City police have reopened an investigation into last year's road incident involving the car of a LUKoil vice president that left two women dead, Interfax reported Friday.
In February 2010, a Mercedes owned by Anatoly Barkov collided with a Citroen driven by Olga Alexandrina, a prominent gynecologist, on Leninsky Prospekt in the city's west. Alexandrina and her mother-in-law, doctor Vera Sidelnikova, who was also in the Citroen, died in the crash, while Barkov and his driver escaped unharmed.
City police have blamed Alexandrina for the incident, closing the case last fall. The case sparked much public outrage, with critics accusing police of covering up for Barkov.
Alexandrina's family successfully challenged in the Constitutional Court last month a legal norm allowing investigators to close a case on the death of a suspect without consent from his or her relatives.
Police have not elaborated what charges might be considered in the reopened case. An independent investigation by the Russian Federation of Car Owners found that Barkov's car was to blame, but police have dismissed the findings.
