Victims of terrorist act on Dubrovka sue to get indemnity for Vladimir Putin's interview

Lawyer Aleksandr Glushenkov believes plaintiffs in the case concerning Vladimir Putin's interview about "Nord-Ost" published by the Kommersant-Vlast weekly stand a good chance. He told about it to Ekho Moskvy Radio.

The suit about this interview was filed with the Tverskoy Court of Moscow by the Nord-Ost organization. The plaintiffs ask for the indemnity at the rate of 1 million rubles to be paid by the magazine and 10 million rubles to be paid by Vladimir Putin to each plaintiff.

"Vladimir Putin is the second defendant in this suit, the Kommersant-Vlast weekly is indicated as the first defendant since it published Putin's interview in which he said the consequences of the use of gas [during the storm of the Theatre Center on Dubrovka in 2002] had been completely innocuous," said Mr Glushenkov. "Hostages and relatives of the victims are far from being agree that the consequences were innocuous, which gave birth to such a suit."

"The characteristic of this suit is that it is brought against the media since it published the material in question. By the Law on the Mass Media, the defendants will have to prove reliability of published information. We will have to prove only the fact of the publication itself in this case," Aleksandr Glushenkov explained.