Former Russian Olympic Champion Tries To Escape From Russian Justice In Germany

Former Olympic biathlon champion Alexander Tikhonov, accused of organising the attempt at the governor of the Kemerovo region, Aman Tuleyev, is now staying in the German city of Oberhof where the world biathlon championship is being held, the union of Russian biathlonists reported. When the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region relieved Alexander Tikhonov from the recognizance not to leave and allowed him to receive treatment in Moscow, on which he insisted, the defendant left Russia in the summer of 2001. Tikhonov's lawyers informed the law-enforcement bodies which are conducting investigation that Tikhonov was undergoing a course of treatment in a clinic of the Austrian city of Innsbruck. But it was written in the fax sent by the secretariat of the clinic that Tikhonov had already completed treatment and left the clinic in an unknown direction. Now the traces of the criminal sportsman led to Germany. The Federal Security Service asked Interpol for help in establishing the champion's whereabouts. Alexander Tikhonov and his younger brother Viktor have been accused of preparing a contract murder of Kemerovo governor Aman Tuleyev.