MOSCOW, November 21 (RAPSI) – Former Astrakhan mayoral candidate Oleg Shein (A Just Russia party) was hospitalized with stab wounds, a source in a Moscow clinic told RIA Novosti on Thursday.

The party’s representative Vasiliy Vorokh told RIA Novosti that Shein was stabbed three times, but that his life was no longer in danger. Vorokh added that the assault was not connected with Shein’s political activity.

Shein made national headlines in the spring of 2012 by staging a 40-day hunger strike in protest against the results of local mayoral election in which he lost to a candidate from the ruling United Russia party.

He sued the city's election committee in April 2012, seeking to invalidate the election results.

Two months later, the court held against him and advised him to file lawsuits against the local election committees in the city's four district courts. Shein followed this advice, but all four courts dismissed his claims.