International News

MOSCOW, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Russia’s security
service has detained Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on suspicion of taking a two-million-dollar bribe over a massive deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, investigators said Tuesday.
Ulyukayev is the highest ranking official to be detained over
suspected corruption since President Vladimir Putin took power in 2000 and vowed to clamp down on endemic graft.
The 60-year-old minister’s detention has sparked a wave of
speculation about whether the case could be linked to an internal power struggle.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s main federal
investigative body, said the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB, detained Ulyukayev following an operation.
It alleged in a statement that Ulyukayev received the money on Monday
for giving the go-ahead for Rosneft to acquire a majority stake from the state in Russian oil company Bashneft in a $5.2 billion (4.84 billion euro) deal last month.
The statement does not say who gave the alleged bribe to Ulyukayev.
The sale of the 50.07 percent stake in Russia’s sixth-largest producer came after months of wrangling that has seen Rosneft — headed by Igor Sechin, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin — face down opposition from some in the government.
Ulyukayev had originally opposed the sale but later endorsed it after
Putin said it could help fill state coffers.