Press Release, 13.10.2014

2065 signature under the petition demanding Minister for Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev to take the investigation of the attack on YABLOKO’s Lev Shlosberg under his personal control were brought to the receiving office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The signature collection was opened on September 25 by Grigory Yavlinsky’s press secretary Igor Yakovlev. Most of those who signed the petioton are the citizens or Russia. However, the citizens of 22 other countries also put their signature in support of the initiative.

The attack took place on August 29. Lev Shlosberg was seriously hurt and spent several weeks in a hospital. The crime has found resonance within Russia and the world.

The petition’s authors are sure that the attack on the deputy of the Pskov region Legislative Assemble was the revenge for Shlosberg’s attempts to investigate the death of Russia’s militants in May-August 2014. “There are grounds to suspect that high-rank state officials including military officials are involved in the organization of the crime”, runs in the document.

Those who sigh the petition express outrage in connection with the fact that a politically motivated crime is considered as a domestic one. “We consider that the political pressure is being put on the investigators aiming to substitute the essence of the case and not to let find the attackers and those who ordered the crime. Non excluded that fake suspects may appear in the case”, runs in the petition.

“The outcome of the investigation on the attack on Lev Shlosberg means a lot not only for those who are involved in the case. There should be a proof that the state protects the citizens’ rights for criticism of the authorities, public investigations of tragic events such as, by no means, the death of the militants, freedom of speech and public information”, runs in the petition.

The full and all-round investigation of all the circumstances of the case, establishment of all the attackers, organisors and those who ordered the crime, submission of the matter to court to fix punishment no matter which rank or status the guilty have – are among the demands to Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

See also:
The Russian interior must classify the criminal case of an attack on Lev Shlosberg as “infringement on life of a public figure” rather than “hooliganism”
On political mobbing of Lev Shlosberg