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Cracking Down? Writing in Literature gazeta on 25 May, the critic Pavel Basinsky revived the old chestnut of the Brezhev era, arguing that foreigners should not lecture the Russian authorities on human rights. Basinsky's article was occasioned by the protests of Russian literati and Western human rights organizations at the arrests of Aleksei Kostin, editor of the soft-porn weekly Eshche (Some More), and Russian writer Zufar Gareev. Eshche was published in Moscow with the permission of the Russian Ministry of Press and Information from 1990 until 6 October 1993, on which date Kostin was arrested on charges of distributing pornography. Since then, he has been in Butyrka prison awaiting trial. Gareev, who signed a petition in Kostin's defense, was arrested earlier this month and charged by the office of the Moscow prosecutor with having copies of Eshche in his apartment. The prosecution is particularly bizarre in light of the abundance of erotic materials on sale in Moscow today. Julia
Wishnevsky |
Last Updated: 11/20/99 |
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© 1999 Post-Soviet Media Law &
Policy Newsletter |
