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The Russian Investigative Committee starts probe against well-known blogger accused by former wife of child abuse

A procedural decision – whether to institute criminal proceedings or not will be made on the results of the check

MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) — The Russian Investigative Committee (SK) has launched pre-investigation checks against the known blogger Adagamov who is accused by his former wife of sexually harassing a child, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

“The Investigative Committee has organised a procedural check on the application of blogger Rustem Adagamov’s former wife Tatyana Delsal, who appealed to the SK through the media. In her interviews with Izvestia newspaper and Russia Today TV Tatyana Delsal says that Adagamov, when living in Norway, for several years committed sexual offenses against an underage girl,” said Markin.

A procedural decision - whether to institute criminal proceedings or not will be made on the results of the check.

Earlier, several media outlets posted a video and an interview in which the former wife of blogger Tatiana Delsal accuses Adagamov of molesting a 12-year-old Norwegian girl, the daughter of their friends. The blogger himself has not considered it necessary to turn to law enforcement agencies with a libel report and declined to comment, writing in his Twitter micro-blog: “What’s the use commenting on this? There is nothing worse than a resentful ex-wife.” Adagamov added a little later, “And the last thing. You guys realise that I’m a man so I cannot say anything bad about by ex-wife. I’ve lived with her 20 years. So I prefer to keep silent.”

This week, about a dozen human rights organisations wrote a joint letter to RF Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika and head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin to check the information provided by Delsal.

Rustem Adagamov is member of the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition. In addition, he is a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture. However, because of the scandal Adagamov’s name has been removed from the list of members of the Public Council at the Ministry of Culture website.

Adagamov became known through his blog in LiveJournal, where he wrote under the name drugoi. Since 2008, the journal reached the top of the blogs and often was in the first place. His blog has about 80 thousand regular readers.

In 2009, Adagamov was for the first time admitted to an event with the participation of President Dmitry Medvedev in the Kremlin.

After the paedophilia accusations appeared, several major companies working with Adagamov have not extended his contract.

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