Longest-serving Murmansk Communist politician behind bars
More than 10 days after he was detained, the charges against Gennady Stepakhno remain unknown.
The politician, who has served in the Murmansk regional duma for 16 years, was detained by police on 9 October. He is now held in custody in Severomorsk, the headquarter city of the Northern Fleet, the Russian version of the Barents Observer reports.
Gennady Stepakhno was the leader of the regional Communist Party for a number of years
The substance of the charges remains unclear. According to available information, his term of pre-trial detention is two months.
The detention came three days after Stepakhno’s 76th birthday. According to RBC, a Moscow-based newspaper, the former deputy will be represented by a lawyer hired by his family. The Central Committee of the Communist Party in Moscow has been informed of the situation.
The detention came against the backdrop of an internal party conflict: at its most recent meeting, Oleg Ryabtsev, First Secretary of the Murmansk City Communists, initiated disciplinary proceedings against Stepakhno, demanding his expulsion from the party.
Gennady Stepakhno was elected to the Murmansk Regional Duma for its IV, V, VI, and VII convocations. For many years, he led the Communist faction and served as Deputy Speaker of the regional parliament. In the seventh convocation, he was the oldest member of the assembly.
Stepakhno served on committees dealing with budget and finance, security and the military-industrial complex, and ecology, fisheries, and agriculture. He did not enter the new, eighth convocation of the Murmansk Regional Duma elected in September this year.
In his public statements, Stepakhno raised issues of violations of electoral legislation and criticised the authorities’ actions, which, in his view, hindered the Communist Party’s ability to compete with United Russia.
