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Yaroslavl mayor to be charged on Thursday

Yevgeny Urlashov, detained overnight to Wednesday, July 3, and his three subordinates are suspected of extorting 45 million roubles

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

YAROSLAVL, July 4 (Itar-Tass) - The Lenin district court of Yaroslavl on Thursday will select a measure of restraint for Yaroslavl mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, suspected of attempted bribe-taking, the Investigative Committee /SK/ told Itar-Tass. The hearing is due to begin at 14:00, Moscow time.

Urlashov and another suspect in the case are expected to be charged later in the day.

Charges against other suspects will be brought on Friday, July 5.

Yevgeny Urlashov was detained overnight to Wednesday, July 3. The mayor and his three subordinates are suspected of extorting 45 million roubles.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin claimed that the SK has solid proof of the mayor's culpability.

Other suspects in the case are Urlashov's deputy Dmitry Donskov, head of the Town Hall agency for municipal procurements Maxim Poikalainen, mayor's advisor Alexei Lopatin, and a 34-year-old resident of the Yaroslavl region suspected of mediating a bribe.

The investigators have materials of operations, including audio and video recordings where "Urlashov personally writes the percentage he demands from a businessman as a "kickback." There are also telephone conversations in which he demands that his subordinates press the businessman for urgent payments, as "others are already paying," otherwise, he would not pay him for completed works. There's a video of a search in Urlashov's apartment where 500,000 U.S. dollars were found. The sum is considerable given the mayor's monthly salary of 100,000 roubles and an annual income of 130,000 roubles which he had declared before being elected to the post of mayor," Markin said.

Urlashov, formerly a United Russia member, planned to lead the regional list of the Civil Platform Party at the upcoming elections to the regional parliament on September 8.

Civil Platform leader Mikhail Prokhorov said early on Thursday he was ready to pay bail for Urlashov.

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