MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - The mayor of the southern Russian city of Volgograd, charged with abuse of office, resigned in a courtroom Monday.
"I am taking this step voluntarily and deliberately. I don't want to make Volgograd's residents hostages to the situation," Yevgeny Ishchenko told journalists.
Ishchenko denied his guilt once again, and called the charges against him "the baiting" of political opponents.
"I apologize before those whom I have offended or failed to help while being in the post of administration head," he said.
Prosecutors charged Ishchenko, 33, with abuse of office and placed him in a pre-trial detention center May 30. A district court in Volgograd suspended him from his post as the city's mayor June 29.
