Rostov Prosecutor's Office checks "Yabloko" leaflet for extremism

The Prosecutor's Office of Rostov-on-Don has started an investigation following a demand of Victor Deryabkin, Chairman of the Regional Legislative Assembly to prosecute the regional branch of the "Yabloko" Party "for inciting social hatred against members of the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party.

The reason o address the Prosecutor's Office was in a leaflet with invitation to the rally "Against Monopoly of 'Edinaya Rossiya' on Power and Politics", which took place in Rostov-on-Don on April 9. The leaflet lists 9 points of what, according to the authors of the text, "Edinaya Rossiya" is stealing.

Also, instead of the bear under the tricolour in the logo of this party, the authors of the leaflet depicted a rat and crossed the whole image with a bold cross, the Rostov News Agency reports.

Victor Deryabkin found that members of the "Edinaya Rossiya" are a social group; thus, he asked to regard the "Yabloko" leaflet as an extremist one and to bring its authors to justice, the "Gazeta.ru" writes.

On April 28, Anna Lebedeva, deputy chair of the Rostov "Yabloko" gave explanations to a prosecutor of the Proletarskiy District of Rostov-on-Don. "The investigator was very much surprised that instead of a polar bear a rat was depicted in the crossed logo of the 'Edinaya Rossiya'. I explained that it was just a caricature, but the investigator did not understand the meaning of this word," the "Yabloko" website quotes Ms Lebedeva as saying.