A former Russian governor is taking President Vladimir Putin to the Supreme Court in protest of his dismissal. The court informed Putin about this on Wednesday, it reports to the Russian news agency Interfax.
Mikhail Ignatev was governor of Chuvashia region, some 700 kilometres east of Moscow, from 2010 to late January this year.
Ignatev, 58, a lawyer by origin, has been scandalized several times and was fired by Putin on January 29 for losing the President’s confidence.
Ignatiev claims that his dismissal violates the law and therefore personally takes Putin to court. The first hearing will be held on June 30, can be seen on the Supreme Court website.
Just before the Ignatiev was sent out of the avenue, a video showed him dangling the keys of a new fire engine at a ceremony above a firefighter and making the firefighter jump.
That put the governor, who claimed to be kidding with an old acquaintance, into a storm of criticism.
More serious was another incident in January in which Ignatev called for the killing of journalists who were optimistic about life in Western Europe.
He said that such journalists should be “eliminated”. Ignatiev later apologized and said his words had been misinterpreted.
