Turchak about Kashin Case: My Conscience is Pure

The Governor of the Pskov Region Andrei Turchak said in an interview with the newspaper "Province - Pskov", which is incomprehensible to attempt on journalist Oleg Kashin. He gave all the testimony to the investigation and does not consider it necessary to comment on media reports.

"The justified is always guilty. My conscience is absolutely pure, and I do not see the need to throw firewood into this information campaign and work with my comments and work with a second number in someone else's media scene," the governor said. In his opinion, Kashin is "used in a dark."

Turchak considers the pressure on the investigation of the “publication” of protocols, audio recordings, other “textures”. The governor also denied information about the meeting with the alleged organizer of the crime Alexander Gorbunov in the Restaurant “The White Sun of the Desert”. According to Turchak, he never visited this institution at all.

Gorbunov’s abduction did not associate with attempted Kashin, but with an attempt to get a control package of shares of Zaslon holding.

Turchak also noted that his invitation to Kashin to visit Pskov remains in force. “For five years in the region, much has changed. Let it come, we will have the opportunity to look and, looking into the eyes, talk about everything,” the governor said.

Kashin in response said that he was ready to meet with Turchak "only as part of investigative measures." "This is absolute rudeness. I do not think that I should meet with a person who tried to kill me in an unofficial setting," said the journalist of the radio station "Moscow Says." Turchak, "realizing that no one would touch him, mocks not only over the victim, but also over the whole society," Kashin noted.

“The main points for which the Turchak spoke out is to inform that the whole story is fabricated for the sake of“ squeezing ”his enterprise and all the accusations invented,” said Kashin RBC. “But on both points this is a untruth.” The journalist noted that he based his position on the case file. “The conflict at the enterprise may really exist, but this does not cancel the fact that five years ago two employees tried to kill me,” Kashin emphasized.

Previously, the Pskov governor did not make public statements in this case, Kashin recalled. “The fact that he has now performed may indicate that he has become nervous, maybe he has some news that we are not known about,” the journalist suggested.

Meanwhile, on Monday, one of the accused of a crime, Danil Veselov, published an appeal to the court, which also called "an open letter to society and Oleg Kashin." In it, he declares the desire to make a deal with the investigation and expose Turchak and Gorbunov as customers of an attempt on Kashin.

Appeal Danila Veselov:

Veselov has repeatedly stated that the customer of the attack on Kashin was Turchak . He claims that Gorbunov in 2010 ordered the journalist to beat and “injure the limbs” for insulting Turchak. Veselov also reported his meeting with the Pskov governor shortly before the attack on Kashin.

On October 15, the former deputy leader of the Zaslona Alexander Meshkov, who was abroad, said in an interview with Kommersant that Gorbunov instructed him and another subordinate to find out Kashin's contacts. Gorbunov explained that the journalist offended his friend-governor and was going to demand apologies from him. The fact that it was Turbchak that was involved in the case , Meshkov, according to him, found out after the crime. Gorbunov in a conversation with him complained that "he helped the governor like that, but this did not bring the desired results."

In early October, Kashin in an open letter to Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev directly accused them of covering a Turchak , who, as allowed to conclude materials from the investigation, is a customer of the assassination attempt. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov later said that they got acquainted with the text in the Kremlin , but so far he was not commented. “Judging by the read,” the official added, “it is not particularly designed for some answer.”

On October 15, the Commissioner for Human Rights Ella Pamfilova sent an official appeal to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Alexander Bastrykin to conduct a thorough verification of information regardingthe involvement of Turchak’s beating in Kashin . "Given the great public resonance of this criminal case and the scale of the charges that undermine the reputation of the head of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the Commissioner considers it necessary to conduct" a thorough verification of published information, the results of which will confirm or refute the facts contained in them, "the Ombudsman said in a message.