Agency Report

Russia announced Thursday that a deputy transport minister is being held on fraud charges, a problem the country’s embattled opposition has said is systemic and that the Kremlin has vowed to clean up.

“Deputy Transport Minister Vladimir Tokarev was detained on January 19 and placed in a temporary detention centre,” an interior ministry spokesperson told the state-run TASS news agency.

The interior ministry said that Tokarev, 44, worked with colleagues to embezzle funds from a construction company, SpetsTransStroy, and affiliated companies when he was part of its management team between 2016 to 2018.

SpetsTransStroy went bankrupt in early 2021, after losing several lawsuits filed by Russia’s state railway company.

The ministry did not specify how much Tokarev is accused of embezzling.

It said searches had been carried out at Tokarev’s home and office earlier in the week and that both paper and digital evidence had been collected.