Russian senator Ludmila Narusova, the widow of Anatoly Sobchak, the former governor of St. Petersburg and ardent supporter of President Boris Yeltsin, will be removed from the Federation Council and replaced by Mikhail Marchenko, member of the populist LDPR party, Grani.ru reports.
Narusova said she expected such a move in an interview with Ogonyok magazine. She said that the ruling party would like to remove her, as she openly criticized the new bill on demonstrations brought forward in order to combat the massive protest campaign that started after the December 4 parliamentary elections.
The senator was placed at the center of a scandal this month as she told Russian TV that she is not certain that her husband had not been poisoned. "He did not have a heart attack," she said, "His heart just stopped, but he had no heart attack."
Anatoly Sobchak was among those who anticipated Vladimir Putin's accession to power. Putin served under Sobchak as deputy governor of St. Petersburg.
