Music Club to be Closed Down for its Head's Extremism

On July 24, 2008, the Zabaykal Krai district attorney's office submitted to the Chitinskaya Oblast' law court the request to liquidate the regional public organization Chitinskaya Youth Club for Guitar Playing "Velikyi Istok' ("Great Beginnings') and to delete its name from the federal juridical entities' register.

The basis for this request is the activity of the club's head, Constantine Shlyamov, who organized several pickets in June and July this year :consecrated to international relations and disapproving of the actions of the of federal and regional authorities in this field;. According to the prosecutors, this type of activity contravenes with the laws regulating the activity of public organizations, namely article 15 of the Russian Federal Law on Counteracting Extremist Activities which states that an organization must exhonerate its leader if he or she was condemned for an extremist declaration or action within five days of that declaration or action.

According to the Zabaykal Krai prosecutors, Shlyamov also distributed leaflets supporting the inhabitants of the Kharagun village condemned for the mass pogroms against the ethnic Azerbaijanis from their community.

The head of the music club was repeatedly warned by the prosecutors and the krai police about the inadmissibility of his actions and was prosecuted before for his involvement in pickets.