RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Jan 19, 2011
TODAY: Poland blames Russia for Smolensk; psychiatrist dies after detention; journalist released from prison; Nemtsov describe attack; church says drunk women are to blame for attacks; Medvedev reiterates support for independent Palestine; Russia delaying UN vote on Ivory Coast troops; Luzkhov banned from Latvia. HIV, A Just Russia, Epiphany.
Polish investigators are blaming Russia for the Smolensk crash last April, saying that its air traffic controllers failed to warn the plane’s crew that it was off course. Russia’s Transport Minister says that ‘objective‘ conclusions should be made by both sides, and insisted that ‘it is up to the pilot to make the decision to land‘. The case of a psychiatrist who died after spending two days in a detention center has sparked claims that Yevgeny Leonov was beaten by police. Aigul Makhmutova, a 26-year-old journalist, has been released from prison after serving three years of a sentence handed down after her newspaper criticized local authorities, and says she plans to continue her work. The Other Russia has a translation of Boris Nemtsov’s account of being attacked with a butterfly net on his release from prison. The Orthodox Church is going after women who wear miniskirts, and saying that inebriated women who are sexually attacked have only themselves to blame.