Buryatia’s top police official, who was detained on smuggling charges over the weekend, is suspected of participating in a jewelry contraband racket, news reports said Monday.
Viktor Syusyura, 55, was detained late Saturday in the southern Siberian republic and flown to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center under heavy guard.
Syusyura’s deputy, Andrei Shurupov, was also detained.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on whether to authorize the arrest of Syusyura and his deputy. Investigators are expected to present the evidence against the officials at the hearing.
The Investigative Committee and the police have not detailed the charges against the two men.
New reports linked the detention to a contraband investigation into the Altyn holding, which operates a chain of jewelry stores in Russia and abroad.
Part of the evidence used to detain Syusyura was “obtained in the course of the Altyn investigation,” a law enforcement source told Kommersant.
The Federal Security Service opened a contraband case Oct. 5, and six senior Altyn executives have been arrested.
Altyn, which was set up 19 years ago, has six stores in Russia, including three in Moscow, two in St. Petersburg and one in Omsk. It also owns jewelry factories and stores in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates.
Searches have been carried out at Altyn locations in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Omsk.
Police searched Syusyura’s office and home over the weekend.
Buryatia is rich in resources, including nephrite and gold.
Syusyura has been the republic’s top police official since March 2006. From 2001 to 2006, he headed the Interior Ministry’s Azov-Black Sea transportation department, where he oversaw the seaports, railways and airports in that region.
The day before his detention, Syusyura held a meeting where he called on his colleagues to fight crime and corruption in Buryatia, Interfax reported.
An acting police chief to replace Syusyura was supposed to be announced Monday.
President Dmitry Medvedev has made the fight against corruption a major focus of his presidency, and law enforcement authorities have reported an increase in corruption investigations, although the problem remains epidemic.
Separately, the head of Bashkortostan’s industrial safety watchdog was detained Monday on suspicion of bribery and participation in an illegal entrepreneurship, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Nikolai Kolobov, chief of Bashkortostan’s branch of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Atomic Inspection, is suspected of accepting bribes totaling 2.5 million rubles ($85,000) since November 2005 for approving the technological safety of several enterprises in the republic, the statement said.