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Valery Rashkin offered to replace the moose.
Nevertheless, he is threatened with imprisonment for several years
Photo: Mikhail Tokmakov / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
The communist member of parliament, Walari Raschkin, shot a moose while hunting in Russia without a permit - now the case is preoccupying the Russian judiciary at the highest level. "The MP Rashkin committed this crime on purpose," said Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, according to the Interfax agency. “He shot the animal and killed it. What else can we talk about? ”A little later the State Duma lifted the immunity of the protesting parliamentarian Valery Rashkin.
Kremlin critics suspect that the judiciary's actions are primarily a revenge for the fact that Rashkin helped organize several protests in Moscow after the parliamentary elections in September.
The communists, who were actually quite loyal to the Kremlin, had complained of fraudulent votes in favor of the ruling party "United Russia".
The hunting incident has been causing a stir in the Russian media for weeks, there is talk of "moose murder" and a "scandal".
The 66-year-old Rashkin was picked up by police in the Saratov region on the Volga at the end of October - with a moose carcass in the trunk.
At first he denied having shot the animal himself.
He later admitted the incident and was remorseful.
In order to settle the "biological damage", he wants to buy a cow elk and let it be released into the wild.
High penalties threaten
In addition, the politician stated in a video that his misconduct was now being used for a »provocation« directed against him.
If found guilty, he faces a fine or several years imprisonment.
Raschkin is a prominent communist. In his office there is a bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Soviet secret police.
When Rashkin was elected to the Duma in 1999, shortly before the beginning of the Putin era, the communists were still a feared force; they made up the strongest faction and the Duma spokesman.
muk / dpa