Yuri Samodurov: attempts to prevent festival of films about Chechnya from holding caused by Estonia's unwillingness to damage relations with Russia

Attempts to prevent the festival of documentary films about Chechnya from holding in Estonia are caused by the "unwillingness to damage relations with Russia."

Yuri Samodurov, director of the Andrey Sakharov Museum and Public Center, which assists with the holding of the festival, expressed such an opinion to Ekho Moskvy Radio.

"It is really undesirable to damage relations with Russia, but one shouldn't yield to the recommendations by Russian authorities not to hold the festival if there were any," he said.

The films about Chechnya have already been shown at the Andrey Sakharov Museum and Public Center, Yuri Samodurov said. "Some of these films disclose that lie, that lack of information about developments in Chechnya and about investigation of the terrorist acts in Moscow which unfortunately exists in our society and seemingly in Estonia now as well," he noted.

"It is absurd to conjecture that people who will see these films can become terrorists or start sympathizing with them. The matter does not concern it. There is not a bit of sympathy with terrorists in these films. On the contrary, there are many questions about how the struggle against terrorism is conducted and whether this struggle is against terrorism or not. I am afraid these questions are troublesome not only in Russia but in Estonia too," noted Yuri Samodurov.

Editors note: See also the article "Festival of documentary films about Chechnya postponed in Estonia".