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#9 - JRL 2008-65 - JRL Home
Russian ex-premier Kasyanov accuses authorities of pressure

MOSCOW, March 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's ex-prime minister and opposition leader, Mikhail Kasyanov, said his summoning for questioning to the Prosecutor General's Office on Monday was a sign of further pressure on the opposition.

"I believe [my] summoning to the Prosecutor General's Office is part of a deliberate campaign targeting the opposition," Kasyanov told reporters as he arrived at the office.

Kasyanov said he had been summoned in connection with a long-running case for real estate fraud, which he has repeatedly called illegal.

Kasyanov said the authorities "have pressured and intimidated" his supporters in several regions, who collected signatures to support his bid to run in the March 2 presidential election. Kasyanov was barred from the polls over 'irregularities' in his application.

Earlier media reports said prosecutors had initiated investigations into whether Kasyanov's supporters forged signatures to get him on the ballot papers.

"It is like the authorities say: 'Opposition activities are banned and persecuted in this country today,'" Kasyanov said. "They want to demonstrate that they can punish anyone."

President Vladimir Putin's first prime minister, dismissed in 2004, Kasyanov is now the leader of the opposition party, Russian Popular Democratic Union.

Kasyanov was accused of acquiring an 11.5-hectare (28-acre) luxury country house in western Moscow at a knockdown price through a staged auction set up by him while still in office. A court ruled last year he should return the estate to the government, but rejected the prosecution's compensation demand.

The ex-premier has denied the accusation and called the ruling illegitimate.