An ambulance rushing to a Leningrad region hospital with a patient who reportedly died en route in October was blocked by a motorcade transporting then-Governor Valery Serdyukov, police said Friday.
The decision to stop traffic "was made by an official who lacked the authority to do so," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. "At the moment, the issue of punishing him severely is being considered."Previously, Sergei Naryshkin, then-Kremlin chief of staff, was blamed for obstructing the ambulance at an intersection in the town of Vsevolozhsk.
Although the incident occurred on Oct. 25, a Life News article Wednesday returned it to the public spotlight with a recently surfaced video titled "Motorcade's Passage More Important Than Human Life."
The article claims that the patient, who fell off a windowsill while doing remodeling work in his apartment and plummeted four stories, died as soon as the ambulance reached the hospital.
Naryshkin responded to the claims Thursday by calling the rumors of the patient's death "unsubstantiated evidence."
Serdyukov resigned as Leningrad region governor on May 11, with Alexander Drozdenko taking over the position.
Norwegian
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