Any charges and trial should be done in a way that provides him with due process and is open and transparent. Putin, speaking in Madrid on the first leg of a foreign tour which will also take him to Germany and Moldova, said he also needed more information about Gusinsky's arrest. If there is a political aspect to this case, I am unaware of it. I am also unaware of the criminal aspect of the problem. Ustinov's office in Moscow issued a statement criticising some of the media reaction to Gusinsky's detention.
Mass media are in no danger, prosecutors have no desire to hinder journalists' work in any way.
But the negative reaction showed no signs of dying down. He flew to the Spanish capital on Tuesday evening in a bid to speak to Putin about the case. In Moscow, traders said the news had hit share prices. Leaders of the liberal Yabloko and SPS parties and the centrist Fatherland-All Russia party issued a joint appeal to Putin to clarify the situation. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov saw in the arrest the hand of Putin's powerful chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin.