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Duma Deputy Urges Prosecutors to Investigate Dozhd TV Funding

Prosecutors performed an inspection of the television channel's office on Nov. 7.

A State Duma deputy has requested that the Prosecutor General's Office investigate funding received by the Dozhd TV television channel, the TASS news agency reported Tuesday.

Rodina political party leader and Duma deputy Alexei Zhuravlyev wrote a letter to prosecutors asking that they investigate the television channel's finances.

The deputy asked the prosecutors to examine the partnership between Dozhd and the Rolf automative dealer and to investigate reports that the television channel received 1.8 million rubles from Moscow's Polytechnic Museum.

Zhuravlyev in September asked Russia's Prosecutor General Yury Chaika to perform an inspection of Dozhd, according to the party's website.

Zhuravlyev claimed at the time that Dozhd was violating licensing rules by “systematically broadcasting BBC and Deutsche Welle content.”

Prosecutors performed an inspection of the television channel's office on Nov. 7. They claimed to be investigating the channel's activities in relation to anti-extremism, labor and licensing legislation, according to documents provided by prosecutors and published by Dozhd’s general director Natalya Sindeyeva on Facebook.

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