Leading Russian business daily Vedomosti has filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the speaker of the Russian parliament's lower house, the newspaper said in a statement on Tuesday.
At a meeting of State Duma faction leaders with President Dmitry Medvedev on April 2, Boris Gryzlov of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party suggested Vedomosti had links to the terrorists behind the Moscow metro bombings that killed 40 people.
The business daily said such comments were damaging to its reputation
"I would like to cite an example that I personally find bewildering," Gryzlov said. "The fact of the publication in the Vedomosti newspaper of the headline 'Revenge for the Caucasus'; the fact of the article by Alexander Minkin in Moskovsky Komsomolets; and Doku Umarov's announcement [claiming responsibility for the attacks]."
"If we analyze these three sources, we will see they were practically cooked in the same pot. It gives rise to the suspicion that these publications and the actions of the terrorists are connected," he added.
Vedomosti editor Tatyana Lysova sent a letter to Gryzlov on April 6 asking the Duma speaker to explain his comments and to provide evidence that the newspaper had links with terrorists.
"If your words were emotionally colored and were not based on concrete facts...Vedomosti's editorial staff would like to receive an official apology," the letter said.
Vedomosti's statement on Wednesday said Gryzov had not responded to the letter, forcing the paper to turn to the courts to get "an apology and retraction of his words."
Moskovsky Komsomolets journalist Minkin previously said the speaker's comments "were very similar to the criminal offence called libel" and asked the authorities to open an investigation. However, he recognized that Gryzlov had immunity from prosecution as a Duma deputy and told Ekho Moskvy radio station he did not expect the parliament to allow the case to go forward.
The Gazeta daily reported that a senior United Russia member expressed surprise over Minkin's and Lysova's reactions. It quoted Andrey Isayev as saying that Gryzlov's position was quite natural since Russian media behaved "absolutely irresponsibly" after the March 29 subway attacks.
MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti)
