“Absolutely sober”: Rashkin makes excuses for confusing a moose with a wild boar
Yesterday, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation submitted to the State Duma a proposal to lift parliamentary immunity from communist Valery Rashkin, who a month ago was detained in the forest near Saratov with a butchered elk carcass killed by poaching. The Credentials Commission will consider the submission by November 23.
And last night, Rashkin, who had been silent about the incident all this time, posted a video on the Internet entitled “I have nothing to fear and hide from society.” He said that now “the time has come to dot the i’s publicly and openly.”
In the video, the scandalous communist does not look like himself. Known for his harsh speeches at unauthorized rallies and in parliament, Rfshkin voices his justifications in an unctuous tone in a sing-song manner that reminded viewers of either a radio play or the program “Visiting a Fairy Tale.”
Rashkin began his story about the hunt by mentioning the “degraded socio-economic and socio-political situation,” the difficult election campaign and the “intense struggle,” which affected his “health and condition.” This is how he explained his trip to his friends in the Saratov forest.
The communist described the events of the ill-fated day by the hour. They arrived at the place at 15.00. The friends were drinking, and Rashkin himself only “had a snack and drank tea.” The feast lasted an hour and a half, when the deputy was allegedly informed that he could go hunting and there was permission to do so. After that, he drove around the forest for more than three hours with binoculars and a thermal imager until he met a moose, which he mistook... for a wild boar.
“Through binoculars, I saw the silhouette of some animal standing half-sideways towards me among the hummocks with its head lowered into the tall grass. He took the tripod out of the car, unsheathed the carbine, loaded it and peered into the scope. Due to poor visibility, I saw at a distance of about 250 meters the silhouette of an artiodactyl, similar in appearance to a large wild boar.
I fired two shots towards the silhouette of the animal, and after some time the silhouette fell. Having reached the place, I discovered that among the hummocks and tall dry grass there lay the body of an elk. I returned to the car, put the carbine and tripod in the case and drove to the killed elk. In the car there were knives and an axe, a box and a saucepan. It took some time to cut up the carcass on site. Fatigue and bad weather did not allow us to do without outside help for loading,” Rashkin said.
He did not explain why he decided to cut up the corpse of the animal, which turned out to be an elk prohibited from hunting. But he admitted that his friends were so drunk by that moment that only Alexander Gnosheva managed to wake up the deputy. Together they cut up the carcass and went home, but were detained by foresters.
“The suddenness, fatigue and confusion did not allow us to appreciate the whole picture of the rapidly developing events,” says Rashkin, claiming that he was afraid to set Alexander up.
This is precisely why he explains that he composed a story for the foresters about the carcass of an animal accidentally found in the forest. The communist did not explain the episode with the hidden gun at all.
Rashkin called himself a “victim of a coincidence” (“thinking that I was shooting a wild boar, I caught a moose”) and “a planned provocation.” Therefore, he allegedly refused a medical examination, being absolutely sober. Nevertheless, after an argument with the foresters, he did not dare to get behind the wheel and called his friends from Saratov.
“I am ready and will defend the truth and my rights by all available means. I will take measures to make amends for the harm I unwittingly caused to nature. To do this, I have already tried to find a farm where I could buy moose in order to at least somehow compensate for the damage,” Rashkin said.
His explanations did not satisfy even his comrades, some of whom now find themselves in an awkward position after spending a month promoting the version that “the moose was planted.”
“A short guide to hunting from Valery Rashkin: on the left is elk, on the right is wild boar. Don’t get confused,” TV presenter Tina Kandelaki sneers about this in her Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, an impromptu memorial to the killed elk appeared outside the Communist Party of the Russian Federation office in Moscow.
“On the 9th day after the killing of an elk during a hunt with the participation of communist Valery Rashkin, unknown activists brought a funeral wreath, a “portrait” of the animal with a black ribbon, carnations and candles to the headquarters of the Communist Party,” reports URA.RU.
“I’m interested in one thing. Is it really true that this poor moose cow was fed millet for three days? There is an elk and a moose cow, there are no more in the area, and there never will be again. If so, is this hunting? It's like killing a cow. She'll wear it, she'll get used to you, and then you'll shoot her in the face. How is this possible? – political scientist Nikolai Platoshkin is perplexed.
“And if Rashkin, wittingly or unwittingly, was set up by the friends with whom he was vacationing in the area of the Saratov Bald Mountains, then he, in turn, set up thousands of people who went to rallies at his call, and later - those who defended him all these three weeks, until he stubbornly stuck to his original version that he allegedly found a ready-made butchered carcass in the forest. Even if he “blurted out,” as he says, without thinking (which is generally not appropriate for a professional politician), there was a subsequent publication in Ekho Moskvy that substantiated precisely this version. And then three weeks of silence, when Rashkin’s supporters were forced to repeat words that he himself had now renounced,” writes publicist Boris Kagarlitsky in his Telegram channel.
Only journalists from liberal media reacted with understanding to Rashkin, and he began giving interviews to them early in the morning. On air, the deputy looked like he had already gotten rid of the ingratiating intonations of his nightly video message. The interviewers themselves contributed to this. For example, the presenters of Echo of Moscow thanked Rashkin for a long time for “shifting his schedule” and agreeing to come.
“Our conversation may turn out to be very difficult, sorry in advance. This is the situation. As your voter, this knife is doubly close to my heart,” Alexander Plyushchev admitted before the interview.
English version :: Read in English "Absolutely sober": Rashkin justifies mistaking a moose for a wild boar