Lawmakers Delay Vacations

The State Duma and the Federation Council have extended their spring sessions because of a number of bills that need urgent consideration, Interfax reported Thursday.

The legislation includes the initiatives to toughen penalties for child abusers and to make amendments to pension laws, the report said.

The Duma will adjourn for the summer on July 17 instead of July 3, while the Federation Council will work until the end of the month instead of July 7. (MT)

Klebnikov Suspects Sought

Investigators have put three Chechens suspected in the killing of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov on an international wanted list, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Thursday, citing the Investigative Committee.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said the three suspects — Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev and the brothers Kazbek and Magomed Dukuzov — would be sought abroad after efforts to locate them in Russia failed.

A fourth suspect, Musa Vakhayev, is free after giving a written promise not to leave Moscow. The four men were acquitted in a 2005 trial but the Supreme Court has ordered a retrial. (MT)

Youth Camp Bars Gazeta.ru

Pro-Kremlin youth activists have barred Gazeta.ru reporters from attending their summer retreat on the shores of Lake Seliger, Gazeta.ru reported Thursday.

Gazeta.ru, the only news outlet banned from the camp, which opened Wednesday, has published critical reports about the yearly event where pro-Kremlin youth groups meet with senior government officials.

Seliger organizers said reporters Ilya Azar and Olesya Gerasimenko were banned because they had no passports.

In years past, reporters have been thrown out of, sworn at and even beaten up at the camp. (MT)

Policemen in Stripper Flap

A Urals traffic police chief will be fired for inviting a male stripper to perform in the police station as a present for his female colleagues on International Women’s Day.

The head of Nizhny Tagil’s traffic police will be dismissed as a result of the incident that coincided with the March 8 holiday, while several rank-and-file officers have already been fired, Interfax reported Thursday. “They have discredited themselves,” Viktor Berdnikov, the deputy chief of the Sverdlovsk region police force, said of the officers involved in the incident. (MT)