KALININGRAD, October 12. /TASS/. Footballers and coaches of Russia’s national football team did not discuss the arrest of FC Zenit striker Alexander Kokorin and FC Krasnodar midfielder Pavel Mamaev, head coach Stanislav Cherchesov said on Friday.
"We did not discuss the arrest of Kokorin and Mamaev, not even for a second," he told reporters after the Russian team’s goalless draw with Sweden. "We talked only about the game. I have already said yesterday that it was an unpleasant incident, but you need to understand that I will talk only about things of which I’m in charge, about the national team’s performance."
On Monday morning, Kokorin and Mamaev assaulted a driver of a Mercedes parked near the Peking Hotel in downtown Moscow, beating the man up, in addition to breaking one of the vehicle’s windows and damaging one of the car’s doors. The automobile owner, who is Channel One TV presenter Olga Ushakova, reported the incident to the police.
Several hours later, the footballers beat up a customer at a downtown Moscow cafe after the individual, 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 over the head with a chair and then punching him in the face, inflicting multiple injuries. The victim, Denis Pak, turned out to be a department chief at the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry. In addition to other injuries, he suffered a concussion, which he later reported to the police.
After checks, criminal charges were pressed on both facts under Article 116 of the Russian Criminal Code ("battery"). Detectives later launched new proceedings against the footballers under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Russian Criminal Code for hooliganism in collusion with or committed by an organized group. The athletes are facing up to 7 years behind bars if found guilty.
Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court ruled on Thursday to place them in pretrial custody for two months, until December 8.