 State Duma Deputy Vladimir Shakhov says evrything was set up. |
State Duma Deputy Vladimir Shakhov said his arrest in a bar on a misdemeanor charge of assaulting a police officer Dec. 6 was a political provocation before the upcoming mayoral elections in Vladivostok.
However, police dismiss the suggestion that officers made up the story in order to hurt the leading candidate after incumbent Viktor Cherepkov. "There was no provocation," a police spokesman said.
Police arrested the deputy and his driver at the Green Crocodile bar at 7 Svetlanskaya Street after policeman Dmitry Dmitriyev called for backup, saying he had been beaten by the two. Dmitriyev ended up in a hospital with a minor concussion and bruises.
The incident began at 8 p.m. at the Green Crocodile, a nightclub owned by Dalrosso, an insurance company at which Shakhov is chairman of the board. Dmitriyev came by the nightclub to inspect the restaurant, which is a police duty, officers said. He brought along a woman and a student as witnesses.
But a drunken Shakhov and his bodyguard started a quarrel with the policeman and smashed a bottle against his head, police say. Dmitriyev fled and called in a special police unit from the Frunzensky District precinct just a hundred meters away.
Shakhov, who said he was making a regular inspection of his company that night, called the theory absurd. "Isn't it impossible even to think that a well-to-do person and a State Duma deputy could hit another person with a bottle?"
According to Shakhov, the policeman came in with his wife and a child and was apparently slightly drunk. When a waiter brought him brandy, Dmitriyev said there was too little and was going to draw up a statement charging a violation.
Shakhov denied using force against Dmitriyev, saying instead that the policeman was the one who used violence. "He used a fighting technique to throw my head against the marble floor."
However, Shakov refused a medical examination in the police office.
Police detained Shakhov for about 30 minutes, although he showed them his deputy's ID, which guarantees immunity from criminal prosecution, he said. They released him only after the prosecutor called.
Police sent the driver, who they said was a bodyguard, to the drunk tank, the spokesman said.
Shakhov claimed everything was set up to blacken his name and hurt his chances in the run-off elections, Shakhov said. "Somebody wants to force his way through to the second round."
The State Duma deputy was ahead of other candidates in the voided September mayoral elections after the Regional Electoral Commission struck the current Mayor Cherepkov's name from the ballot.
The Frunzensky Precinct launched an internal investigation into the matter Dec. 9, and the Frunzensky District Prosecutor's Office is considering whether to file a criminal case.
The lawmaker said he has received telephone threats and anonymous calls in the past but ignored them. "Now I have asked police for protection," he said.
Shakhov hasn't yet provided signatures for the City Electoral Commission to register him as a candidate, but he informed the commission that he would definitely run for the mayor again, a commission spokeswoman said. The registration deadline is Dec. 20.
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