A Moscow municipal deputy is attacked, continuing a trend that began last October

Early on January 9, Moscow Lomonosov District municipal deputy Kirill Chirkin was attacked in the street. The Communist Party politician says he believes he was targeted because of his public work. “When I fell into the snow, they said something like, ’Slow down, deputy Chirkin,’” the local lawmaker wrote on Facebook. “Ironically, they attacked me in the same place where I’ve tried to get more street lights installed. The fixtures are now there, but the cables haven’t been connected,” Chirkin added.

The Communist Party’s local newspaper reports that Chirkin has received multiple death threats lately. His work as a municipal deputy focuses on utilities and and construction work.

In September 2018, Izmailovo District municipal deputy Nadezhda Zagordan found a severed pig’s head stuck with a knife outside her door. That same month, someone smashed the rear window of opposition municipal deputy Vitaly Tretyukhin’s car and deposited another pig’s head.