A major Russian press organization is threatening to sue the State Property Committee for 1.5 billion rubles ($740,000) for damages suffered in a forced move earlier this year, according to the organization's general director.


Gennady Musayelyan of the Russian Press House told journalists Wednesday that his organization would not abandon the fight for justice in its long legal battle with the government over office space.


"We will fight to the end," he said.


The Russian Press House, created by presidential decree in 1992 "to strengthen press freedom and to ensure the smooth functioning of the Russian mass media," unites 40 newspapers and magazines under its aegis, many of them small-circulation, specialist publications.


The organization was originally given space on Pushkinskaya Ulitsa in central Moscow, but was forcibly ejected from the premises in December 1993 to make way for the newly elected Federation Council.


The organization was then housed on Novy Arbat, and signed a 20-year lease with the State Property Committee for those premises.


But in May the government decided to move the Economics Ministry into the Novy Arbat building, and offered the beleaguered Russian Press House what Musayelyan calls "a totally unacceptable building" -- a dormitory on the outskirts of Moscow.


The Press House took the State Property Committee to court, but so far has had little success. A lawyer for the organization, Tatyana Kofanova, told journalists that the case was a fine example of bespredel -- a total absence of rules of civilized behavior.


"The way the State Property Committee has handled this whole matter can only be termed 'legal nihilism,'" she said.


Her sister and colleague, Olga Kofanova, said that the case showed a lack of respect on the part of the government for the mass media.


"It seems that no one in our country needs the press," she sighed.