MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - Presidential candidate Ivan Rybkin denies that his disappearance from Moscow on February 5th was a publicity stunt.
He ruled out any PR action in his live interview with the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio on Wednesday.
Rybkin expressed the opinion that "all the fuss" around his disappearance was caused by special services. "I am shocked with what has happened to me. You can simply click the mouse and find out who and when left Russia, by train or by air," said Rybkin, calling the entire incident "some game." He admitted that he "found his wife in a horrible condition." "I do not blame her. We have lived for forty years together." "My relatives were upset by the talk that I walked along Kreshchatik and allegedly spent time in the company of some blondes, brunettes and brown-haired ladies," he stressed.
