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Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>MOSCOW: Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday that it had detained Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev on suspicion of taking a two-million-dollar bribe over a massive deal involving state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday that the detention was carried out as a result of an operation by the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB.

It claimed the minister received the money on Monday for giving the go-ahead for Rosneft to acquire a majority stake from the state in Russian oil company Bashneft in a $5.2 billion deal last month.

The statement does not say who gave the bribe to Ulyukayev.

The sale of the 50.07 percent stake in Russia’s sixth-largest producer came after months of wrangling that has seen Rosneft — headed by Igor Sechin, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin — face down opposition from some in the government, while Ulyukayev said Rosneft could bid for the stake.

“The entire sum — 329.69 billion rubles — will go to the Russian budget,” Ulyukayev said in a statement after the deal on October 12, adding that the government had received only two bids and the other one had been less than the company’s independently assessed value.

Putin said publicly at the time that he was “a little surprised at such a position of the government, but this really is the government position, primarily of the financial and economic bloc”.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Ulyukayev had been detained as part of a probe into large-scale bribe taking, for which he could face a jail term of between 8 and 15 years.

It said that it will charge him shortly.

Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told RIA Novosti news agency: “This is about extortion of a bribe from Rosneft representatives accompanied by threats.”

“Ulyukayev was caught red-handed as he received a bribe,” she said.

She said that “The acquisition of the Bashneft shares was carried out on a legal basis and is not the subject of the criminal investigation.”

Ulyukayev has served as head of the ministry of economic development since 2013.

RIA Novosti cited a law enforcement source as saying that Ulyukayev was detained as part of “sting operation” after investigators received “serious evidence” from “tapping his conversations and the conversations of his associates”.

A spokesman for Rosneft told TASS state news agency the company would not comment on the Investigative Committee’s actions but that it acquired the Bashneft stake “in accordance with Russian law on the basis of the best commercial offer made to the operating bank”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency: “This is a very serious accusation that requires very serious proof. In any case only a court can decide.”

Asked if President Vladimir Putin knew of the detention, he said: “It’s night time, I don’t know if the president has been informed.”

First deputy central bank chief Sergei Shvetsov told RIA Novosti that Ulyukayev “was the last person you would suspect of something like this. What is written in the media looks absurd. Nothing is clear now”.

Bashneft, an oil producer based in the central city of Ufa, was originally privatised in the early 2000s.

In 2014, a Moscow court ordered the nationalisation of a stake held by billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov after he was detained on money laundering charges.

Two months after Bashneft’s nationalisation, Yevtushenkov was released.

The decision to let state-controlled Rosneft bid for the stake in Bashneft had been widely criticised, including by many in government who have demanded the country’s creaking economy be liberalised.

Leading business daily Vedomosti said ahead of the confirmation of the Bashneft sale that it “confirms that Russia is knowingly building state capitalism and monopolising the economy”.

“It’s impossible to call the sale of one state company to another state company privatisation,” Vedomosti said. AFP</s>A bribery investigation has reached into the upper echelons of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev has been detained on allegations he took a $2 million bribe to help push through a major oil deal.

Ulyukayev is under investigation for allegedly taking the money in return for his ministry giving a "positive assessment" of state-owned oil giant Rosneft's $5 billion deal to take control of smaller firm Bashneft, Russia's Investigative Committee said Tuesday.

Rosneft completed the deal to buy the Russian government's controlling stake in Bashneft last month.

Related: Russia barges in on Iran's oil bromance with India

Ulyukayev had been under investigation for more than a year and was caught accepting the bribe, state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing officials at the Investigative Committee.

CNN wasn't immediately able to reach Ulyukayev or Rosneft for comment early Tuesday.

Ulyukayev remains in custody while the investigation continues, according to authorities.

A former deputy finance minister and central bank chairman, he was appointed economic development minister more than three years ago.

If he is found guilty, he faces a fine of as much as $200 million, or eight to 15 years in prison, according to Russian state news agency Tass.</s>Russian investigators on Tuesday charged Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev with extorting a $2-million bribe from Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, in a case that threatens to expose fault lines in President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry has been overseeing a sale of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

He faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev had extorted the bribe in exchange for approving Rosneft’s $5-billion purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft.

In a twist reminiscent of the Soviet era, his detention was announced in the early hours of Tuesday morning, with state TV and pro-Kremlin politicians presenting it as part of a high-profile fight against corruption.

