SEVASTOPOL, March 15, 17:55 /ITAR-TASS/. Unidentified persons have abducted Russian Bloc leader and City Council member Gennady Basov in Sevastopol.

Nine unidentified men abducted Basov some between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, the party’s press service said. This information was confirmed to ITAR-TASS by police.

The Russian Bloc, the second largest party in the city, was created in 2002 in Crimea (autonomy seeking independence from Ukraine) to fight for the rights of the Russian-speaking population of the peninsula and Sevastopol. In 2012, the party failed to get elected to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament), but party leader Gennady Basov was elected to the Sevastopol City Council.

On February 1, 2013, some online media published reports on the self-dissolution of the party. The same announcement was posted on the party’s own web site. However Basov denied these assertions as a provocation.