Teplischev states there are proofs of Astrakhan Mayor's involvement in dubious land deals

The Astrakhan independent journalist Oleg Teplischev has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he possesses plenty of documents confirming involvement of the Astrakhan Mayor Sergey Bozhenov in seizure of land plots and further awarding them to his relatives. Valentin Bogdan, lawyer of the movement "For Human Rights", talks about a possible links between the incident with Deputy Shabanov and the journalist's investigation. Bozhenov has not yet commented Teplischev's statements, while Shabanov insists that it was the journalist who had attacked him.

"I carried out a thorough analysis, confirming the existence of corruption schemes; several packs of documents are now with the lawyer of the Russian public movement "For Human Rights". There are documents confirming Sergey Bozhenov registers real estates to his wife's companies, then, gets possession of these plots and kicks people out. There's enough information to bring a criminal action against him. I showed these documents to militiamen in Astrakhan," Oleg Teplischev said.

Valentin Bogdan, a lawyer with the Russian public movement "For Human Rights" has confirmed possession of documentary evidences.

Part of the documents concern Mr Teplischev directly. According to the lawyer, the journalist is now under pressure; they try to evict him from his apartment.

"There are several reasons: first and foremost, the election campaign in Astrakhan held with great violations, which was also covered by Teplischev. He had already been detained and kept in custody. The Court then sentenced him to conditional imprisonment. Moreover, despite the confirmed facts that journalists Teplischev and Yaschenko had been beaten by Deputy Shabanov, the latter filed a complaint; and they start putting pressure," said the lawyer.

In his turn, Rifkat Shabanov, Deputy of the Astrakhan Regional Duma from the "Edinaya Rossiya" (United Russia) Party, informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Teplischev had committed, together with another journalist, "provocative actions against the members of the 'Edinaya Rossiya' Party" during the elections.

Now, according to Shabanov's story, Teplischev avoids justice and failed to appear before the court for more than thirty times.

"Shabanov was beaten. There are eyewitnesses; we have documents from traumatic surgery and forensic examination. Teplischev has nothing. He has a dictaphone record - partly authentic, partly fabricated. But when a man is punched in his stomach and has his arm twisted, what should he say - would you be so kind?" the deputy asked.

Meanwhile, according to the information received by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from open sources, in 2006, Deputy of the Astrakhan Duma Rifkat Shabanov headed the Astrakhan City Boxing Federation.