Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian parliament's commission on ethics on Wednesday cleared a senior member of the lower house, who has been accused of sexual harassment in a case that has drawn nationwide attention.
The panel decided that the accusations against Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, were unfounded. Its chief, Otari Arshba, said the commission announced that "there has been no behavioral violations" by Slutsky.
Slutsky has been accused of sexual harassment by three female journalists. One of them, Farida Rustamova of the BBC's Russian Service, said in a story published earlier this month that during a visit to Slutsky's office last March, he urged her to dump her fiance, then "ran his hand, the flat of his palm, up against my nether region."
Rustamova's story followed an account by Daria Zhuk, a producer at the independent TV station Dozhd, who recorded a video message to Slutsky, accusing him of using vulgar language and trying to touch and kiss her at the station's studio in 2014.
Earlier, Yekaterina Kotrikadze, deputy editor-in-chief at the RTVI TV station, said Slutsky pushed her against the wall and tried to kiss her in his office in 2011.
Slutsky initially mocked the accusations, but facing public outrage said that he didn't mean to offend anyone.
Earlier this month, he received strong support from the Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, who shrugged off the accusations against Slutsky, saying: "Do you feel in danger working at the Duma? If so, then get another job."
The ethics commission said in its verdict Wednesday that the accusations coincided with the presidential campaign and came long after the alleged sexual misconduct took place — something it said cast doubt on the journalists' testimony. It said that it had no way to prove the claims and advised the journalists to take their case to law enforcement agencies.
The RBC media group, which has an online news agency, a magazine and TV channel, responded by recalling its reporters from the Duma in protest over the panel's ruling.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
