A former gangster has identified the masterminds of the brutal beating of environmental activist Konstantin Fetisov, who campaigned against the construction of an $8 billion highway through the Moscow region’s Khimki forest, Kommersant reported Monday.
Investigators have blamed the attack on Andrei Chernyshyov, a department head at Khimki City Hall’s property management committee. He and five others are currently in pre-trial detention.
Kommersant did not say who the unidentified former gangster had named as the masterminds of the November attack, which left Fetisov in a coma, but said he had corroborated investigators’ version. He also claims to have known other people involved in the attack personally and been privy to their preparations, it said.
Chernyshyov’s lawyer dismissed the allegations, and a Khimki city spokeswoman refused to comment, the report said.
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