You're reading: Naryshkin apologizes for Zhirinovsky’s behavior before press

State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin has condemned the behavior of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party leader, , during a morning press meeting before the start of a plenary house session, said the speaker's press secretary Yevgeniya Chugunova. 

“My view of what happened is extremely negative,” Naryshkin said, according to his press secretary.

“For my part, I would like to apologize for deputy Zhirinovsky,” he added.

Naryshkin also instructed the Duma ethics commission to examine the incident, the commission’s deputy chief Andrei Andreyev (Communist Party) told Interfax on Friday.

“We will definitely examine this matter next week,” he said.

The Duma chairman reacted very promptly to the morning incident and exercised his right of formally instructing the commission to investigate the incident, he said.

Earlier the Duma parliamentary ethics commission said it was ready to promptly consider the complaint by parliamentary reporters about the offensive remarks made by Zhirinovsky against correspondents accredited to the lower house.

“Alas, in a similar situation the Duma regulations do not allow the commission to initiate an inquiry on its own. However, given the exceptional nature of the incident, I assume that the commission will promptly consider this matter upon a formal request, or at the behest of senior house members,” Andreyev said.

As a possible corrective measure, the commission could compel the deputy to apologize, issue a reprimand and strip him of the right to speak at plenary sessions for up to a month, he said.

Earlier on Friday parliamentary reporters asked Naryshkin to react to the offensive remarks addressed by Zhirinovsky to the reporters accredited to the lower house.

Their letter to Naryshkin contains a detailed description of the incident that occurred this morning during a meeting with the press in the Duma before the plenary session. “The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party faction Vladimir Zhirinovsky was asked whether he thought retaliatory sanctions should be introduced to the entry ban for Russians introduced by Ukraine a day earlier. In response the journalists heard unprovoked rude insults and rough remarks, including against a pregnant journalist,” the reporters said.

Attacks on the press have recently become a norm for Zhirinovsky, of which the Duma administration has already been notified by the journalists, the document said. “We ask you to give an assessment to this and other similar facts. We believe that the incident must become a subject of examination by the State Duma parliamentary ethics commission,” the journalists wrote to Naryshkin.