Others said it was evidence of infighting at the highest levels of power, possibly involving Igor Sechin, the chief of Rosneft, a close Putin lieutenant who is one of Russia’s most powerful men, and might herald a shake-up.

Low oil prices and Western sanctions mean the government is struggling to plug holes in the state budget ahead of a 2018 presidential election, and that competition for resources inside the tightly-controlled system has become more acute.

Law enforcement sources told Russian media the minister’s phones had been tapped and his electronic communications monitored. Investigators set up a sting operation in which the alleged bribe was handed over on Monday, the reports said.

Investigators said Ulyukayev had threatened to use his position to cause problems for Rosneft unless it paid him.

They said they were not challenging the legality of Rosneft’s purchase of the Bashneft stake or investigating it.

Putin was informed about the case when the investigation was first launched, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “These are serious allegations,” Peskov said. “Only a court can deliver a verdict.”

Previous high-profile prosecutions during Putin’s rule have been a cover for settling commercial or political scores, according to people involved in those cases. The Kremlin and law enforcement agencies deny that, saying they only target criminals.

Rosneft’s acquisition of Bashneft last month was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told Reuters.

Sechin lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft, but the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatized in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

A 19.5 per cent state-owned stake in Rosneft is up for privatization next. Rosneft is poised to buy the stake itself to sell on to investors later.

Sources told Reuters last week that Rosneft’s parent holding company may help Rosneft with funds for the deal. One state company helping another conduct a privatization is likely to be controversial among some members of the government.

Christopher Granville, managing director at TS Lombard Research, said Ulyukayev’s detention might be linked to that.

“It must be because of what is happening next,” Granville told Reuters. “To prevent any obstructions to what influential people want to happen next. I’m talking of course of the next phase of the privatization of Rosneft.”

He said there was a question mark over whether Rosneft buys the stake in itself first to sell on or whether it is simply sold off to investors without that intermediary step.

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and briefly economy minister himself in the 1990s, said he was skeptical about the accusations against Ulyukayev.

There had been a widespread consensus that the Bashneft stake had been sold to Rosneft for a market price, so it was strange that a bribe would be given for a valuation that everyone agreed on anyway, he said.

In a country where bribes have sometimes totalled many tens of millions of dollars, there was also surprise in some quarters at the relatively small size of the alleged payment.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, Medvedev’s office said, adding: “The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required.”

A Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency that the company saw no risk to the Bashneft deal. “The deal is absolutely above board,” he said.

The minister has been in his job since June 2013. He is not part of Putin’s inner circle, which is dominated by people who favor a commanding role for the state in the economy, but neither is he a part of the rival camp of economic liberals.

Ulyukayev is close to Andrei Kostin, the influential head of Russia’s second-biggest lender, state-owned VTB, and chairs VTB’s supervisory board.

A Moscow court is due to rule later on Tuesday how long Ulyukayev will be detained for.</s>A bribery investigation has reached into the upper echelons of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev has been detained on allegations he took a $2 million bribe to help push through a major oil deal.

Ulyukayev is under investigation for allegedly taking the money in return for his ministry giving a "positive assessment" of state-owned oil giant Rosneft's $5 billion deal to take control of smaller firm Bashneft, Russia's Investigative Committee said Tuesday.

Rosneft completed the deal to buy the Russian government's controlling stake in Bashneft last month.

Related: Russia barges in on Iran's oil bromance with India

Ulyukayev had been under investigation for more than a year, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Investigative Committee said that Ulyukayev had been caught accepting the bribe. The group is Russia's top federal investigative and anti-corruption body, and its leader reports directly to Putin.

Rosneft declined to comment on the investigation, but said the Bashneft deal complied with Russian laws.

"We see no risks for the deal," Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev said.

Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have discussed the minister's detention, according to state media.

"These are very serious allegations," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited as saying. "And a verdict regarding the consistency of these charges can only be rendered by a court."

CNN wasn't immediately able to reach Ulyukayev for comment Tuesday. He remains in custody while the investigation continues, according to authorities.

A former deputy finance minister and central bank chairman, he was appointed economic development minister more than three years ago.

If he is found guilty, he faces a fine of as much as $200 million, or eight to 15 years in prison, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

-- Radina Gigova, Alla Eschenko and Sarah Faidell contributed to this report.</s>MOSCOW (AP) — A long-serving Russian minister has been detained over an alleged $2 million bribe in an investigation of the most senior government official to face charges in years, investigators said Tuesday.

Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev was detained late Monday after he allegedly received a $2 million bribe in a sting set by the FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency, the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Tuesday. The investigators said Ulyukayev took the bribe for giving the green light to state-controlled oil giant Rosneft to take part in bidding for another oil company.

Ulyukayev, who held the post since 2013 and worked in the government since 2000, is a known liberal figure who has spoken against an increasing government presence in the Russian economy. He has opposed Rosneft’s bidding for Bashneft, saying it was wrong for a state-owned company to take part in the privatization drive.

President Vladimir Putin had defended the deal, saying that because Rosneft has minority foreign investors, the sale was not simply a transfer of assets from one part of the state to another.

The lucrative Bashneft was transferred to government ownership in 2014 after its owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov, was charged with money-laundering and accused of acquiring the company illegally. The charges were soon dropped. Yevtushenkov’s arrest was then widely seen as Rosneft’s move to take control of Bashneft which was posting an industry-leading growth in oil production.

The government put 50.1 percent of Bashneft on the market earlier this year but the tender was postponed in August over the opposition of the government’s liberal ministers, including Ulyukayev, to Rosneft’s potential bidding. Rosneft won the tender with a $5 billion bid when the bidding was held last month.

The 60-year old minister is expected to face a court hearing later on Tuesday where he could be formally arrested and charged.

Russian state-owned television early on Tuesday ran Ulyukayev’s detention as the top story headlined “Fight on corruption.”

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, told the RIA Novosti news agency that the president had been informed of the FSB operation in its planning stage. Peskov would not say if the bribery case could affect Rosneft’s deal.

Rosneft’s spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said in televised comments that he doesn’t expect the investigation to affect the deal.

“There cannot be any threat of the cancellation of the deal,” Leontyev said on Rossiya 24 on Tuesday. “No one including the Investigative Committee has expressed any questions about the legality of the deal.”

Banking and finance professionals were aghast at the Ulyukayev case.

“This is a big tragedy,” Bella Zlatkis, deputy chairwoman of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, told Russia news agencies. “I feel really sorry about what happened and even the very fact that such an investigation is taking place.”

Alexander Shokhin, head of a major business lobbying group, told the RBC television channel that he was convinced Ulyukayev was innocent and said he may have been framed.</s>A bribery investigation has reached into the upper echelons of Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.

Alexey Ulyukayev, minister of economic development, has been charged with bribery after he allegedly accepted $2 million to help push through a major oil deal. The minister was fired later on Tuesday, state news agency Tass quoted Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Ulyukayev has been accused of taking the money in return for his ministry giving a "positive assessment" of state-owned oil giant Rosneft's $5 billion deal to take control of smaller firm Bashneft, Russia's Investigative Committee said Tuesday.

Rosneft completed the deal to buy the Russian government's controlling stake in Bashneft last month.

Related: Russia barges in on Iran's oil bromance with India

Ulyukayev was under investigation for more than a year, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

The Investigative Committee said that Ulyukayev had been caught accepting the bribe. The group is Russia's top federal investigative and anti-corruption body, and its leader reports directly to Putin.

Rosneft declined to comment on the investigation, but said the Bashneft deal complied with Russian laws.

"We see no risks for the deal," Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev said.

"The allegations are very serious and demand very powerful evidence," Peskov told journalists. "Only a court can judge his guilt."

CNN wasn't immediately able to reach Ulyukayev for comment Tuesday. Investigators have asked a court to place Ulyukayev under house arrest.

A former deputy finance minister and deputy chairman of the central bank, he was appointed economic development minister more than three years ago.

If he is found guilty, he faces a fine of as much as $200 million, or eight to 15 years in prison, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

-- Radina Gigova, Alla Eschenko, Emma Burrows and Sarah Faidell contributed to this report.</s>Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry has been overseeing a sell-off of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be arrested while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev received a $2 million bribe in exchange for signing off on Rosneft's ( ) purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft ( ).

"The minister is detained," the Committee said in a statement. "In the near future investigators plan to bring charges against Alexei Ulyukayev."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had been informed about the case when the investigation was launched. "These are serious allegations," Peskov said. "Only a court can deliver a verdict."

He said he did not know whether the detention meant that Rosneft's purchase of Bashneft could be reviewed.

Rosneft's acquisition of Bashneft was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told Reuters.

Rosneft's chief Igor Sechin, who is also one of Russia's most powerful men and a close Putin lieutenant, lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft.

But the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatized in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, according to Medvedev's office. "The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required," his office said in a statement.

A Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, was quoted as saying by TASS news agency that the company saw no risk to the Bashneft deal stemming from Ulyukayev's arrest. "The deal is absolutely above board," he said.

The minister has been in his job since June 2013. He is not part of Putin's inner circle, which is dominated by people who favor a commanding role for the state in the economy, but neither is he a part of the rival camp of economic liberals.

Ulyukayev is close to Andrei Kostin, the influential head of Russia's second-biggest lender VTB ( ). The minister is the head of state-owned VTB's supervisory board.</s>MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev yesterday over allegations he extorted a $2 million bribe from top oil producer Rosneft, a case that could expose fault lines in the Russian leader’s inner circle.

Ulyukayev, a 60-year-old technocrat whose ministry oversees a politically-charged sale of state assets, is the highest-ranking Russian official to be detained while in office since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

His case heralded a possible standoff between Rosneft boss and Putin ally Igor Sechin and those in the government who have resisted Rosneft’s ambitions to acquire more state assets at a time when low oil prices and Western sanctions are biting.

Such infighting risks triggering potentially destabilising clan infighting in the run-up to a presidential election in 2018 when Putin is widely expected to run for a fourth term.

Ulyukayev, who a Moscow court ruled should be put under house arrest for two months until Jan. 15, faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

Wearing a blue suit, Ulyukayev told a Moscow court he did not accept his guilt. It was in his own interests to cooperate with the investigation as he valued his reputation, he said.

The Investigative Committee, the state agency that investigates major crimes, said Ulyukayev had extorted the bribe in exchange for approving Rosneft’s $5 billion purchase of a stake in mid-sized oil producer Bashneft.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin had dismissed Ulyukayev after losing trust in him. When asked if the Bashneft deal would be reviewed, he said: “This does not concern the deal in any way.”

In a twist reminiscent of the Soviet era, Ulyukayev’s detention was announced in the early hours of the morning, with state TV and pro-Kremlin politicians calling it part of the fight against corruption.

Investigators praised Rosneft for tipping them off about Ulyukayev’s alleged wrongdoing early so they were able to catch him “red-handed” in what law enforcement sources told Russian media was a carefully planned sting operation.

His phones had been tapped and his electronic communications monitored, the same sources said. Ulyukayev’s lawyer, Timofei Gridnev, told Reuters his client had been detained at Rosneft’s Moscow offices.

Investigators said Ulyukayev had threatened to use his position to cause problems for Rosneft unless it paid him.

They said they were not challenging the legality of Rosneft’s purchase of the Bashneft stake or investigating it.

Putin was informed about the case when the investigation was first launched, Peskov told reporters. “These are serious allegations,” Peskov said. “Only a court can deliver a verdict.”

Previous high-profile prosecutions during Putin’s rule have been a cover for settling commercial or political scores, according to people involved in those cases. The Kremlin and law enforcement agencies deny that, saying they only target criminals.

Rosneft’s acquisition of Bashneft last month was the focus of a major turf war between rival Kremlin camps, sources close to the deal and in the government have told Reuters.

Sechin lobbied hard for the green light to buy Bashneft, but the deal was fiercely opposed by economic liberals in the government, some with ties to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who believed Bashneft should go to private investors.

Ulyukayev initially opposed Rosneft buying Bashneft, one of the most lucrative state assets to be privatised in years, but eventually signed off on the deal.

A 19.5 percent state-owned stake in Rosneft is up for privatisation next. Rosneft is poised to buy the stake itself to sell on to investors later.

Sources told Reuters last week that Rosneft’s parent holding company might help Rosneft with funds for the deal. One state company helping another conduct a privatisation is likely to be disputed among some members of the government.

Christopher Granville, managing director at TS Lombard Research, said Ulyukayev’s detention might be linked to that.

“It must be because of what is happening next,” Granville told Reuters. “To prevent any obstructions to what influential people want to happen next. I’m talking of course of the next phase of the privatisation of Rosneft.”

Alexander Shokhin, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and briefly economy minister himself in the 1990s, said he was sceptical about the accusations against Ulyukayev.

There had been a widespread consensus that the Bashneft stake had been sold to Rosneft for a market price, so it was strange that a bribe would be given for a valuation that everyone agreed on anyway, he said.

In a country where bribes have sometimes totalled many tens of millions of dollars, there was also surprise in some quarters at the relatively small size of the alleged payment.

Medvedev and Putin spoke about the detention, Medvedev’s office said, adding: “The prime minister believes that the most painstaking investigation of this case is required.”

