Police unloading wads of cash from bags and boxes and then starting the task of counting it.
Police have found 140 million rubles ($4.4 million) hidden in bags and boxes at the home of relatives of a roads official from the Voronezh region.
Alexander Trubnikov, the head of road management for the Central Russia region, was detained Wednesday on suspicion of receiving a bribe of 1.25 million rubles from one of the region's largest road enterprises, Voronezhavtodor, RIA-Novosti reported.
"Cash totaling 140 million rubles was seized during a search conducted in a building owned by close relatives of Alexander Trubnikov in the Lipetsk region. It was stored in bags and boxes," the Interior Ministry said in a statement carried by Interfax.
Police video footage shows investigators dumping wads of rubles out of bags and later carefully counting eye-popping rows of banknotes.
Trubnikov could not explain where the money came from, investigators said.
Trubnikov was appointed in 2009 after working as head of a small road management organization in Khlevensky, Lipetsk region.
The Kremlin has been spearheading a public campaign against corruption, and a number of cases of suspected bribery have been opened against government officials in recent months. The investigations have also spilled over into the commercial sector, notably with the detention in mid-May of the Russian CEO of Rosbank, the Russian unit of France's Societe Generale. Police footage of the detention showed CEO Vladimir Golubkov sitting at his office desk with wads of 5,000-ruble notes, money that investigators say was meant as a bribe.
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