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RF Investigation Committee probing into fire at CPRF office in Lyubertsy

Communists say the fire was set intentionally

MOSCOW, November 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s Investigation Committee has launched a probe into the fire at the office of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) in the town of Lyubertsy outside Moscow, a committee spokesman told Itar-Tass on Monday.

“Overnight to November 19, a fire was reported at a building in the town of Lyubertsy that housed election headquarters of candidates running for seats in the Moscow Regional Duma [legislature], and a number of commercial and public organizations. The Moscow region administration of the Russian Investigations Committee is conducting a pre-investigation check,” the spokesman said.

According to earlier reports, the fire in the two-storey building, that apart from the CPRF office houses a cadastre office, the Union of Pensioners, the Society of the Disabled, consumed an area of 50 square meters. The roof of the building partially collapsed.

Communists say the fire was set intentionally. Communists refer to their fellow party member who was in the building at the moment. “First, he smelled a distinct smell of gasoline and later he saw the entire first floor catching fire,” they said.

“Communists of the Moscow region are sure this is a political offense. There all the grounds to say that. A day before the fire, the party office received a regular issue of the Podmoskovnaya Pravda newspaper with a number of articles dedicated to the situation around the sale of land plots and social facilities in the town of Lyubertsy and the Lyubertsy district. Local communists are sure that as soon as the information reached local authorities the latter ordered to set the party office on fire to destroy all the copies of the newspaper,” the Moscow regional CPRF branch said in a statement posted on its website.

Communists urge local police to probe into the incident and to establish and punish those behind and involved in the crime.