Civic Platform Party criticises accusations of its candidate having criminal links

Russia's Civic Platform Party has criticised law-enforcement bodies' allegations that its candidate, Yevgeny Roizman, running for the office of mayor in the Sverdlovsk region, has links to the criminal underworld. "There's nothing to comment here. Much of the recent information related to Roizman is engineered provocation," the party's press service told Itar-Tass on Thursday. "Nothing has changed in the methods used by the pro-Kremlin spin doctors; they resort to the same dirty technologies," a statement said. "Roizman's ratings have soared so they decided to publicly slander him just a week before the election and issue specific threats." On Thursday, Sverdlovsk region police said they had evidence of Roizman having links to the criminal world. "We have this information; we'll provide it upon request by a court or some other government body," a regional police representative told Tass. When asked why police had not opened a criminal case against Roizman since they had evidence suggesting criminal connections, the representative said "it is still at a stage of verification and surveillance that last for months, yet certain results are already available." At present, regional prosecutors are looking into information about Roizman's links to ethnic criminal groups, reported by a federal television channel. Roizman is head of the City without Drugs fund. The election for mayor is on September 8.