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Putin Awards State Officials Beaten by Footballers in Moscow Cafe

Denis Pak (Anton Novoderzhkin / TASS)

President Vladimir Putin has given state awards to two civil servants who were allegedly beaten by jailed star footballers Alexander Kokorin and Pavel Mamayev last week.

Kokorin and Mamayev were captured on CCTV last Monday allegedly attacking Trade Ministry official Denis Pak and head of the NAMI auto institute Sergei Gaysin at a Moscow cafe.

Kokorin and Mamayev were placed in pre-trial detention until Dec. 8 for the incident that also included a second attack on a news anchor’s driver earlier on Oct. 8.

Putin awarded head of the Trade Ministry’s automobile and railway construction department Pak the “For Merit to the Fatherland” order, 2nd class, according to a decree published on Monday.

Gaysin received the Order of Alexander Nevsky for advancements in domestic automaking, the decree said.

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