Leaders of the liberal opposition on Thursday filed a defamation suit against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who accused them during a live broadcast last week of embezzling billions of dollars, with Moscow’s Savyolovsky District Court, Gazeta.ru reported.
Putin said during his annual call-in show that Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov and Vladimir Ryzhkov, who held government and legislative jobs in the 1990s, stole the money along with tycoon Boris Berezovsky and want to return to power to steal more.
The liberals, who said they were forming the Party of People’s Freedom on Dec. 14, demand that Putin pay them a combined 1 million rubles ($32,600) and that Rossia-1 channel run a retraction.
(MT)
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