MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - Col. Vladimir Kvachkov (Rtd.) of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), charged with plotting an assassination attempt against Anatoly Chubais, CEO of Unified Energy Systems (UES), posted a cash bond to obtain registration as a candidate in a State Duma (lower house of parliament) by-election, his defense counsel Alevtin Moshansky said Saturday.
"We decided to post a cash bond rather than collect voters' signatures," the lawyer said. The money came from Kvachkov, who is now in custody pending trial, but his counsel declined to disclose the exact amount.
Gathering voters' signatures "would take too much time, which we do not have," Moshansky said.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has completed the investigation into the assassination attempt against Chubais. Kvachkov and two former Airborne Troops servicemen, Alexander Naidenov and Robert Yashin, were charged with several offenses, in particular, attempting on the life of a state or public official. Their detention term was extended until December 18.
Chubais' motorcade came under attack on March 17, in the Moscow region. First a roadside bomb exploded and then it was sprayed with machine-gun fire. The UES CEO was not hurt.
The State Duma by-election in two single-seat Moscow constituencies will be held on December 4. Under the law, the only legal impediment to participation in parliamentary elections can be a person's legal incapacity or conviction by a court of law.
Earlier, Mikhail Khodorkovsky made an attempt to run in the December 4 election. On September 22, however, a Moscow city court rejected his appeal, upholding the guilty verdict against Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev, reducing their prison sentences by one year, from nine to eight years each.
Khodorkovsky and Lebedev were found guilty on six charges under the Russian Criminal Law Code, including fraud and tax evasion.
