Watchdog

Kremlin critic and former lawmaker Sergei Petrov has been put on an international most wanted list for allegedly siphoning off 4 billion rubles ($63.5 million) out of Russia in 2014.

The Basmanny district court in Moscow said on September 6 that Petrov, who is living abroad, has been put on the list amid a request by the federal Investigative Committee to try the 64-year-old in absentia.

"Sergei Petrov is wanted," a spokeswoman for the court was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying.

Petrov, who built a network of imported car dealerships in Russia known as Rolf, served as a lawmaker in Russia's parliament between 2007 and 2016, and was one of the few independent-minded deputies in what is widely considered a rubber-stamp body.

Among other things, Petrov voted against a law that banned the adoption of Russian children by U.S. citizens and introduced restrictions for U.S. citizens' trips to Russia.

He also voted against another controversial law that expanded the powers of law enforcement agencies and introduced new requirements for data collection and mandatory deciphering in the telecommunications industry.

Nor did Petrov take part in a parliamentary vote on the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.

Petrov has denied he illegally moved money offshore, saying in a June 28 interview with RFE/RL that he believed he and his business were being targeted for political reasons.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax

MOSCOW -- Russia's Interior Ministry says an intruder broke into the home of Ella Pamfilova, the head of the country's Central Election Commission, and assaulted her two days before controversial regional and local elections.

"The masked intruder broke in through a window and got onto the house's terrace and repeatedly tasered the home owner [Pamfilova] and then fled," the ministry said in a statement, noting that the incident occurred in the early hours of September 6.

The Investigative Committee said investigators "will thoroughly examine each possible scenario for the committed crime, including an attack in connection with professional activity."

"I want to hope it was an accident...maybe somebody wanted to scare me, or he mixed up houses, or wanted to steal something," Pamfilova told Rossia-24.

The 65-year-old, who attended a conference on Digitalization of the Electoral Process in Moscow, also told reporters she had hurt one of her fingers and scratched her side while grappling with the assailant and then resisting him with a chair.

She said the intruder appeared to be young.

"It's OK, I will survive," Pamfilova also said.

Russians in many regions, including the capital, Moscow, will head to the polls on September 8 to vote in elections that have sparked weeks of protests over the Central Election Commission's exclusion of many opposition candidates.

Police have violently dispersed several of the demonstrations, some of which authorities described as "illegal mass gatherings."

More than 2,000 people have been detained, drawing international condemnation, and some have already received jail sentences.

Demonstrators have continued to gather each week ahead of the vote despite the jail sentences, sweeps aimed at opposition leaders, and official threats.

The protests have turned into a major challenge for the Kremlin and a reflection of growing impatience among Russians with President Vladimir Putin.

With reporting by Interfax, TASS, Reuters, and AFP