A 2-year-old girl might take a LUKoil vice president to court after her father, who was suing the executive over her mother's death in a traffic accident, died last week, a lawyer said Tuesday.
Lawyer Igor Trunov said he was drawing up papers to name the girl, Nadya Sidelnikova, as the plaintiff in the wrongful death lawsuit against LUKoil vice president Anatoly Barkov after her father, Sergei Sidelnikov, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The girl's mother, Vera Sidelnikova, 35, and grandmother, Olga Alexandrina, 72, both renowned gynecologists, were killed when their Citroen car collided head-on with a Mercedes owned by Barkov on traffic-clogged Leninsky Prospekt in southern Moscow in February.
Police initially blamed the Citroen for the crash and closed the case, but witnesses said Barkov's Mercedes hit the Citroen after illegally pulling into the oncoming lane to avoid the traffic jam.
A wave of public outrage prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to order Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to investigate the crash in March.
With Sidelnikov's death, the police investigation into the crash might be closed, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified police official. Investigators have not established whether Barkov's driver was guilty in the crash, the official added.
Barkov, who in June asked for police protection after receiving a death threat in connection with the crash, has called for a thorough investigation. LUKoil, the country's largest private oil producer, has said it believes the initial version set forth by the police.
Trunov told The Moscow Times that he spoke with the police investigator in the case Tuesday and was offered assurances that the investigation was still under way.
Sidelnikov, 47, was the sole complainant in the lawsuit filed against Barkov, and Trunov said he was helping the 2-year-old’s grandparents to obtain the necessary papers to become her legal guardians and to represent her in court.
Trunov also said "a question remains” about the death of his client, whom he described as a “young and healthy person.”
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