Yakemenko Skips Interview

Dec. 2, 2010

Vasily Yakemenko, head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and founder of the pro-Kremlin youth movement Nashi, ditched a prearranged online conference call with readers of Gazeta.ru on Thursday.

Yakemenko was unable to attend because he had other meetings scheduled, his spokeswoman Kristina Potupchik said in a statement, Gazeta.ru reported. No new date for the interview was set.

“Yakemenko chose to solve problems of young people, not talk to them,” Potupchik wrote on her Twitter page.

About 400 questions, many of them critical, were posted on Gazeta.ru’s web site since Yakemenko agreed to the interview Nov. 24. He slammed many of the questions as pointless and offensive earlier this week.

(MT)

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