Summary

NAME: RUS DEBATE ROW 20080227I TAPE: EF08/0223 IN_TIME: 11:01:43:19 DURATION: 00:02:10:01 SOURCES: AP TELEVISION/INTERNET DATELINE: Moscow, 20/27 Feb 2008 RESTRICTIONS: SHOTLIST Internet February 20, 2008 1. Internet clip showing Vladimir Zhirinovsky, presidential candidate, attacking Nikolai Gotza, representative of rival presidential candidate Andrei Bogdanov, at a televised debate AP Television February 27, 2008 2. Wide of presidential candidate Andrei Bogdanov at news conference 3. Cutaway of cameras with portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the wall 4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrei Bogdanov, candidate for presidential elections: "Zhirinovsky approached me personally and warned me that I should watch out when I enter my house and that there were many of his supporters who want to settle accounts with me. That is why I want to say that God forbid if anything happens to my family or close ones, I will shoot them like mad dogs." 5. Wide of media at news conference 6. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrei Bogdanov, candidate for presidential elections: "It was a pure political threat that was actually taped during political debates. We do not even have to prove that it was political hooliganism. One can be convicted for five years of imprisonment for that, according to the law. And I will do my best to put him in prison for five years." 7. Cutaway of media 8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrei Bogdanov, candidate for presidential elections: "I believe I have a real chance to get into the second round, and after that we'll see." 9. Wide of Bogdanov leaving news conference STORYLINE: Video of a television studio brawl between Russian presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky and a rival candidate's campaign manager has surfaced on the internet. It shows Zhirinovsky pushing Nikolai Gotsa, who represents rival candidate Andrei Bogdanov, following a heated televised debate. The incident was not broadcast until the tape appeared on an internet site. At a news conference on Wednesday, Bogdanov said that Zhirinovsky had openly threatened him. "Zhirinovsky approached me personally and warned me that I should watch out when I enter my house and that there were many of his supporters who want to settle accounts with me," Bogdanov said. "I want to say that God forbid if anything happens to my family or close ones, I will shoot them like mad dogs." "It was a pure political threat that was actually taped during political debates. We do not even have to prove that it was political hooliganism," Bogdanov went on to say. "One can be convicted for five years of imprisonment for that, according to the law. And I will do my best to put him in prison for five years," Bogdanov warned. Russian information agency RIA Novosti reports Zhirinovsky has denied hitting the campaign manager, saying it was Gotsa who first insulted him during the debate. Bogdanov, leader of the small democratic party, is a pro-European democrat in a country where democracy has been discredited and a leading Freemason where many regard Freemasonry as a Western plot to undermine Russia. Polls show that Bogdanov, 38, has no chance of winning the election, but Bogdanov believes he can get a result. "I believe I have a real chance to get into second round and after that we'll see," he said at Wednesday's news conference. Odds heavily favour Putin's preferred candidate, Dmitry Medvedev. Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, has run for president twice before.