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Russian footballer Kokorin arrives at Moscow police station facing hooliganism charges

Kokorin, who has been charged with hooliganism earlier in the week, failed to turn up at a police station at a requested time on Wednesday and was likely to be included in the federal wanted list

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Russian footballer Alexander Kokorin showed up at a Moscow police station on Wednesday night as he was previously ordered to do so facing charges of hooliganism, Irina Volk, a spokeswoman for the Russian Interior Ministry told TASS.

"Alexander Kokorin is currently in a police station to render assistance in a probe," she said.

Kokorin, who has been charged with hooliganism earlier in the week, failed to turn up at a police station at a requested time on Wednesday and was likely to be included in the federal wanted list.

Yury Titov, a spokesman for the Moscow Interior Ministry’s department, announced to journalists earlier in the day that Moscow police launched a criminal investigation in regard to two national football players, Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamaev, on charges of hooliganism.

He said that both footballers were requested to show up at a police department in Moscow to meet with an investigator and answer his questions. The deadline to show up was set at 6:00 p.m. Moscow time (15:00 GMT) and Mamaev arrived before the set time, while Kokorin failed to show up.

According to earlier media reports, FC Zenit striker Alexander Kokorin and FC Krasnodar midfielder Pavel Mamaev beat up one of the customers at a downtown Moscow cafe on Monday morning after the customer, sitting at a table nearby, requested that they conduct themselves in a calmer manner in a public place.

Both footballers assaulted the man hitting him on the head with a chair and then punching him in the face, inflicting numerous injuries. The victim, Denis Pak, turned out to be working as a department chief at the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry. Besides other injuries, he suffered a concussion, which he later reported to the police.

According to media reports, before the incident in the cafe both footballers had reportedly assaulted a driver of a Mercedes near the Peking Hotel in Moscow, beating the man up, in addition to breaking one of the vehicle’s windows and damaging one of the car’s doors.