Rostov Regional Prosecutor's Office checks legality of closure of "Krestianin" Publishers

The Office has reported that its employees are checking whether the suspension of the work of the "Krestianin" Printing House, located in the Myasnikov District, was legitimate.

The prosecutors explain that the check was found necessary after numerous publications appeared in media about political pressure on the independent edition exerted by the law enforcement and regulatory bodies of the Myasnikov District and about the checks in the printing shop of the "Krestianin" (Peasant) Publishers.

Currently, the Prosecutor's Office checks the legality of actions of the officials, in particular, of fire inspectors and OVD (Interior Division) agents who appeared at the enterprise at night on May 13.

Let us remind you that the printing house was closed for 90 days after its building was visited of fire-fighting employees headed by an inspector, according to whom serious shortcomings were revealed there. As a result, the court decided to seal up the building. However, the second inspection by fire safety experts, which was appointed by the court for May 24, was never held.

It has also become known today that on June 3 the Rostov Regional Court will consider the complaint of the "Krestianin" Publishers against the decision of the Myasnikov District Court to close the printing house. Let us remind you that on May 26, nine days after the court's ruling to stop the printing house, the managers of the "Krestianin" Publishers lodged their complaint to the Regional Court asking to revoke the decision of the above District Court and open the enterprise, which by that time had been idling for more than two weeks.

On May 31, two public organizations issued appeals in defence of the "Krestianin". The Reporters Without Borders sent a letter to the Governor of the Rostov Region, drawing his attention to the situation; while the World Association of Newspapers asked the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to prevent unlawful pressure on independent media and the freedom of speech in Russia as a whole.

Besides, the American non-profit foundation named the "Media Development Loan Fund", which is a business partner of the Rostov-based edition and its long-term creditor, said that saw an attempt to press the freedom of speech in Russia in the incident with the edition.

Let us note here that on May 26 the Rostov Branch of the Russian Union of Journalists held a press conference with participation of the managers of the "Krestianin" Publishers.

Vera Yuzhanskaya, Chair of the above Rostov Branch, who ran the press conference, stressed that apart from the publishers they had also invited their opponents - employees of the prosecutor's office, OVD, fire-fighting service and the Party "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia). However, none of them expressed any desire to attend.

According to Irina Samokhina, Director General of the "Krestianin" Publishers, the losses that her enterprise has suffered from the visit of policemen, fire-fighters and court marshals, and from the decision to close it for 90 days, are quite substantial.

According to Sergey Reznik, a political analyst from Rostov, what is happening with the "Krestianin" is nothing but a regional authorities' attempt to use censorship in order to prevent the electorate's political activism before the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.

According to the employees of the edition, whose opinion was transferred to the "Caucasian Knot" by Ms Samokhina, the closure of the printing house has to do with publication of the election leaflets for Gennady Ilyin, who ran for the Mayor of the city of Shakhty from the CPRF, whose main rival at the elections on May 15 was Denis Stanislavov, a nominee of the "Edinaya Rossiya" who finally won the election.

The Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) of the Rostov Region has refrained to comment on this situation, saying that "everything will be decided by the court."