State Duma deputy Vladimir Pekhtin asked for his powers as head of the parliamentary ethics commission to be suspended. As he himself said, this would remain in effect until the review of media reports about his income and property is completed. Pekhtin said he was ready to provide the commission with all necessary materials. The deputy denied reports that he owns real estate in the United States. At the same time, he clarified that such property belongs to his son, Alexei, who moved to the U.S. to live and study back in the late 1990s. Pekhtin also said that once the review is over, he does not rule out going to court over the spread of false information about him that damages his reputation. Information about Pekhtin’s foreign real estate was published on Alexei Navalny’s blog. http://www.1tv.ru/news/polit/226295 See the original article at http://www.1tv.ru/news/polit/226295 Something terrible must have happened to Channel One (Russia’s main state TV channel). I was expecting this from them: "Vla*dimir Pekhtin was forced to temporarily step down because of attacks by blogger Navalny, who is accused of multimillion-dollar fraud and was previously known for spreading unverified information. Vladimir Pekhtin himself is confident that he will be able to prove he is right in court; his lawyers have already filed a complaint with Moscow’s Basmanny District Court. I am practically completely innocent, but this Navalny ought to be checked for ties to foreigners, Vladimir Alexeyevich told our correspondent by phone from Miami". We are eagerly awaiting the moment when the State Duma begins examining the facts about Pekhtin’s real estate in the United States. We very much hope this will be a public review, and not: "Pekhtin’s guilt has not been established, since all the evidence is located on suspicious foreign websites where everything is written in incomprehensible letters". * While we’re at it, here, have a read: "Aleksandr Bastrykin — the new face of Yves Rocher. Yul*ia Latynina on one of my cases. It’s about the one involving the "criminal syndicate of the Navalny brothers"