A Rosneft spokesman, Mikhail Leontyev, was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency that the company saw no risk to the Bashneft deal. “The deal is absolutely above board,” he said.

Ulyukayev had been in his job since June 2013. He was not part of Putin’s inner circle, which is dominated by people who favour a commanding role for the state in the economy, but neither was he part of the rival camp of economic liberals.

Ulyukayev is close to Andrei Kostin, the influential head of Russia’s second-biggest lender, state-owned VTB, and he chairs VTB’s supervisory board.</s>MOSCOW -- A high-profile corruption case shook Russia's establishment and appeared to shed light on rifts within President Vladimir Putin's inner circle on Tuesday, after authorities detained the country's economic development minister on suspicion he took a $2 million bribe over a controversial privatization deal.

Alexei Ulyukayev became the highest-ranking official to be charged with corruption during Putin's tenure as Russia's leader and the first national minister to be arrested while in office since Joseph Stalin's ex-security chief Lavrentii Beria was detained in the Kremlin in 1953.

Authorities said Russia's Federal Security Service had been listening to Ulyukayev's phone conversations for months, and Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters that the Russian president had been aware of the investigation all along.

"These are very serious accusations, and only a court can pass a verdict," Peskov said, according to news agencies.

Russia's Investigative Committee, the state agency that probes major crimes, said Ulyukayev was caught "in the act" of receiving the $2 million bribe in exchange for signing off on the $5 billion acquisition last month by the state-run oil giant Rosneft of a 50 percent stake in a smaller state-owned company, Bashneft.

The sale was reported in the Russian media to have caused dissension between rival factions in the Kremlin. Rosneft's top official, Igor Sechin, a close Putin confidant, pushed for the right to purchase Bashneft. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev headed a second group that believed Bashneft should be sold to private investors, not a state-owned company.

Ulyukayev served in some of the earliest post-Soviet Russian governments, which sought to privatize state-owned companies to kick-start a transition to a market economy, a process that was marred by corruption among Kremlin insiders.

As a minister in Putin's government since 2013, Ulyukayev has been overseeing a new sell-off of state assets. Initially, he opposed the Bashneft deal on the grounds that a state-owned company purchasing a state-owned company is not privatization.

But he eventually signed off on the deal, which was pushed by Putin as a way to close the country's widening budget deficit in the face of low oil prices.

Russia's political leadership lined up to cheer the arrest as a sign that the top officials of a country long associated with official corruption can no longer operate outside the law with impunity.

"All are equal before the law," the Interfax news agency quoted Vyacheslav Voloshin, the former head of Putin's administration and currently the speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament. The arrest, Voloshin said, means that there are "no untouchable people" in Russia.

Others took the case as a sign of political tension.

"For me it's a sign of a terrible weakness at the top of the executive power, unbelievable even for me since I thought that it was weak before," Gleb Pavlovsky, a former Putin strategist, told TV Dozhd.

Pavlovsky pointed out how odd it was that Putin apparently knew his minister was under investigation for months but let him stay in office instead of simply firing him.

Others pointed to the oddities surrounding the investigation.

The Investigative Committee emphasized that while Ulyukayev had been arrested on charges of taking money to facilitate a deal, the deal itself had been completed legally and was not subject to investigation.

Another oddity: The man Ulyukayev would've been shaking down, evidently, was Sechin, arguably one of the most powerful people in the country and someone who has Putin's ear.

"One would have to be crazy to extort a bribe from the most influential person in the country," said Alexander Shokhin, who served with Ulyukayev in the Russian Cabinet in the 1990s.

Shokhin, who currently heads Russia's biggest business lobbying group, also pointed out how odd it was that Ulyukayev would've asked for a bribe when the company sold at market price.

Many in Russia's political ranks hold the old "reformers" like Shokhin and Ulyukayev in contempt, in line with the larger attitude in Putin's Russia that the country was sold out to the West after the Cold War by so-called reformers who actually hated their homeland.

That sentiment pervaded the comments by lawmaker Nikolai Kovalyov, a former head of the Federal Security Service, who referred to verses Ulyukayev wrote for his son: "Go my son, go from here; On this globe you will find many places; where one step forward does not mean 500 steps back; Where they don't say everything backward all the time."

"I am not surprised" by the arrest, Kovalyov said. "I expected something of this kind to happen when I read his verses calling on his son to leave Russia."
Russia arrests Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukaev for allegedly seeking a bribe to approve the sale of 50 per cent of Bashneft to state-run oil producer Rosneft last month.