A journalist from the BBC Russian Service spoke about the harassment of Deputy Slutsky. Their conversation was recorded on a tape recorder.

BBC Russian Service journalist Farida Rustamova said that State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky harassed her in March 2017 in his office.

Rustamova came to Slutsky's office to comment on Marine Le Pen's visit to Russia. All the time she was in the room, she had a voice recorder on. The recording of the conversation between the journalist and Slutsky has been preserved.

During the conversation, Slutsky began to call Rustamova "hare" and "hare" and said that she "runs away from him" and "does not want to kiss." To Rustamova’s remark that she had a young man, he replied: “Excellent, you will be his wife, and my mistress.”

At the end of the conversation, he approached the journalist and ran his palm over her pubis, the journalist said. “I began to stutter, gurgle, I had a numb state. I mumbled that I would not come to you again, you are dissolving your hands, ”she recalls. To this, Slutsky replied that he "does not open his hands," only if "a little bit."

Rustamova was one of the journalists who spoke about Slutsky's harassment to Dozhd on condition of anonymity. According to her, after what happened, she considered the option of a public statement, but she "was scared to go out with this alone."

In addition, according to the girl, another reason for the silence was that she blamed herself for a long time: “Why couldn’t I react sharply at that moment, why couldn’t I yell at him, hit him. Another person, maybe, threw an object, and I just stood there as if covered in shit and could not move. I was tormented by the fact that my pathetic babble was heard on the recording - “why are you dissolving your hands, this is a pipets”.

Russian service "BBC"

• State Duma Deputy Leonid Slutsky was accused of sexual harassment by several Russian journalists. At the end of February, three journalists, on condition of anonymity, spoke about Slutsky's behavior to Dozhd; then statements were made by RTVI Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ekaterina Kotrikadze and Dozhd producer Daria Zhuk.
• Slutsky denies the allegations against him. According to him, this story “instead of taking away authority, probably added” authority to him. Slutsky's colleagues in the State Duma, for the most part, expressed their support for him.