5 Mar 2018 19:53

Disorderly conduct case opened against man who threw water at Sobchak - police

MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - An administrative case on disorderly conduct has been opened against the man, who doused Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak with water in Moscow on Sunday, the press service for the main police department for Moscow told Interfax.

"An administrative case on the charge of disorderly conduct has been opened against individual, who threw water in the face of Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak near the building No. 40 in Leningradsky Avenue on March 4, 2018," the press service said.

Disorderly conduct is punishable by an administrative fine from 500 to 1,000 rubles or administrative arrest up to 15 days.

Sobchak's press service said earlier that on March 4, the man pushed her "while she was exiting Peter's Palace, where an event on the occasion of Mikhail Gorbachev's birthday had taken place," in Moscow. "The man doused Sobchak with water and pushed her so hard she fell," it said.

Moscow City Duma Speaker Alexei Shaposhnikov apologized to Sobchak for the incident on the same day. "I sincerely apologize to Ksenia Anatolyevna. Today's incident is a provocation and act of hooliganism. I am confident that law enforcement agencies will handle the incident and those guilty will be punished accordingly," Shaposhnikov said on his Facebook account.

"The young man who did it is a trainee at the Moscow City Duma, he is neither a staff member of the Moscow City Duma, nor my aide," he said.

On Monday, Sobchak said that Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin apologized to her for the attack on her committed by a Moscow City Duma trainee on Sunday.