Russian presidential hopeful Ivan Rybkin plunged poll watchers into more confusion on Friday by saying he had been drugged and filmed in a "disgusting" video in Ukraine during the five days he was missing without explanation.
Rybkin's account to journalists in London was the third time he had tried to explain why he had gone off to Kiev without telling his wife or campaign aides, triggering a police manhunt, and what he did before he resurfaced five days later.
PHOTO: EPA
On his return to Moscow, Rybkin, a harsh critic of President Vladimir Putin, initially said he had been with friends, but later told an interviewer he had feared for his life and gone into hiding for part of the time in the Ukrainian capital.
On Friday, Rybkin said he had gone to a Kiev flat in the company of strangers who said he would be meeting Chechnya's fugitive president Aslan Maskhadov. He awoke after a time to find himself alongside two armed men who showed him and others in "disgusting" video films intended to compromise him.
"All my statements in recent days in Kiev and in Moscow do not reflect the reality and were forced. I was trying to ensure the safety of my family and myself," he said.
"I don't know who did it, but I know who would benefit from it. It benefits those who want to compromise and humiliate the opposition," Rybkin said.
Like five other challengers running in the March 14 contest, Rybkin is unlikely to score more than a few percentage points against the widely popular Putin. Moscow media have reacted with incredulity to earlier explanations of his disappearance.
Rybkin, a former speaker of parliament and negotiator with Chechen rebels, said he decided during his captivity he would remain in the presidential race come what may.
"I decided that I didn't care about my reputation or whatever might happen to me and that I would do all I could to prevent all those incompetents and president Putin from destroying my country," he said.
"From today I am launching an election campaign from here, from abroad," he said.
Rybkin has been backed by exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who launches periodic attacks on Putin from his base in Britain, where he has been awarded political asylum.
Berezovsky, who did not take a place set aside for him at Friday's news conference, expressed surprise at Rybkin's disappearance this week and said that unless a reasonable explanation was given his political career was over. Rybkin said he would remain in western Europe until after the elections to ensure the safety of his family. But unlike Berezovsky, he had no intention of seeking asylum and pledged to return to Russia whatever the result of the election.
When asked if he still had Berezovsky's support, Rybkin replied that the Berezovsky-sponsored Liberal Russia party continued to back his candidature.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS