Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree relieving Alexey Ulyukayev of his duties as Russia’s economic development minister, the Kremlin press service said on Tuesday, TASS reported.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to relieve Alexey Ulyukayev of his duties over the loss of confidence," the press service said.
Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said earlier Ulyukayev had been detained late on Monday as he received a sum of two million U.S. dollars as a bribe in exchange for the economic ministry’s positive appraisal that allowed the oil major Rosneft to buy out from the state a 50.08% stake in the oil company Bashneft. Petrenko added that the extortion of the bribe was accompanied by threats against Rosneft representatives.
Petrenko said however that the investigators had no questions to ask about the sale of the Bashneft stake proper and that the acquisition of shares was not a subject matter of the investigation.