Police search Education and Science Ministry under bribery investigation
MOSCOW. March 21 (Interfax) - Police are searching an Education and Science Ministry building under a criminal case against Viktor Kobzanenko, a former head of the State University of Management, suspected of bribery, the Interior Ministry told Interfax.
"Officers from the economic security and anti-corruption directorate are conducting a search at an Education and Science Ministry building under an investigator's instruction," it said.
It confirmed that the search is related to the bribery criminal case against Kobzanenko.
A law enforcement source told Interfax on condition of anonymity that Kobzanenko had provided testimony incriminating Deputy Education and Science Minister Marat Kambolov. "Documents related to the case are being seized," the source said.
"Kambolov is currently being checked for possible involvement in committing this crime," he said.
Kambolov is currently being treated as a witness, but his status could be changed later, he said.
Interfax has yet to obtain confirmation of this information from official sources.
Kobzanenko was detained on suspicion of accepting a 7-million-ruble bribe on March 7. The investigation believes Kobzanenko had demanded an illegal reward amounting to some 58 million rubles through go-betweens from a representative of a commercial organization for concluding a government contract for the university territory's maintenance and cleaning.
Moscow's Preobrazhensky Court sanctioned Kobzanenko's arrest on March 9, and the education and science minister signed a decree on his dismissal on March 11. A criminal case dealing with acceptance of a bribe and mediation in bribery has been opened against three people, Kobzanenko being one of them.