Lurye, 44, a well-known investigative journalist and editor at the VTV television company, was detained on charges of extortion and fraud.
Russian media reports earlier said that Lurye attempted to blackmail a Russian senator.
This is not the first criminal case against Lurye. In 2001, the journalist was ordered to pay $20,000 in compensation to Viktor Stolpovskikh, the head of the Mercata Trading company.
In 2003, the Versiya newspaper paid millions of rubles in compensation and its editor-in-chief resigned after the edition published two of Lurye's articles, tracing criminal trails in the assets of Russian conglomerate Alfa Group, which has stakes in the Russian oil and gas sphere (TNK-BP), telecommunications (Vimpelcom), and investment banking (Alfa Bank).
