Moscow, Sunday,
Russia's justice minister, caught up in a scandal over a video film showing naked sauna scenes, will be removed from office temporarily pending an inquiry, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said on today
Valentin Kovalyov, who is also a member of Russia's Security Council, asked President Boris Yeltsin yesterday to suspend him while he cleared his name.
His request came after the monthly newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno (Top Secret) published grainy images taken from the video. It alleged they showed him in a sauna with women.
''We will suspend him temporarily from his duties,'' Chernomyrdin said.
''But things have to be investigated. I would prefer not to make any decisions based just on the publication,'' he added.
''Kovalyov denies everything,'' said Chernomyrdin, who recalled the 53-year-old former law professor from a foreign trip on Friday when the scandal broke. ''He is a lawyer. He knows how to defend himself. Let him prove it is not true.''
He added: ''If it is true, it is very sad for all of us, just sad. Such behaviour is not becoming to a government minister, or indeed any person. We will sort it out.''
In a country long known for official secrecy, few, if any, Russian ministers have had to resign because of scandals. In the Soviet era, newspapers almost never put the spotlight on serving ministers.
Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, said Kovalyov should quit. He described the allegations as ''inadmissible for a person in such an important job''.
Russian television stations have broadcast brief but somewhat indistinct excerpts from the black-and-white video, clearly shot using a hidden camera. Top Secret said the video was shot at a gangland night-club sauna in September 1995. Kovalyov became justice minister in January of that year.
Kovalyov said on Saturday he had nothing to be ashamed of and was seeking to be suspended to defend his good name and the government's dignity. He hinted he would take legal action -Reuter
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article