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Rosneft Lawyer Arrested Over Bribe From Russian Mafia Boss

Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) / Andrei Nikerichev / Moskva News Agency

A lawyer at the Rosneft oil giant has been detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe from a notorious Russian criminal boss. 

The mafia boss, known as “Shakro the Young,” is standing trial together with his accomplices for their alleged involvement in a 2015 shootout at a Moscow restaurant. Shakro has been called “the leader of the Russian criminal community” by Russian investigators and was blacklisted by the U.S. alongside nine criminal mobsters last week.

Alexander Kramarenko, the lawyer at Rosneft, was arrested for allegedly accepting the bribe from Shakro the Young, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.

He accepted the money to allegedly help secure the release of Andrei Kochuikov "The Italian," another crime boss implicated in the 2015 shooting. 

Kramarenko had worked at Russia’s Investigative Committee prior to taking the job at Rosneft in March 2017. 

A Rosneft spokesman denied that Kramarenko’s arrest had to do with his work at the oil giant.

“This is related to his previous work,” he told the Gazeta.ru news website. 

“We have no legal department. The employee engaged in, shall we say, security questions.”

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