Kremlin Rebukes Mironov

April 3, 2011

Anti-graft measures proposed by Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov earned him a rebuke on Sunday from the camp of President Dmitry Medvedev.

Mironov, an ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, suggested to Putin on Saturday that the presumption of innocence for state officials should be abolished as a measure to fight graft.

Putin did not comment, but the next day Medvedev's camp weighed in with a sharp rebuke.

"We are surprised that the head of the upper chamber calls for measures that contradict … the Constitution," a senior Kremlin source told Interfax. "This strange suggestion of Mironov's can … be explained by nothing else but populism and the desire to attract attention to his party."

(Reuters)

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