MOSCOW, September 20. /TASS/. A Moscow district court on Sunday imposed pre-trial restraints on 16 people involved in a criminal community case initiated against head of Russia’s Republic of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer.

"The court upheld the investigator’s motion to place 15 suspects under arrest till November 18. Home arrest was imposed on one more suspect," Anna Fadeyev, the press secretary of the Moscow Basmanny District Court told TASS.

Among those arrested are Vyacheslav Gaizer, his deputy Alexei Chernov, the republic’s deputy prime minister Konstantin Romadanov, former member of Russia’s Federation Council (upper parliament house) from the Komi Republic Yevgeny Samoilov and other top-ranking regional officials.

On September 19, the Russian Investigations Committee’s high-profile crimes department opened a criminal case against 19 people on charges of organizing a criminal community (article 210 of the Russian Criminal Code) and fraud (article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). Charges have already been brought against Gaizer and Chernov.