State Duma mandates commission recommends removing Valery Rashkin’s parliamentary immunity

The State Duma Commission on Mandates Issues has recommended that parliament remove the immunity of veteran Communist Party (KPRF) lawmaker Valery Rashkin, Interfax reported on Monday, November 22.

The State Duma is expected to consider the issue on Thursday, November 25.

During the commission meeting on Monday, the deputy head of the State Duma Security Committee, Ernest Valeev, explained that even if parliament votes to strip Rashkin of immunity, he will retain his mandate. 

The Russian Attorney General’s Office submitted a request to the State Duma to remove Rashkin’s immunity earlier this month, after the lawmaker was charged with illegal hunting. On Monday, prosecutors also asked the parliament to allow for the election of a pretrial restraint that would ban Rashkin from “certain activities.” 

Attorney General’s Office representative Sergey Bochkarev did not name a specific measure of restraint. However, he said that Rashkin “knew the witnesses well and had the ability to influence them,” implying that prosecutors are likely asking to prohibit the lawmaker from communicating with certain people. 

On October 29, police in the Saratov region detained Valery Rashkin for illegal hunting after they stopped him for drunk driving and found a butchered elk in the trunk of his car. Rashkin initially claimed that he found the elk carcass, and didn’t shoot the animal himself. Nevertheless, a criminal case was launched against him on charges of illegal hunting with the infliction of minor damage, which is punishable by up to two years in prison.

On November 18, Rashkin admitted that he did in fact kill the elk, having mistaken it for a wild boar. The lawmaker later added that he considers himself guilty and is willing to compensate for the damage — either by paying a fine or by purchasing another elk to release into the wild.