Head Of Russian Central Election Commission Attacked In Her Home Outside Moscow
Ella Pamfilova, the head of Russia’s Central Election Commission. IMAGE: Vitaly Belousov/RIA Novosti
On September 6, a masked intruder broke into the home of Russian Central Election Commission (RCEC) head Ella Pamfilova outside Moscow through a window and repeatedly assaulted her with a taser before fleeing, the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Following the incident, the attacker was detained and identified as Bakhyt Karabalayev, a citizen of Kazakhstan. He admitted guilt during questioning.
“During questioning, Karabalayev has admitted he is guilty of committing the crime, giving an account of its circumstances. He explained that he chose a house to burgle at random, as it was close to the place where he spent the night. The attacker was not aware of who lives in the house.”
On September 9, Moscow’s Basmanny Court arrested Karabalayev.
“The court has ruled to satisfy the appeal of the prosecution regarding Karabalayev Bakhyt Azhigulovich, accused of committing a crime under Article 162 Part 3 of the Russian Criminal Code (Burglary), arresting him until November 6,” judge Natalya Dudar said.
Earlier, multiple pro-opposition media outlets linked the attack with Russia’s September 8 regional and local elections. However, it appears that this was not the issue.
An interesting thing is that the incident once again allowed to take a closer look at personal stance and attitude of the part of Russian buerocrats and politicians that describe themselves as the ‘new Russian aristocracy’.
“If a person just came when I was at home, he rang, knocked on the door, if he was just so hungry. <…> Well, there’s no problem at all to feed a person,” Pamfilova told state media some time after the incident.
She added that she could have offered him some work.
“Maybe I would have swept something somewhere, I would have earned a couple of rubles there for bread, if that’s true,” Pamfilova concluded.
These remarks publicly show that the RCEC head sees herself as a member of the elite part of the society that can provide some peasants with work or food if she has a will to do so.
Over the past years, this kind of remarks has become something common for representatives of the so-called Russian aristocracy. In some cases, this behaviour even led to large-scale media scandals.
In August, Irina Alashkevich, the Irkutsk regional administration’s spokeswoman, has caused controversy by comparing victims of this summer’s historic Siberian floods to thugs and boms in a leaked audio file. The regional official was not happy because she had to visit the area of disaster because of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the very same area.
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