Russian regional leader charged with corruption

MOSCOW:  The head of Russia’s Udmurtia region Alexander Solovyov has been arrested for allegedly taking bribes, the country’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday.

Solovyov, 67, who has governed the region in the Volga area east of Moscow since 2014, was taken to the Russian capital to face charges, the committee said in a statement, making him the highest level official to be charged since the March 26 anti-corruption protests led by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Solovyov is suspected of taking as much as 139 million rubles (2.3 million euros) in bribes between 2014 and 2016 from companies seeking contracts to build bridges and licences to operate gravel pits, according to the statement.

Anti-corruption campaigner Navalny has said that frequent arrests of regional authorities, and coverage of these arrests by state-owned media, serve as a smokescreen to hide corruption at higher levels of government, particularly in Putin’s inner circle.

In a video report broadcast on YouTube last month, Navalny claimed that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has amassed a real estate fortune financed by oligarchs through a network of obscure foundations.