Ex-advisor to Rosrybolovsto head denies being detained over bribe
MOSCOW. May 31 (Interfax) - Yury Khokhlov, a former advisor to the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery (Rosrybolovstvo), denied earlier media reports that he had been detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe.
"I was not given any bribe, no one detained me, and there are no freedom restrictions with regard to myself. No accusations were made against me," Khokhlov told Interfax, adding that he was currently free in Moscow.
"On Tuesday, May 24, an attempt was made to simulate giving a bribe on the part of some law enforcement agencies with the participation of an actor," he said.
"Professionally, as an advisor to the Rosrybolovstvo head, I was responsible for interaction with the industry's leading enterprises and prospective investors. Naturally, I held working meetings with the relevant representatives. The following situation occurred during one of such meetings, which took place on Tuesday: as soon as the negotiations began - by the way, I was not earlier acquainted with either of those two men present - officers of law enforcement agencies came to our table, searched one of the people sitting at the table and found a large sum of money on him. The situation was presented as an attempt to give a bribe. An appropriate protocol was compiled afterwards," Khokhlov said.
"I voiced my protest over such actions. Representatives of the public signed beneath my words in the protocol that no money was handed over and it was a theatrical provocation," he said.
The former official also said that he had informed his director of this incident in due course and had asked for his resignation to be accepted.
"Since this incident causes damage not only to my reputation, but also to the agency, I decided to voluntarily resign. My resignation was accepted on Friday, and, starting from Friday, I am not an employee of Rosrybolovstvo," he said.
"I cannot call it anything other than a blatant ordered action. One of the best confirmations for this is that witnesses did not believe this fake," Khokhlov said.
"It was an organized provocation to discredit the agency's work as part of the ongoing policy to increase the state's control in the fishing industry," he said.
A number of media outlets said earlier that Khokhlov had been detained over a large bribe.