Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev.
Citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russian news agencies report Putin dismissed Ulyukayev due to a “loss of trust.”
Ulyukayev’s dismissal comes less than 24 hours after he was detained on charges of taking a $2 million bribe for facilitating state-owned oil giant Rosneft's takeover of another state-held oil company, Bashneft, in October.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s federal Investigative Committee, said Ulyukayev “was caught red-handed as he received a bribe.”
The agency said Ulyukayev has been charged with extortion and “grand bribe taking” and that it asked the court to allow him to be held under house arrest.
Moscow's Basmanny District Court on November 15 granted that request, ordering Ulyukayev to remain under house arrest until mid-January.
Russian investigators say Ulyukayev has denied that he is guilty.
The Investigative Committee said the case was initiated after Rosneft reported extortion of $2 million. It added that Bashneft's $5 billion sale to Rosneft is indisputable.
TASS news agency reports that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told lawmakers on November 15 that “what has happened” in the Ulyukayev case “is beyond my comprehension” but added that “neither a minister, nor a lawmaker, nor a governor, nor any other state servant has immunity if they are involved in corruption-related crimes.”
Deputy Economic Development Minister Yevgeny Yelin was appointed as acting economy minister.
Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, told Gazeta.ru that he believes Ulyukayev is innocent. "This could trigger a serious government shake-up," he noted.
Ulyukayev was appointed economic development minister in 2013 and had been deputy chairman of Russia's central bank for a decade before that. He is the highest-ranked statesman in Russia arrested since in 1991. Ulyukayev, 60, has overseen the massive privatization of state companies. If convicted, he faces a fine of up to 100 times the amount of the bribe and a ban on holding certain positions or engaging in certain activities. Alternatively a jail term of eight to 15 years plus a fine of 70 times the amount of the bribe, or no fine, are also possible penalties.
