Peskov confirms absence of criminal cases against ex-Moscow mayor
MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - A criminal investigation has not been started against former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the Business FM radio station.
"As far as I understand, someone said something incorrectly [during the president's press conference on Thursday]," he said.
"[The president] was simply pelted with questions about Luzhkov's projects. Answering the first part of the question, he said that not all of them would be brought to an end," Peskov said.
"Nothing was said about Luzhkov personally," he said.
Luzhkov said earlier that he was not aware of any criminal cases allegedly opened against him.
"I am absolutely unaware of any criminal cases in relation to me," Luzhkov told Interfax on Thursday.
"No criminal cases have ever been opened against me," he said.
"I was really perplexed by this information. I fail to understand what this is all about. Perhaps President Vladimir Putin has taken me for someone else?" he said.
Luzhkov's lawyer Alexei Melnikov also said he had not heard before that any criminal cases had been opened against the ex-Moscow mayor.
"I have no information about any criminal case in which Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov is figuring in any procedural status. The only case within which he was questioned as a witness is the one concerning Inteco land plots," Melnikov told Interfax, referring to land developed by the Inteco construction firm formerly led by Luzhkov's wife Yelena Baturina.
The lawyer said no one had contacted him to notify him about Luzhkov's prosecution.
"Nobody told me, nobody notified me, and nobody even hinted. If there had been such cases, I would have known," he said.