A Russian millionaire politician confessed to shooting and killing a man he allegedly mistook for a bear.
The state-owned news agency RIA reported that Igor Redkin had accidentally shot a man outside a garbage dump near the village of Ozernovsky in the Ust-Bolsheretsky district.
The man died in hospital after the shooting, which occurred on August 2, the news agency added.
Igor Redkin, a member of ruling United Russia led by President Vladimir Putin, was served a two-month house arrest sentence as a temporary, restrictive measure.
His crime was reported by the Investigative Committee’s regional chief executive officer on August 6, but it took Redkin four days to confess to shooting the man.
On August 10, the wealthy politician told authorities that he had shot the garbage dump while trying to scare off a bear when he unintentionally killed the man.
The allegedly accidental shooting was the second disastrous incident Redkin faced in recent days.
On Thursday, eight people were killed after a helicopter owned by Redkin’s private company crashed into a lake in the Kamchatka peninsula, located in far eastern Russia, RIA reported.
Redkin, known for being one of the wealthiest deputies in Kamchatka, owns an expensive fleet of helicopters through the Vityaz-Aero company.
The Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM)’s press service in Kamchatka said on Thursday: “at 00:50 am Moscow time on August 12, 2021, information was received about a hard landing of the Mi-8 helicopter of the Vityaz-Aero company in the area of the Kuril Lake of the Kronotsky Reserve,” a state news agency TASS reported.
According to the RIA, the Russian Defense Ministry responded quickly to the emergency, sending a Mi-8 helicopter and three underwater vehicles to the site.
Citing the Defense Ministry, RIA said eight people had been saved, but eight people are feared to have died.
The tragic news came when Redkin was expelled from the United Russia party, which supports Russian President Putin, and charged under the article “murder.”
Deputy Secretary of the party’s general council, State Duma deputy Yevgeny Revenko told the media that the party has a policy of suspending the membership to any member involved in a criminal case even if it is a “negligent murder.”
Authorities reported Redkin’s two-month house arrest ended on October 6.
