MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma has rejected a motion by one of its factions - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation - to investigate Anatoly Serdyukov during the period he held the position of Russia’s defense minister. The idea received support from 199 legislators, falling 27 votes short of the required majority of 226 votes, with 35 nays and one abstention.

Serdyukov was officially charged with negligence in December 2013. He pleaded not guilty. The former minister was pardoned in 2014, and the criminal case against him was closed. Earlier the prosecutor’s office reached the conclusion that former head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s property relations department Yevgeniya Vasilyeva was misleading Serdyukov.

The Communists have twice tried to launch that parliamentary investigation. In February 2014, the State Duma did not agree to hold it saying criminal investigation was being conducted against Serdyukov.

Later the Communists submitted the initiative on the parliamentary probe regarding the activity of the ex-minister again, but on January 14, 2015 the State Duma committee on constitutional legislation and state construction recommended rejecting it and did not put it to the plenary session although it was in line with the regulations.