Aide of Investigative Committee deputy head being checked under Bastrykin's order - spokesman
MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin has initiated a procedural check of an aide to an Investigative Committee deputy head, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax.
"Bastrykin has decided, without any reservations, to immediately conduct a procedural check into this individual's activities. And believe me, neither rank nor position have ever nor will ever keep the chairman from making such a decision," Markin said.
A check is being carried out in order to ascertain the nature of Sergei Odarchenko's activities. Odarchenko is an aide to Investigative Committee Deputy Head Yelena Leonenko, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
The reason for the investigation is the testimony of deputy department head of the Investigative Directorate for the Central Federal District, Sergei Olkhovnikov, who is suspected of bribery.
Employees of the Russian Investigative Committee's Main Investigative Directorate and the FSB detained Olkhovnikov, who had received $150,000 via an intermediary, the Kommersant reported citing several sources in law enforcement agencies.
"Unlike the intermediary, who refused to cooperate and was placed under arrest by the Basmanny Court, Mr. Olkhovnikov has testified that the money was meant for Sergei Odarchenko, who has been an aide of Investigative Committee Deputy Head Yelena Leonenko since 2009," the newspaper reported.
According to the daily's information, Leonenko supervises the work of a district investigative department, including work done for the Central Federal District. Her aide, who is being investigated, worked in the Russian Investigative Committee's Main Investigative Directorate and even led an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the capture of an Arctic Sea vessel by pirates.
