 He alleged in an article that Putin get a file with compromising KGB materials on Sobchak, at the time when Putin worked as the KGB's overseer of Leningrad State University.Putin used this materials to blackmail Sobchak and secure his own appointment in the city administration, according to Shutov.On February 16, 1999, Shutov was stripped of parliamentary immunity and arrested on charges of murdering prominent Russian politicians Mikhail Manevich and Galina Starovoitova.