A Yabloko party activist has been detained
by police
and held for a night behind bars in
Bashkortostan in connection with Yabloko's
opposition to the regional leader, his
sister said.
Dmitry Khrustalyov is the second regional
Yabloko
activist detained in the past week in
what appears to be a national campaign against the
liberal opposition party.
He was arrested Monday evening at party
headquarters
in Beloretsk, his sister Marina
Khrustalyova, who also works for Yabloko, said in a
telephone interview from the
Bashkir city.
Khrustalyov, 33, who ran for parliament
in December
from a single-mandate seat and
lost, headed Grigory Yavlinsky's presidential
campaign in the republic.
Bashkortostan leader Murtaza Rakhimov,
who rules the
semi-autonomous republic
with a firm hand, accused Khrustalyov and the
Yabloko leader of insulting his honor in
leaflets distributed before the State Duma vote.
Khrustalyova said her
brother was detained for
failing to appear in
court Monday in a civil case
brought by Rakhimov
over the leaflets. He had
been out of town
campaigning and had not
received the summons,
she said.
Detention for failing
to appear in court is rare,
especially in a civil
case.
Tuesday morning, Khrustalyov was taken
before a
judge, who released him and
ordered him to inform Yavlinsky of the case and
return that afternoon. Instead, he took
a train to Moscow, his sister said.
Khrustalyov was responsible for printing
and
distributing the 300,000 Yabloko leaflets,
Artur Astafyev, a Yabloko official in the Bashkir
capital, Ufa, said by telephone.
The leaflets, printed in the neighboring
Chelyabinsk
region, contained Yavlinsky's
address: "Yabloko candidates have continually
opposed Murtaza Rakhimov's blatantly
nepotistic regime, which has been squeezing out the
republic's oil, gas and natural
resources." The leaflets also said that "Yabloko
is
seeking to have Rakhimov removed
from his post as the republic's president."
Khrustalyova said police have demanded
the names and
addresses of everyone in
the republic who worked for Yabloko during the
parliamentary campaign.
Police and court officials in Beloretsk
did not
answer their phones Wednesday
afternoon.
Last Friday, police detained Krasnoyarsk
Yabloko
activist Viktor Gitin on suspicion of
taking bribes during his term in the previous Duma.
During his presidential campaign, Yavlinsky
was the
victim of a smear campaign from
the state-controlled television channels.
Last Wednesday, masked men in the Moscow
region town of Noginsk stormed the campaign headquarters
of Yabloko member Vera Krylyshkina, who was running for
head of the local administration.
