- Title: RUSSIA: BOMB BLAST WOUNDS VALERY SHANTSEV, FRONT-RUNNER IN MOSCOW LOCAL ELECTIONS
- Date: 7th June 1996
- Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JUNE 7, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV EXTERIORS BUILDING WHERE SHANTSEV LIVES 0.04 2. LV WOMAN CLOSING CURTAINS IN WINDOW 0.09 3. LV DESTROYED CAR AND DEBRIS OUTSIDE BUILDING 0.15 4. SLV SOLDIERS CLEARING DEBRIS 0.23 5. MV POLICE INVESTIGATORS AT THE SCENE, SOLDIER SEARCHING UNDERNEATH CAR 0.31 6.
- Embargoed: 22nd June 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
- City:
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVAD873DOO4D0BY42Y7654LCHRRD
- Story Text: - INTRO: Politics by violence returned to Moscow streets on Friday when a remotely controlled bomb wounded a front-runner in local elections scheduled for June 16. The victim, Valery Shantsev, a supporter of President Yeltsin, is widely tipped to win the powerful post as deputy mayor of Moscow.
-------------------------------------------------------- Valery Shantsev, a running-mate of Moscow's popular reformist mayor in the June 16 election, was badly injured in an explosion on Friday (June 7) in what officials described as an attempt to sabotage polls in the capital.
Police said Shantsev, 49, was rushed to hospital with burns and shrapnel injuries after a remote-control bomb went off at the entrance of his central Moscow apartment block. Shantsev's bodyguard and a woman passer-by were also in hospital with minor injuries.
An Federal Security Bureau (FSB) duty officer said the device was detonated by remote control as Shantsev and an aide left a central Moscow apartment block early in the morning. A woman walking her dog nearby was also hurt.
Shantsev, the head of Moscow's southern administrative district, is a former Communist Party official who emerged from obscurity when Moscow mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, chose him as his deputy in his re-election bid.
Luzhkov is a strong supporter of President Boris Yeltsin, who is running for a second term in a national election on June 16. The popular Moscow mayor has little opposition in the local poll, but the vote might have been cancelled if Shantsev died.
The law says a candidate for mayor cannot run without a deputy and Luzhkov would not have had time to name a new number two.
The attack on Shantsev appeared to be the first serious assault before the Moscow and the national polls.
Vasily Shakhnovski, Charge d'Affaires of the Moscow Mayor's office, said that Mayor's Office considers it as "an act of terrorism aimed to disrupt Moscow's election".
Shakhnovski said that "if this act were successful, Mayor Luzhkov would have to withdraw his candidacy, according to the law".
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