What follows is a paraphrased retelling of Leonid Slutsky’s June 13 interview with the website Snob. Multiple journalists have accused Slutsky, who chairs the State Duma’s foreign affairs committee, of sexually harassing them over the years when they approached him for comments. A Duma ethics commission recently exonerated Slutsky from misconduct charges, leading several media outlets to withdraw their parliamentary correspondents in protest.
I didn’t molest anybody, and I never used the words “cutie pie.” Okay, maybe I called one of them a “bunny wabbit.” I never grabbed anyone by the crotch. What a gift to the anti-Kremlin TV network Dozhd it would have been for a political enemy like me to have grabbed one of their girls by the buns! And isn’t it weird how they only started making noise about it three years later? Farida Rustamova’s audio tape was mixed together from different recordings.
