Denying a carousel ride to the children of Russia’s top investigator may land a Sochi businessman in prison on formally unrelated charges, State Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein said Tuesday.
Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has complained to his Krasnodar region colleagues about a carousel ride in Riviera Park in Sochi, Khinshtein, a deputy with United Russia, said in a story published in the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.
Bastrykin was unable to buy tickets for a single ride for his 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, with the cashier at the park demanding that he buy a bonus card covering all rides, Khinshtein wrote.
Bastrykin left a note in the park’s complaint book, but he also asked the head of the Investigative Committee's Krasnodar branch to "deal [with the matter] on principle," wrote Khinshtein, who began as a muckraking journalist before joining the Duma.
The alleged incident took place Jan. 9 and was followed by a number of inspections culminating in a criminal case opened later that month against Viktor Sinyavsky, head of the company Karusel Tsentr, which leased the rides in the park, Khinshtein said.
Sinyavsky is accused of operating a carousel ride past its service life and faces up to two years in prison on charges of providing services that pose risks to the life and health of customers, regional investigators said in a statement.
The case against Sinyavsky was closed by late March, but Krasnodar prosecutors have recently demanded further investigation, Khinshtein wrote.
None of the parties involved have commented on allegations linking the probe to Bastrykin's complaint.
A spokeswoman for the Krasnodar region branch of the Investigative Committee redirected an inquiry to the committee's federal office, which did not return a faxed request for comment by Tuesday.
Neither Riviera Park's director nor Sinyavsky were available for comment Tuesday. Repeated calls to Khinshtein's cell phone went unanswered.