Yarolsavl Mayor Arrested

Investigators have launched a criminal case against Yevgeny Urlashov, the mayor of the central Russian city of Yaroslavl, and three of his subordinates on suspicion of extortion, the Investigative Committee’s regional department reported Wednesday. “According to investigation data, in the period from December 2012 to July 2, 2013, the mayor of the city of Yaroslavl and his subordinates extorted from the director of a commercial company a bribe worth 14 million rubles [$422,600] from a sum transferred to the company for performed work,” the department said. Urlashov, a member of the ruling United Russia party in 2008-2011, who later became a candidate from the opposition, achieved a landslide victory in the city’s April 2012 mayoral elections over a United Russia candidate. A member of billionaire and politician Mikhail Prokhorov’s Civic Platform party, he planned to head the party’s list at the September 8, 2013 elections to the regional parliament. Earlier on Wednesday, police said the official had been detained. Urlashov’s spokeswoman Svetlana Yefimova told the Gazeta.ru news portal that officers from the Interior Ministry’s economic security department stopped the mayor’s car early on Wednesday. “These were masked people in camouflage and plain clothes,” Yefimova said, adding that she was inside the mayor’s car at the moment. “Without explanations, they pushed him into their car and took him away.” An Investigative Committee spokeswoman said searches were underway in the houses of Urlashov and his subordinates.

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130703/182025684/Yaroslavl-Mayor-Suspected-of-Extortion.html
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