MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - A high-ranking Siberian city official has been detained on suspicion of bribe-taking, local law-enforcement agencies said Tuesday.
A spokesman said a deputy mayor of the town of Zheleznovodsk in the Irkutsk Region in Eastern Siberia was arrested in a joint operation conducted by the local Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service while allegedly receiving a 50,000-ruble advance (about $1,800) on a 500,000 (about $18,000) bribe from a businessman.
"He demanded a bribe in exchange for extending the lease of a local marketplace," the spokesman said, adding that prosecutors had already opened a criminal case against the official and an investigation is under way.
