Deputy Shirshov was accused of trying to sell a mandate

State Duma deputy from the Communist Party faction Konstantin Shirshov has been formally charged with attempted fraud, the press service of the Investigative Committee of Russia reports .

According to investigators, Shirshov tried to sell the mandate of a State Duma deputy to an entrepreneur for 7.5 million euros. To do this, on July 7, 2011, he met with a businessman at the National Hotel and received 66 million rubles from him. In return, the parliamentarian promised to include the entrepreneur in the federal list of candidates for deputies of the State Duma of the sixth convocation.

Shirshov had three accomplices, the Investigative Committee claims: businessman Vadim Gurzhia, former assistant to Socialist-Revolutionary deputy Konstantin Beschetnov Vladimir Myasin and former head of the protocol department of A Just Russia Leonid Karagod. The court has already issued guilty verdicts against them: Myasin and Gurzhia received 3 years in prison, Karagod - 2.5 years.

During interrogation, Shirshov himself denied all accusations and stated that he happened to be at the National Hotel at the time of transfer of money. He was released on his own recognizance.

In February of this year, Konstantin Shirshov was stripped of his parliamentary immunity at his own request.