Russian was abducted

last updated 8 January 2015

London

The Russian presidential candidate who disappeared for five days last week now says he was kidnapped. Ivan Rybkin said he was lured to Kiev on false pretenses and drugged. While he was unconscious, his armed captors made what he called a “horribly perverted” videotape of him to be used for blackmail. Back in Moscow, Rybkin initially gave an innocent account of his absence, out of fear for his safety. He soon fled to London, where his main backer, business tycoon Boris Berezovsky, lives in exile. Rybkin, a critic of President Vladimir Putin, said he would continue campaigning, but most polls showed him with little support before his adventure and even less now.