The Moscow branch of the pro-Kremlin liberal Right Cause party has fired its head, celebrity lawyer Igor Trunov, over the “unsatisfactory results” of the branch's work, the party said on its web site Monday.
Right Cause did not elaborate on the reasons for Trunov's sacking but said several other members of the 24-member political council of the Moscow branch were also fired during a Friday conference.
Political analyst Vyacheslav Smirnov, a member of the party's Moscow and federal political councils, was made the branch's acting head.
Trunov said his dismissal was staged by supporters of Andrei Bogdanov, the former head of one of the three parties that merged to form Right Cause in 2008, Interfax reported Monday.
Trunov promised to appeal in court because of alleged legal violations in his dismissal but said he saw logic in his removal. “I'm not that relevant in Moscow right now," he said. "It was my stance against [former Mayor Yury] Luzhkov that was relevant. But it was an interesting political experience."
Trunov, 49, made a name for himself representing victims of terrorist attacks and disasters. He is currently suing the Moscow city government on behalf of relatives of six students who drowned during a trip to Azov Sea in July.
