Oligarch Slams Drug-Rehab Center Bust as ‘Political’

MOSCOW, November 3 (RIA Novosti) – Metals oligarch-turned political figure Mikhail Prokhorov posted a blog entry on Saturday slamming Friday’s raid on a controversial drug-rehab facility as an attempt by the local authorities to neutralize popular rivals.

“Realizing that he is unlikely to retain his post in an honest political battle, the governor decided to discredit the more popular candidates,” Prokhorov wrote in his livejournal blog.

RIA Novosti attempted to contact the governor, but he was not available for comment.

Playboy oligarch Prokhorov, who now heads the recently-created Civic Platform party, said that his party views the raid on the drug-rehab center as linked to legal action taken in the same region against the editor-in-chief of the website Ura.ru, and alleged that both are politically motivated actions linked to next year’s local elections.

Late in October Roizman joined the Civic Platform party’s civic federal committee.

Police raided premises linked to the Gorod Bez Narkotikov (City Without Drugs) organization run by Yevgeny Roizman in Yekaterinburg on Friday morning.

Commenting on the raid, police said they had found people being held against their will.

Gorod Bez Narkotikov has already been the subject of three investigations into mistreatment of addicts undergoing treatment, including the death of one of them, Tatyana Kazantseva, who died earlier this year after being taken to hospital following treatment for addiction.

Roizman confirmed on Friday that a search was underway. A lawyer acting for the group said they would lodge a complaint.

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