MOSCOW. Dec 1 (Interfax) - Law enforcement agencies have not put forth any complaints to the Ekho Moskvy radio station since Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny took part in its broadcast more than six months ago, a circumstance which indicates that no extremist remarks were made during that program, Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov told Interfax on Tuesday.
"I saw a transcript of the April 27 broadcast. In my opinion, there was nothing extremist in it. Otherwise, we would have been contacted back in spring. First, law enforcement agencies have been keeping quite a close eye on each public appearance of Alexei Navalny. Second, all materials that appear on Ekho Moskvy are scrutinized by [the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media] Roskomnadzor," Venediktov said.
"Since nothing has happened over the past seven months, it means that there was no [extremism]. No one contacted us on April 27. We learned about this from news agencies. It was a broadcast of the Razvorot morning program," he said.
A probe might have been started "because of law enforcement agencies' relations with Alexei Navalny rather than because of his public remarks," Venediktov said.
Venediktov said on social media that he was speaking about an attempt to intimidate the opposition activist, who is currently recuperating in Germany after being poisoned, in order to stop him from returning to Russia.
At the same time, Venediktov said he does not know for certain whether the radio station may encounter any complaints following the probe even though it was a live broadcast, and because "events of all sorts have happened in our country."
"Our lawyers are already aware of this information," Venediktov said.
An informed source told Interfax earlier today that on November 30, law enforcement agencies opened a probe into Navalny's remarks made during a broadcast on the Ekho Moskvy radio station on April 27.
Navalny told the April 27 radio program about his 5 Steps for Russia program to support the country's population during the coronavirus pandemic.