KHARKIV, April 18 - Former Kharkiv Regional Governor Arsen Avakov has claimed that he did not sign state acts on 55 hectares of land near the village of Pisochyn (Kharkiv district, Kharkiv region), which resulted in a criminal case being opened against him.

"There are two signatures there, on two acts. One of them is more or less similar to my signature. And the other is a disgrace. These signatures are forged. I could not sign this document for many reasons... I know that experts from an institute that looked at these signatures and had to make a conclusion preliminarily concluded that the signatures are not mine. After that they were removed, and another expert was invited, who said that the signature was mine, and this was all a matter of a few hours," he said on Tuesday at a press conference held on Skype.