Far East governor arrested on suspicion of taking bribes worth 371million roubles

The governor of Russia's Far Eastern Sakhalin region has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes of almost $6million (371million roubles) in a rare graft probe targeting senior officials.

Alexander Khoroshavin, 55, was arrested on Wednesday night along with several other individuals accused of corruption on 'a particularly large scale'.

Investigators, assisted by FSB federal security agents, carried out 10 searches on Sakhalin Island as well as five at the governor’s other properties, including in Moscow. It was reported that 'large sums' of money – in both roubles and foreign currency - were confiscated along with jewellery, expensive watches and mobile phones.

Local media reported the search in Khoroshavin's office started on Tuesday morning and carried on until 4am on Wednesday. The governor was at work during the search. 

The others who stand accused in the case are the governor's assistant Andrey Ikramov, his deputy Boris Usachev, and the head of secretariat Vyacheslav Gorbachev. The arrests were heralded by the Investigative Committee as a sign of the government’s determination to stamp out corruption and abuse of authority.

Khoroshavin, who has been governor of Sakhalin since 2007, has been transferred to Moscow, where a court ruled that he will be held on remand in prison during the investigation.

Court officials have been told that the governor is suspected of taking bribes worth $5.6million, an offense that could carry a 15-year prison sentence. According to the All-Russia People's Front in 2013 the regional authorities in Sakhalin were one of the highest spenders in terms of purchases for their administrations.

In particular, 8million roubles went from the budget to buy cars for the heads of the region and 333million roubles were allocated to build a garage for the government vehicles. 

Born in the city of Svobodny in Amur region, Khoroshavin has been living on Sakhalin since 1960. In 1981 he graduated from the Far Eastern Polytech Institute, and became first vice-mayor of the city of Ocha and Ochinsky district in 1997.

A decade later the married father-of-two has risen to become the governor of Sakhalin.