Yesterday it became known that the latest examination in the case of the Governor of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Vladimir Butov, had been completed. Let us recall that the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office accuses Mr. Butov, his deputy and the driver of beating the Petrogradsky district traffic police inspector Alexei Popov. Mr. Popov, in turn, changed his testimony during the investigation, saying that he had injured himself. According to Kommersant's information, experts came to the conclusion that the traffic police inspector was indeed beaten.
As Kommersant previously wrote, on April 11, 2003, Sergeant Alexey Popov stopped a Ford car in which Mr. Butov, his deputy Yuri Ermolaev and driver Vladimir Chigirinov were inside. During the document check, a fight broke out, after which the inspector went to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion, bruises and abrasions. The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office opened a criminal case regarding violence against a government official. During the investigation, Mr. Popov renounced his initial testimony, stating that he himself hit his head on the car pillar and scratched himself for hours while drunk.
When the case came to the Petrograd court, the defendants' lawyers asked the judge to send the case for examination (before this, four examinations were carried out in the case, and all of them confirmed the investigation's version of the beating). Experts from the city forensic medical examination bureau came to the conclusion that the victim Popov was indeed drunk, and he was diagnosed with a concussion by mistake. The now state prosecutor did not like these conclusions, who asked the judge to order another, final, examination, since the contradictions between the first four and fifth examinations were considered “irremovable.”
The sixth examination was entrusted to employees of the forensic medical examination bureau of the Leningrad Region Health Committee. Yesterday Kommersant learned its results. Experts came to the conclusion that the victim Popov was hit in the face at least twice, that he received a concussion and was not drunk. Doctors assessed the injuries inflicted on the victim as “minor harm to health.” In addition, they refuted the sergeant’s version that he injured himself. “The complex of head injuries, including a concussion, could not have been caused by a blow from one’s own hand,” the forensic doctors’ report states.
Thus, Butov’s case has again acquired the lost intrigue: after all, if the judge bases his decision on the results of the latest examination, the Nenets governor’s chances of being completely acquitted (which is what his defense is trying to achieve) will be reduced to zero. However, there is no doubt that the defenders of Butov and the other defendants will try to get a new examination ordered at the next court hearing. Kommersant continues to monitor developments.
Dmitry Marakulin

Newspaper "Kommersant St. Petersburg" No. 238 dated December 21, 2004, p. 3

Experts have restored the intrigue to Butov’s case