A prominent Russian businessman has been detained on charges of illegal sexual relations with a 10-year-old girl, for which he is alleged to have paid her mother $300 a month, a spokesman for the city police said Thursday.


Igor Tsyrulnikov said police had detained Alexander Kudryavtsev, 39, a general director of the joint-stock company Gudok, in his apartment on Ulitsa Kremenchugskaya in west Moscow on Monday.


"The businessman had entered into a criminal collusion with his neighbor, 29, and had sex with her 10-year-old daughter throughout last year, for which he paid her $300 a month," Tsyrulnikov said.


Tsyrulnikov said police had detained another man on suspicion of having sexual relations with the girl.


If convicted, Kudryavtsev could face a three- to six-year imprisonment, Tsyrulnikov said, but there seemed to be no law under which the woman could be charged.


Russian media reported that a police search of the woman's apartment had uncovered "a whole arsenal" of sexual aids and a huge number of pornographic video cassettes.


Newspaper and radio reports said the girl's mother, a cleaning woman, published an advertisement in a newspaper saying: "Needed: A sponsor." The woman's husband and her lover also shared the flat, and they wanted a larger apartment.


The reports said Kudryavtsev rented a new flat for the family. In exchange, he had sex with the woman and her daughter periodically. The woman's lover filmed sex sessions between Kudryavtsev and the woman with the girl, for which he paid an extra $300 a month, reports said.