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Viktor Alksnis, a Duma State deputy, has acted on his threat to take to court blogger Timofey Shevyakov, a LifeJournal user, for insults addressed to the former as a state authority.

The deputy started his blog on the LifeJournal on 3 February, wanting to "demonstrate the everyday routine work of a Duma opposition member", but became soon unhappy of some comments on his blog.

As a response to comments placed by Alksnis on his blog on 18 February on the new military banners in the Russian army, which he was not content with, a user "tarlith" said the depute was "either a liar or a fool". Alksnis threatened with filing a criminal complaint against him, and the discussion continued offensively with the participation of all forum users. Alksnis identified the user "tarlith" as blogger Timofey Shevyakov, historian and member of the Efficient Politics Fund.

On 22 February O2TV held a talk show with Alksnis and Shevyakov where they could not find any common ground of understanding.

The deputy claims that the Shevyakov has spread false information hurting his national dignity and thinks his actions fall under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code. Hence, he has sent a request to the General Prosecutor's Office against the blogger, asking that he should be prosecuted for insult and violence in respect of authority. He attahced to the request 74 pages of notarized screen shots and a CD with alleged evidentiary material.

Anton Sergo, Head of Internet and Justice company, thinks that while the deputy has all the grounds for appealing to court, in such cases, the court has to prove that the insult really took place and has to determine who did it.

The deputy also addressed all LiveJournal users, expressing his indignation regarding the lack of courtesy of some users and their wish to always insult or humiliate. He intends to suggest the issue for consideration in the State Duma. "Let us start the process of Internet Community against Internet Heels together", he said.

As regarding the insult to authority, Stanislav Petrovsky, Associate Professor with the Russian Academy of Justice believes that the deputy's position is not really significant in terms of the Internet and that Alksnis should not always be considered as authority representative. In Petrovsky's opinion, it is not clear if Alksnis' blog is part of his work.

Petrovsky thinks that some Russian authorities might not perceive the Internet very correctly and might not be so used to interactive communication with people, stating: "A person who cannot persist in his statements in the internet without involving government law enforcement bodies shouldn't be using such democratic means of communication as blogs, which are free to anyone, not just a small community".

Alksnis involves Prosecutor's Office to LJ scandal (6.03.2007)
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/03/06/238881

Duma depute to take LJer to court (20.02.2007)
http://eng.cnews.ru/news/top/indexEn.shtml?2007/02/20/236785