Duma To Vote On Golovlyov's Case
Union of Right Forces leader Boris Nemtsov is going to vote in favour of a request of Prosecutor General's Office to to lift the immunity for URF member Vladimir Golovlyov, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Nemtsov told journalists his faction would present a draft bill to abolish Duma deputies' immunity at all.
At the same time another Duma's faction Yabloko has refused to participate in the vote, Radio Ekho Moskvy reported, citing Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky.
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office sent the request to the State Duma on Monday. Prosecutors accuse him of fraud when he run the state property department in the Chelyabinsk administration in 1991-92.
A criminal case was launched in 1993. All collected evidences were handed over to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office in 1999. Now the prosecutors are ready to indict the deputy for fraud, bribery and abuse of power. According to deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Birukov, they were forced to make this request because Golovlyov ignored their summons.
Golovlyov believes the charges against him are politically motivated as he set up an opposition liberal party. The Liberal Russia party is financed by Russia's self-expelled tycoon Boris Berezovsky. Golovlyov says his contacts with Berezovsky have caused the prosecutors' hunt. "Creating an opposition is viewed today as a crime in Russia", he said.
Union of Right Forces faction's members Boris Nadezhin, Liberal Russia's members Sergei Yushenkov and Viktor Pokhmelkin have expressed their support to Golovlyov. Pokhmelkin stated he considered the move as a political provocation. Yushenkov told MK-Novosti that Presidential administration chief Alexander Voloshin "ordered" the fraction to vote against Golovlyov.
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office launched a federal search for former Kremlin insider Boris Berezovsky in September in connection with the so-called Aeroflot case. The main TV-6 television shareholder left Russia and lives in France now. The case is based on suspicions that executives at the Aeroflot airline have channelled millions of dollars in sales through two Swiss companies Andava and Forus founded by Berezovsky.
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