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Russia Turns New Law Against Kremlin Critics
Andrei Piontkovsky, whose books are alleged to insult various groups and incite violence, told reporters outside court that the case was "absurd" and "primitive."
(By Peter Finn -- The Washington Post)
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The photo ran with a caption that coyly referred to the possibility that Putin might serve a third consecutive term. The Russian constitution requires that he step down in March.
Prosecutors apparently objected to the fact that Putin is seen in Stirlitz's SS uniform, although most Russians view the character as a dramatic hero.
"It's not black PR or anything, we simply wanted to entertain our readers," Sergei Mikhailov, chief editor of the Saratov Reporter, said in a telephone interview. "Everybody understands the joke."
Prosecutors in the southern city of Krasnodar, acting on the instructions of the FSB, a successor agency to the KGB, first brought charges against Piontkovsky. But the charges were thrown out when a judge ruled that there was no evidence of extremist incitement in the books.
Piontkovsky's Yabloko party had distributed the books in the region, and the FSB threatened to shut down the party's local office unless it stopped handing them out. Piontkovsky's books are almost impossible to find in bookstores here.
Prosecutors in Moscow subsequently applied to have the books deemed extremist, which would open Piontkovsky to criminal prosecution and could lead to the banning of the Yabloko party for extremist activity, Schmidt said.
On Tuesday, the prosecutor, who declined to otherwise discuss the case or give her name, cited two expert reports, one "linguistic" and one "social-psychological," as proof that Piontkovsky's prose was extremist.
"The social-psychological report says that the book contains statements inciting inferiority among people of Jewish, American, Russian and other nationalities," she said, referring to "Unloved Country." "Based on the evaluation reports, the book is recognized as containing features of extremism."
Schmidt asked the prosecutor to "please quote those statements, please give us concrete examples of the statements that you've just mentioned. Could you please give us references and page numbers of the book where those statements are."
"I am not an expert and I do not have a personal opinion," said the prosecutor, a response that drew open scorn from the defense attorney.
The reports cite two small sections of the book as evidence of extremism.
In one report, Piontkovsky is accused of extremism because he creates a fictional conversation in which Putin calls some apparent critics "shameful goats." That report also alleges that Piontkovsky's use of the words "incite hatred" was itself an incitement to hatred.
