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Russia opens criminal probe into attempt on Russian national’s life in Odessa tragedy

The criminal probe was opened on charges of an attempt on the life of people, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin says
Fire at the regional trade union council building in Odessa, May 2, 2014  ITAR-TASS/Andrei Borovsky
Fire at the regional trade union council building in Odessa, May 2, 2014
© ITAR-TASS/Andrei Borovsky

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe into an attempt on the life of a Russian national during the Odessa tragedy on May 2, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Wednesday.

“The Main Investigative Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal probe against persons from the Right Sector and Maidan Self-Defense radically-minded nationalist armed formations and fans of Ukrainian football clubs and officials of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry and Security Service,” the spokesman said.

The criminal probe was opened on charges of an attempt on the life of people, he added.

“The Investigative Committee intends to identify all the persons complicit in the commitment of these crimes and take measures within the existing legal framework to bring them to criminal account,” Markin said.

What happened in Odessa

Riots broke out in the city of Odessa in the afternoon on May 2 after a massive brawl in Grecheskaya Street. Its instigators were football fans coming from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov, Right Sector radicals and representatives of the so-called Maidan self-defense from Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, who staged a march in Odessa streets. They have stirred up clashes with federalization supporters, setting on fire the regional House of Trade Unions and a tent camp where a signup campaign was under way for a referendum on Ukrainian federalization and granting the state language status to the Russian language. According to latest reports, 46 were killed and more than 200 sought medical aid after the Odessa massacre.