Outcry at Putin Ally Over Deadly Crash
The daughter of a powerful Siberian official is facing a police investigation after an internet outcry that she was not going to be charged over a horrific car crash that left one woman dead and another paralyzed.
In a sign of the growing power of the internet as a mobilizing force in Russia, police have issued a statement insisting that Anna Shavenkova would be investigated over the crash after all.
CCTV footage of the crash aired on the news in early December. The video clip was forgotten until a local news site in Irkutsk revealed that the driver of the car, Shavenkova, was a political consultant to United Russia, and her mother Lyudmila is the head of the regional electoral committee. The website alleged that because of her important connections, Shavenkova was being treated as a witness rather than a suspect in the accident, and was liable to escape without punishment.
According to Viktor Grigorov, the lawyer representing the family, a range of procedural violations occurred during the investigation; Shavenkova has not been questioned or had her driver's license revoked. Grigorov said: "It's worrying that not only has the investigator allowed illegal actions or simple inaction regarding this case, but a large number of serious mistakes have been made which could be accidental or could be deliberate."