Yury Makarov, the chairman of a district court in Stavropol, Russia, resigned after a lewd video of someone resembling him and a naked woman buying champagne from a gas station was leaked on the internet.
The leaked video posted on several Russian news sites shows a large white SUV pulling into a gas station with two people exiting it. One of these is a naked blonde woman with bright make-up and the body of a Victoria’s Secret model, and the other is a rather ordinary-looking man who starts filming his companion with a mobile phone.
The woman walks into the store to buy a bottle of champagne, while the man follows her and continues filming. Afterwards, they walk back to the car and drive away.
The news was widely circulated by the Russian media, as well as activists from various NGOs, who spread it on social media networks. Some reporters speculated that the bottle purchased by the naked lady contained beer, but the identity of her companion caused very little in the way of argument – most people agreed that this was indeed the chairman of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Stavropol City, Yury Makarov.
On Tuesday, the press secretary of the court, Elena Churyuda, told several newspapers that the qualifying collegium would look into the resignation request later in the day.
Judge Makarov himself categorically denied that it was him in the video. He claimed that he had not been to the place where the video was made for at least a year, and that the man in the video did not even look like him.
“I do have no such belly and I have nothing in common with this man in the video. I am inclined to think that this is all some sort of PR and hype. There is only very basic resemblance, neither my wife nor my friends will recognize this man as me,” Makarov was quoted as saying by Znak.com news site.
The judge also speculated that the stunt could have been organized by Chechen terrorists or their allies. He said that exactly 16 years ago, he convicted and sentenced to 16 years behind bars one of the leaders of a Chechen terrorist group, and that soon afterwards he received veiled threats. He also said that not long ago he met an “athletic man” in the street who advised him to check for news on the internet.
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