Shameless

Putin Aide: ‘I Don’t Feel People Up. Well, Just a Little’

Three women accuse Leonid Slutsky of assault.

It seems the #MeToo movement has some way to go in Russia. The speaker of the Russian parliament has suggested female journalists who complain about sexual harassment should find other jobs after a senior aide to Vladimir Putin was accused of assault. Leonid Slutsky, deputy of the Russian parliament's lower house and head of the foreign affairs committee, has been accused of making inappropriate comments to BBC journalist Farida Rustamova and groping her inside of his parliamentary office. Rustamova said the senior MP started “running his hand, the flat of his palm, up against my nether region” while she was seeking a comment for a story. Responding to the accusations, Slutsky is reported to have said: “I don’t feel people up. Well, OK, just a little. ‘Feel people up’ is an ugly expression.” Rustamova is the third woman to openly accuse Slutsky of sexual assault. According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, the speaker of the Russian Duma said he’d look into the accusations, but that there were “two sides” to every story. He went on: “You think working in the Duma is dangerous? Well, change your job.”