St. Petersburg resident Nikolai Shkalin, 72, became one of the first real victims of the ongoing parliamentary campaign, sustaining a broken hand at a local rally crashed by a candidate of the ruling party.
Several city media outlets reported that Shkalin was thrown down from the stage by bodyguards of the candidate, Maxim Dolgopolov, during Sunday's rally, where some 700 residents protested development plans for the district.
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Several protesters, all young opposition activists, were detained and face hooliganism charges, the Neva24 web site
Dolgopolov denounced the incident as provocation and said he did not see the attack on Shkalin, which was not caught on
He did not identify the alleged provocateurs, but said in a blog
No officials commented on the story Monday.
Earlier this month, an alleged United Russia official was booed off stage at a concert of the veteran rock band Mashina Vremeni in Kemerovo. The group later denounced his appearance as provocation.