The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine (PGO) has compiled reports of suspicion on two deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in the commission of a crime under Article 258-5 Part 3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (financing of terrorism), Interfax-Ukraine has quoted the press service of the PGO as saying.
"Pretrial investigation has found that two deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, being in the territory of Moscow, in March-June 2014, with the goal of material support for terrorist organizations "LPR "and "DPR" as part of an organized criminal group of [leader of the LDPR faction Vladimir] Zhirinovsky, which also included individual deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation and members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, including leaders and representatives of the regional branches of the party, acting publicly, with the participation of representatives of the "DPR" in the presence of the media, called on the citizens of the Russian Federation to raise funds for the material support of the "LPR" and "DPR", and also ensured the placement of relevant announcements on party's websites and the opening of points on the territory of Russia to collect the appropriate funds," it said on 2 July.
In addition, according to it, the deputies signed an appropriate agreement on material support for the "DPR", and also provided the participants of this terrorist organization with premises in the territory of Moscow for representative activities.
Also, due to the collected funds, these deputies, headed by Zhirinovsky, acting, in particular, at the request of the head of the 'Somali' terrorist group Mikhail Tolstykh (aka Givi), throughout 2014-2017, had been delivering to the representatives of these criminal groups six vehicles of Russian production with increased passage and operational capabilities, some of which were used during the commission of terrorist acts against military and law enforcement units of Ukraine, in particular in the territory of the Donetsk airport.
The suspicion in the financing of terrorism to these deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation is drawn up from the listed facts of the criminal activities of this organized group on 27 June 2018.
"The criminal offenses of which these deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation are charged with provide for the possibility of their being sentenced in absentia in Ukraine for a term of from 10 to 12 years of imprisonment," the information says.
The names of the deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, which the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has drawn up suspicions of financing terrorism, are not included in the information.
However, a source told Interfax-Ukranine that the men in question are Mikhail Degtyarev and Aleksey Didenko, deputies of the State Duma of the seventh convocation.