Russia's lower house of parliament today voted to dismiss the only lawmaker who opposed Moscow's annexation of Crimea over his extended absence from the legislative body.
Ilya Ponomaryov, a regular at opposition meetings who has lived in the United States since 2014, has been accused of complicity in the embezzlement of USD 750,000 from the Skolkovo Foundation, a high-tech project the Kremlin had hoped would be its answer to Silicon Valley.
The opposition has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
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Today, 413 lawmkers voted in favor of stripping Ponomaryov of his seat in the legislature. Only three State Duma deputies voted against the proposal, opposition lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov wrote on his Facebook page.
Flamboyant lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who heads a nationalist party, in parliament accused Ponomaryov of spreading "nasty anti-Russian propaganda," TASS news agency reported.
A Russian court last year had ordered Ponomaryov's arrest in absentia over the alleged embezzlement after he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity from prosecution.
Ponomaryov, one of the few public figures openly critical of President Vladimir Putin, has denied any wrongdoing.
In 2012, along with two other opposition lawmakers, Ponomaryov staged a filibuster, speaking for 11 hours straight when the legislative body debated increasing fines for the participants of unsanctioned protests.
