Russian demonstrators say U.S. must pay crash victim

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – Members of a pro-Kremlin youth group demonstrated outside a U.S. consulate in Russia’s far east on Monday to support Alexander Kashin, a local man paralyzed in an accident involving a U.S. diplomat’s car.

Kashin, wheelchair-bound since his car was in collision with the vehicle carrying former U.S. Consul General Douglas Kent in 1998, has asked for $10 million compensation for his injuries.

Kashin had previously declared a hunger strike to attract attention to his case, and has said a $100,000 compensation offer from the U.S. State Department was “a miserly pittance”.

Holding signs saying ‘Democracy American style is all about money’, a small crowd from the Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guards) youth group stood for about 30 minutes outside the Vladivostok consulate with Kashin until police ordered them to leave.

Molodaya Gvardiya leader Maxim Glushkov told Reuters the group wanted to draw attention to the U.S. State Department’s unwillingness to take responsibility for the actions of its employees.

Glushkov said caring for Kashin “is not our business. In the given situation the U.S. State Department should be the ones helping.”