Russia Detains Crimean Deputy Prime Minister On Bribery Charges
By RFE/RL
Authorities in Moscow have detained a deputy prime minister of Crimea’s Russia-imposed government, Vitaly Nakhlupin, for alleged bribe-taking.
Igor Mikhailichenko, Crimea's deputy prime minister, said in a statement on October 17 that he had informed the peninsula’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, about the detainment.
Mikhailichenko said the details of the case cannot be disclosed as an investigation is under way.
Aksyonov said in a statement on Facebook that Nakhlupin’s detention was linked to investigations against unspecified regional officials and state "structures."
Nakhlupin, 52, has served as Crimea's deputy prime minister since January 2016.
He previously led the Crimean parliament's committee for economic, financial, and tax policies.
Nakhlupin is not the first deputy prime minister to be detained after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Kazurin was arrested in January 2017 and later sentenced to 11 1/2 years in prison on bribery charges.
Ukraine says it is strengthening security along the administrative border with Crimea.
Latest details from our news desk.
Journalist Yekaterina Keizo told RFE/RL said that when she got to the scene at about 12:30 p.m. local time, "they were carrying the injured out of the building."
"More and more ambulances were arriving every minute, but there were not enough," Keizo said. "They were putting people with IV drips into regular [minivans]."
She said that eyewitness told her that "two men" had entered the college and that "one blew himself up in the cafeteria" while the other "walked around the rooms and shot everybody at random. He just shot everyone he saw."
According to RFE/RL's Russian service, medical authorities say one of the wounded has died in hospital, raising the total number of those killed in the Kerch attack to 19.
More details of the attack emerging....
The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda quoted student Semyon Gavrilov as saying he woke up to the sound of shooting after falling asleep in a lecture and then saw a young man firing at people with a rifle.
"I locked the door, hoping he wouldn't hear me," the paper quoted Gavrilov as saying.
He said he saw dead bodies on the floor and charred walls, presumably from some fire or explosion, after police arrived about 10 minutes later to evacuate people from the building.
'This Is A Crime': Putin Responds To Crimea Attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced condolences for the victims of an attack on a college in Crimea, saying it was clearly a crime and that the results of investigations would be made public. He was speaking after talks in Sochi with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
