiryenko ended up on the same side as Zyuganov, who also supported Volkov,” said Mitrokhin.

In the near future Mitrokhin plans to request that the Office of the Public Prosecutor assess such actions by officials.

On October 4, 2000 the Chairman of the GUP VGTRK (Ed. the RTR channel – the State Unitary Enterprise All-Russian State Television and Radio Company”) Oleg Dobrodeyev issued directive No 746 «On the Liquidation of GUP «Vesti», and as part of the implementation of this directive, corresponding orders on the dismissal of the staff of «Vesti» (Ed. “Vesti” is a popular news programme at RTR channel).

“We are concerned about the future of the “Vesti” programme. This is not a private matter for the head of the VGTRK, said First Deputy Head of the Yabloko faction Sergei Ivanenko, - this is an issue of public importance. We will monitor carefully developments around GUP “Vesti”.

The deputies of the Yabloko faction will provide legal support to the dismissed staff of the “Vesti” programme and will carefully follow the proceedings of this labour dispute in court.