A prominent Russian liberal politician has said the release of a video, in which he used bad language in discussing the country’s protest movement, was an attempt to cause friction among the opposition.
Vladimir Ryzhkov, a long-time Kremlin opponent who has been one of the leading figures in street protests against Russia’s disputed parliamentary elections, said the footage was an “attempt to cause a row.”
The clip, released by the chief editor of the government-linked news website Life News, appears to show Ryzhkov discussing the next demonstration planned for February 4 with Gennady Gudkov, a deputy with the quasi-opposition A Just Russia party.
“This was just an exchange of opinions, we are old friends,” Ryzhkov, a co-leader of the People’s Freedom party, which was disqualified from taking part in the elections, told RIA Novosti. He did not deny that the video was genuine.
Gudkov was not available for comment.
Alleged vote fraud at last month’s parliamentary elections triggered the biggest anti-government protests seen in Moscow in decades.
The video also showed the two politicians discussing plans to distance themselves from Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption activist and leading figure in Russia’s opposition movement.
Navalny was a key speaker at the last major rally on December 24, and has been the target of attacks by pro-Kremlin youth groups.
Last week, he accused supporters of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of trying to smear him with a faked image showing him alongside exiled oligarch and outspoken Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky.
The picture appeared in a newspaper distributed by young activists wearing jackets marked “Vladimir Putin” in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Late last month, Life News published tapes of hours of phone calls between veteran opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and other activists, in which he called anti-government protesters “hamsters” and “scared penguins.”
