A criminal case under Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (unauthorized abandonment of a unit or place of service) was initiated against Russian shooters Sergei and Violetta Bida, who previously left for the United States, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein reported on his Telegram channel.
The Russian Interior Ministry this week included fencers Sergei and Violetta Bida on the list of people wanted on criminal charges. The department’s database does not specify under which article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation the athletes are wanted. The maximum penalty provided for in article 337 is 10 years in prison.
— A criminal case was opened against the fugitives under Article 337 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Their dismissal in no way prevents the investigation from continuing. As for the moral side, all this is called in one word: treason,” Khinstein wrote.
He also noted that the athletes, as active military personnel (playing for Dynamo and included in the list of instructors of the Central District sports team of the Russian Guard), “left the country without authorization and secretly in June ”, while all attempts by Both Russian guards made contact with them, but the Russian Fencing Federation did not bring success: the swordsmen responded to the calls only at the very end. At the end of June, they were excluded from the list of candidates for Russian national sports teams.
Sergei Bida is a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in the team tournament. His wife is a medalist at the 2019 World and European Championships.
Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
