VOLGOGRAD, February 20 (RIA Novosti) - A local media and culture watchdog has annulled the license of a newspaper in the southern Russian city of Volgograd embroiled in a controversy over the publication of a cartoon depicting religious figures, the paper's founder company said Monday.
The head of the municipal company Volgograd Inform, Konstantin Karkachev, said that as of February 21, Gorodskye Vesti newspaper would be banned from publishing.
The newspaper in Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), recently carried an article entitled: "No room for racists in power". The article was accompanied by an illustration depicting Jesus Christ, Moses, Buddha and Mohammed in front of a television showing two groups of people about to start a fight. The caption said, "We did not teach them to do that..."
Last Wednesday, prosecutors announced that they were launching a probe into the matter after local politicians and representatives of public organizations voiced their concerns in the wake of the recent wave of protests that engulfed the Muslim world after satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed were published in a Danish newspaper and reprinted internationally.
Deputy Mayor Andrei Doronin announced that the paper would be closed at a news conference on Friday.
"We have carefully studied the article and decided to close down the newspaper in order not to inflame ethnic hostilities," he said.
The official also said that Volgograd Inform would be dissolved, and its staff dismissed. The city administration intends to form a new publication with a different name and a different chief editor.
