"It was moneybags behind the conflict. Whatever they would touch is doomed to wither away. Now, they have taken the [MN] staff hostage," he says in a written statement circulated today.
Evgeni Kiselev, Moskovskie Novosti editor-in-chief, fired his deputies without notice last week. The thunderbolt move triggered off an impassioned dispute between him and a greater part of the staff. The issue is under fiery debates in the public. The YABLOKO devoted a Bureau session to the controversy.
"The YABLOKO views Moskovskie Novosti developments as practical manifestation of a split between the democratic public and a handful of oligarchs out to regain the political positions they have lost," the party top says in a statement.
On a previous occasion, Mr. Yavlinsky called democratic political parties to decline oligarch sponsorship and come up with a demand to introduce taxation that would compensate the people-in-the-street losses caused them by rampant injustice in privatization.
The YABLOKO Bureau supports the stance of the MN Observation Council, adds the statement.
As the Observation Council announced today, it has made a moratorium on Kiselev's moves against the Moskovskie Novosti personnel. The Council appealed to the conflicting parties to make reciprocal concessions.
