Communist Party Press Service: information concerning the death of Kuptsov is hoax

The Communist Party has refuted information that the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Nationalities’ Affairs, Valentin Kuptsov, a member of the Russian Communist Party's Central Committee, has died while hunting, as has appeared on some web sites. "The secretary of the Kirov Regional Party Committee, Anatoly Maksimenko, having read
the news in the Internet, got through to Valentin Kuptsov and found out that he is currently in China," Communist Party spokesman Alexander Yushchenko told Interfax.

He noted that, according to Maksimenko, Kuptsov "was very surprised by this internet hoax and asked to find out how it appeared and from where.”

The Communist Party press service reported that the origins of the hoax are still difficult to judge.