Russian authorities have detained a former governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region on embezzlement charges.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement on March 28 that Viktor Ishayev and several other unnamed individuals were accused of embezzling money via fraudulent activities from the state-oil company Rosneft.
Ishayev has not been officially charged yet as searches were being conducted at unspecified locations, the statement said.
Moscow's Basmanny District court later placed Ishayev under house arrest, Russian news agencies reported from the courtroom.
Earlier in the day,Khabarovsk governor’s spokeswoman, Nadezhda Tomchenko, told reporters that the offices of the regional administration in the city of Khabarovsk had been searched by officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Ishayev, a member of the ruling United Russia party, was a vice president at Rosneft in 2013-2018.
He governed the Far Eastern Khabarovsk Krai region in 1991-2009.
In April 2009, he was appointed as the presidential envoy to the Far Eastern Federal Territory, and served as Russia's minister for the development of the Far East in 2012-2013.
He has been a member of Russia's Science Academy since 2008.
