All news

Court to consider investigator's petition to suspend Yaroslavl mayor

Urlashov was convoyed to Moscow on July 16. He is kept in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison

MOSCOW, July 18 (Itar-Tass) - Moscow's Basmanny court on Thursday will review the investigator's petition to suspend Yaroslavl mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.

Attempted bribery charges were brought against the mayor, his deputy Dmitry Donskov, head of Town Hall's agency for municipal procurements Maxim Poikalainen, and mayor's advisor Alexei Lopatin. Andrei Zakharov was accused of "attempted mediation of bribe."

Earlier, the SK reported that Maxim Poilkalainen had signed a plea bargain agreement, and that Andrei Zakharov had asked for plea bargain, too.

The investigator said the Yaroslavl mayor and his subordinates, since December 2012, had been extorting a 14-million-rouble bribe from a company director. He had to pay them a kickback from the sum transferred for completed works, threatening to suspend payments under the next contract if he refused.

A second criminal case against Urlashov was opened on July 5. He was accused of taking 500,000 roubles from a businessman for dropping Town Hall's claims against his firm. There is a video attached to the criminal case materials showing Urlashov's meeting with the businessman and his taking the money.

The mayor denied wrongdoing.

Urlashov was convoyed to Moscow on July 16. He is kept in the Matrosskaya Tishina remand prison.

Urlashov is a former member of the ruling United Russia Party. He planned to lead the regional list of the Civil Platform Party at the upcoming elections to the regional parliament on September 8. He has been Yaroslavl mayor since April 11, 2012.

"Taking into account the public stir made by this case - which actually is a routine criminal case, I can assure that the investigators intend to look carefully and without bias into the circumstances of the crime, and regularly inform the public about all the important procedural decisions made by the investigators within the scope of the criminal case," the SK spokesman said.

On July 17, Poikalainen and Andrei Zakharov were convoyed from Yaroslavl to a Moscow pre-trial detention center, spokesman for the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service /FSIN/ Alexander Kruglov told Itar-Tass. Donskov and Lopatin remain in the Yaroslavl remand ward.