The head of the Russian parliament's ethics committee, Vladimir Pekhtin, gave up his seat on Wednesday after it was revealed that he owned more than $1.3 million worth of luxury real estate in Florida that he failed to disclose.
Anti-corruption activist and popular blogger Alexei Navalny posted documents online earlier this month which revealed that the veteran lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party was not being entirely honest about his properties, according to RIA Novosti news.
The property in Flamingo South Beach complex in Miami Beach was registered in the names of Vladimir Pekhtin and his son Aleksey. According to the register, the apartment was bought by Aleksey Pekhtin as far back as in 2007, but in 2008 Vladimir Pekhtin registered half of it to himself.
Pekhtin responded by saying that the properties belong to his son. "I have taken the not particularly easy decision to give up my seat," Pekhtin told the State Duma on Wednesday, according to the report. "I do not want the shadow of ungrounded accusations to fall on our party."
He said he had not broken any law, but that "there are very controversial documents that have been made public on the Internet," and it was necessary to clear up "obvious legal misunderstandings."
After the disclosure, Pekhtin stepped down as the head of the State Duma Commission on Ethics, but warned that he was doing this only for the time of investigation that will prove his innocence.
"I will give up my mandate, which I always achieved in honest political battle, and my rivals, my opponents, know this," he said, in comments broadcast on television. "Nevertheless, I will not cling to it. Because I think that my personal matters are secondary to United Russia. Thank you for many years of work, and for your devotion. We will fight on."
