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Police investigate billionaire ex-senator over shooting incident at Moscow hotel

Umar Dzhabrailov is now facing up to five years in prison

MOSCOW, August 30. /TASS/. Police have initiated criminal proceedings against former Russian legislator and billionaire Umar Dzhabrailov over his shooting a hotel ceiling in downtown Moscow.

"Late on August 29, police received a report that a hotel guest located in the center of the city had been disobeying accommodation rules. Police officers arriving on the scene detained a man who had fired shots up into the air from an honorary pistol belonging to him," reported the press service of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Moscow department.

A law enforcement source told TASS that the detained individual is business tycoon Umar Dzhabrailov. He said the former senator had opened fire at a hotel near the Kremlin. "Neither him nor anyone among his numerous guards put up resistance during the arrest," the source said.

According to police, criminal charges were opened under Article 213 of the Russian Criminal Code ("Hooliganism"). Nobody was injured as a result of the shooting incident.

From 2004 to 2009, Russian billionaire Dzhabrailov served in the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) from Chechnya. He is chairman of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art’s guardianship board, an honorary scholar at the Russian Academy of Arts, vice president of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia as well as founder and head of the Association of Entrepreneurs for the Development of Business Patriotism (Avanti).

The businessman is now facing up to five years in prison. Article 213 also envisages compulsory or corrective labor or alternatively compulsory community service.