MOSCOW, November 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russian opposition politician Oleg Shein was hospitalized after being stabbed at a Moscow hostel early Thursday, but his life is not in danger, police have said.
Police detained a 21-year-old Russian woman on suspicion of stabbing Shein, 41, and a 23-year-old man who has not been identified.
According to the police, Shein was injured during an argument between two other hostel guests.
Shein, a leader of the Just Russia party and a former mayoral candidate in Russia’s southern city of Astrakhan, confirmed on his personal blog page that he had been stabbed three times.
“Not pleasant,” he wrote, adding four smiley faces.
A fellow party member from Astrakhan, Vasily Vorokh, wrote on Twitter that Shein’s injuries were not life-threatening and that he is currently being treated in Moscow’s Sklifosovsky hospital.
A medical source told RIA Novosti that doctors consider Shein’s injuries “moderate.”
Vorokh told various other news agencies that Shein had spent the night in a Moscow hostel and was wounded when he intervened in a fight.
Police identified the suspect only as a 21-year-old woman from the central Russian province of Chelyabinsk.
Shein, a deputy in Astrakhan regional parliament, had come to Moscow to meet with A Just Russia party leader Sergei Mironov and Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov.
Mironov expressed outrage at the attack on Shein, writing "'Hi' from Astrakhan? Bastards!" on his personal Twitter account.
Shein rose to national attention when he embarked on a 40-day hunger strike in 2012 to protest alleged electoral fraud after his failed bid for election as mayor of Astrakhan.
