MOSCOW, February 14 - RAPSI. Georgian politician Givi Targamadze has been charged with planning unrest in Russia. He has been placed on the wanted list and the investigators plan to request a court warrant to have him arrested in absentia, Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin said on Thursday.
The former head of the Georgian parliament's Defense and Security Committee has been charged with preparing mass civil unrest in Russia jointly with opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov, Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhayev.
"We have received an official letter that Givi Targamadze has no immunity from prosecution. He has been placed on the wanted list today. The investigative officers plan to request a court warrant to have him arrested in absentia," Markin said.
The case was inititated after the "Anatomy of Protest 2" documentary film was shown on the NTV broadcasting network. The film claimed that the opposition was organizing a coup using funds from abroad and showed Left Front movement coordinator Udaltsov and his companions allegedly talking with Targamadze, who at the time headed Georgia's Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, and is said to have been involved in planning the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the mass riots in Belarus.
After the film was broadcasted, a criminal case was initiated against Left Front movement coordinator Sergei Udaltsov, his aide Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhayev.
Razvozzhayev issued a full confession in which he described how he, Udaltsov, Lebedev and others organized mass riots in Russia, as well as detailing his involvement in mass riots on Bolotnaya Square on May 6. In addition, Razvozzhayev stated that all this was financed by Targamadze. However, he later claimed that he had been forced to confess under pressure of torture.