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Retired officer threatening election commission members with knife to be examined by psychiatrist

Having cast his vote, the man approached the secretary of the local election commission, a 22-year-old girl, and put a kitchen knife to her throat

SARATOV, October 14 (Itar-Tass) —— A criminal case has been opened over knife threats to the secretary and the chairman of a polling station in the Saratov region, a spokesman for the Russian interior ministry’s regional department told Itar-Tass on Sunday.

According to the spokesman, an elderly man who came to vote at a polling station located in secondary school number 66 in the Volzhsky district. Having cast his vote, the man approached the secretary of the local election commission, a 22-year-old girl, and put a kitchen knife to her throat. The attacker, a retired army colonel, was video shooting his actions. The commission’s chairwoman offered to exchange the girl for herself and the man agreed. He spoke about “arbitrariness in law enforcement agencies, lack of response to his reports and urged to summon the regional security service chief,” the police spokesman said. Policemen who arrived at the polling station managed to talk the man to release the woman and surrender the knife. Later, he said his actions had nothing to do with the elections.

The man, a former lecturer at one of military schools, was detained. He will soon be subject to psychiatric examination.