A former Russian presidential envoy to the Sakhalin region in the Far East, Vitaly Guly, has been detained in Moscow on extremism charges.
Guly's lawyer, Dagir Khasavov, said on January 30 that his client was detained at Domodedovo airport in the capital on January 27.
According to Khasavov, investigators say that his client expressed views inciting hatred in a 2015 book whose title translates as At The Foot Of The Russian Olympus. Sketches For A Modern Bureaucrat's Portrait.
If tried and convicted, Guly, 64, could be sentenced to five years in prison.
Guly served as President Boris Yeltsin's representative in the Sakhalin region in 1991-1993, and held various posts in the presidential administration through 2000, when Vladimir Putin was elected.
He was deputy presidential envoy in the Far Eastern Federal Region in 2000-2001.
A decision on his possible pretrial arrest is pending.
