Russia
St Petersburg Police Seizes Newspaper to Check For Extremist ContentPosted Sep 9 2011
Police seized at least 10 percent of the 1.5 million copies of A Just Russia newspaper published by the St Petersburg branch of A Just Russia Political party on Aug.15, and said they were checking for extremist content in the publications, according to an article by The St. Petersburg Times.
This happened just a few days before the municipal elections that aimed at ensuring St. Petersburg Gov. Valentina Matyiyenko’s position in the Federation Council; it was one of the many efforts local officials made to guarantee that nothing disrupted the vote, according to The Moscow Times.
The seized newspaper, a St. Petersburg branch of Just Russia, encouraged residents to vote against Matviyenko, who was running against no rivals in the district elections in the Petrovskoye and Krasnenkaya Rechka districts.
Sergei Mironov was ousted by the ruling United Russia party in May over criticism of Matviyenko and then left the Federation Council speaker post vacant. In a Moscow Times article, Mironov said St. Petersburg officials were “simply afraid of open and democratic elections.”
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred. In July, the Kommersant Vlast weekly had accused Matviyenko’s subordinates of seizing most copies of a critical issue, according to The Moscow Times article.
Valentina Matviyenko overwhelmingly won municipal elections designed to ensure her position of the Russian parliament's upper house speaker, with more than 90 percent of the vote in the elections, the Election commission said on Aug. 22, according to a report by RIA-Novosti.