Candidate For Election To Legislative Assembly Attacked In Vladivostok

Vladimir Maksunov, a candidate for election to the Legislative Assembly of the Primorye territory, was rushed to the Pacific Fleet hospital this morning with two knife wounds and severe brain concussion after being attacked by two unknown assailants in Vladivostok, reported Maksunov's assistant Pyotr Yevtushenko. A candidate in the 13th electoral district, Maksunov was heading for a meeting with Viktor Cherepkov, a deputy of the State Duma /the parliament's lower house/, and had just stepped into a dark entryway when the assailants sprang at him, stabbed him in the arm and in the thigh, and hit him on the head. The politician lost consciousness. The attack was immediately reported to police and the prosecutor's office. Yevtushenko, who says Maksunov was getting numerous telephone threats from people who wanted him to withdraw his candidature, believes the attack was politically motivated. Earlier, unknown assailants attacked two people presenting another candidate for election to the territorial Legislative Assembly, Nikolai Golik. Both were hospitalized with injuries.