United Russia General Council Presidium recommended to expel from party head of Chuvashia Ignatyev - source
MOSCOW. Jan 27 (Interfax) - The United Russia Ethics Commission on Monday recommended that the General Council Presidium expel head of Chuvashia Mikhail Ignatyev from the party, a source in the party told Interfax.
"A decision was made in the commission's meeting to recommend that the General Council Presidium expel the head of Chuvashia from the party," the source told the agency on Monday.
Secretary of the party's General Council Andrei Turchak said last week that he was outraged by the way Ignatyev had behaved at the ceremony for presenting the keys for new firefighting vehicles to Emergency Situations Ministry officials. He also said then there was a probability that Ignatyev would be expelled from the party.
On Friday, the media circulated a video showing Ignatyev forcing an Emergency Situations officer to jump in order to get the keys to new fire engines. The clip shows the governor of Chuvashia raising his hand with the keys so high that the officer had to jump to get them.
The website of the Chuvash governor said that a ceremony had been held in Cheboksary for the inspection of emergency and rescue equipment and the handing over of keys to new fire engines to fire-rescue officials in several parts of the republic.
The Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax, "[Our] ministry has negatively perceived this instance of unethical behavior by the head of the republic of Chuvashia. Minister Yevgeny Zinichev noted that such behavior is unacceptable from someone of such a high rank."