“MEDIA VICTIMS OF THE PAST WEEK”

REACTION

In issue 67 (this year) of Novaya Gazeta, on page 11, in the heading “Victims of the media of the past week” (note “Latvian shooter” Yeltsin, leaders of the “Rest of Russia” and “cocaine addict” Yulia), journalist Sergei Mulin mentions an interview with G .A. Satarov,...

In issue 67 (this year) of Novaya Gazeta, on page 11, in the heading “Victims of the media of the past week” (note “Latvian shooter” Yeltsin, leaders of the “Rest of Russia” and “cocaine addict” Yulia), journalist Sergei Mulin mentions an interview with G .A. Satarov, which was taken by Igor Petrov, co-editor of the electronic magazine GayNеws.RU and editor of the "Society" department of the legal information agency LINA.

Mr. Mulin writes: “<…> And, finally, Georgy Satarov, the third founding father of the Rest of Russia, had an absolutely innocent interview right on the sidelines of the conference. About xenophobia. But they posted it on the website GayNеws.RU! Here is the familiar KGB handwriting.”

We hasten to upset the editors of Novaya Gazeta and personally Sergei Mulin and report that Georgy Satarov knew whom he was interviewing and, unlike the author, did not suspect a “KGB provocation”.

If Mr. Mulin carefully read the text of the interview, he could have noticed that Georgy Aleksandrovich considers homophobia (dislike for gays and lesbians) as one of the manifestations of xenophobia. This does him credit and confirms his commitment to European democratic values.

The GayNews.RU electronic magazine and the LINA legal information agency are mass media that stand on the same values. Mulin's statement about our alleged involvement in the "gebe" is offensive to us, and we demand an apology from the author, since we cannot even imagine a greater insult than a hint at our involvement in the special services. We demand to publish in the next issue of Novaya Gazeta a refutation of false conjectures damaging the reputation of the agency and its site GayNеws.RU.

We would also like to add that exclusive interviews and comments were given to our agency at different times by A.S. Kovalev, I.S. Kon, I.N. Kuklina,

EAT. Albats, A. Politkovskaya, G.K. Kasparov, I.M. Khakamada, V. Ryzhkov (Jr.), V.V. Pokrovsky, L.A. Alekseeva, N.A. Tagankin. Our permanent partners are the Moscow Helsinki Group, LGBT groups Amnesty International (Belarus), Amnesty International (Finland), as well as a number of OSCE missions.

Sincerely yours, editor-in-chief of the legal information agency LINA

Ruslan ZUEV