26.03.09

The Vladivostok branch of the Russian Communist Party and the Association of Citizens of Initiative (Russian abbreviation TIGR, meaning "tiger") have denied media reports and accusations by State Duma deputies from One Russia and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia alleging that recent protests in Maritime Territory against a rise in car import duties were financed from abroad, Russian Interfax news agency reported on 18 March.

"The TIGR movement exists on donations from its activists. People pay for the production of placards and leaflets with their own money. TIGR members have never received any foreign or Russian grants to finance their protests," a member of the council under the Maritime Territory human rights ombudsman, one of the TIGR organizers, Anastasiya Zagoruyko, told Interfax. She added that the movement's rallies had not been financed by any business structures either.

For his part, the chairman of the Vladivostok branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Bespalov, also denied any suggestion that the party's protests had been financed with "US money", Interfax said. "This is a purely political order. Due to a sharp deterioration in the social and economic situation in the country, One Russia, followed by the Liberal Democratic Party, instead of looking for ways out of the critical situation, are beginning to look for scapegoats on whom to shift the blame for their mistakes," he said.

"The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has not received, does not receive and will not be receiving any money from foreign organizations or any other grants because they (the USA) are our ideological opponents," Bespalov added.

In a separate development, the human rights ombudsman for Maritime Territory, Vladimir Ushakov, has announced his intention to find out from the Vladivostok city authorities why TIGR activists have been having difficulty receiving authorization for holding their street rallies, a later Interfax report said.

Ushakov thus reacted to reports that TIGR activists had been prevented from filing notifications of planned protests to the city authorities and had therefore had to join forces with the local branch of the Communist Party, which had not had similar problems.

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Source: Interfax