The mayor of the city of Tomsk, Ivan Klyain, has been detained on suspicion of abuse of office in an arrest captured live on a video broadcast.
The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Klyain was detained on November 13 following a probe launched by the Federal Security Service (FSB).
According to the statement, Klyain is suspected of using his position as mayor to illegally prevent the construction of a building in 2016-2017 on territory close to the Tomsk Beer company, which he controls.
FSB officers detained Klyain during an online conference, shocking participants who witnessed the arrest in real time on the Internet.
Klyain, 61, has served as the mayor of Tomsk since 2013. Before being appointed to the post, he had been the director-general of the Tomsk Beer company, one of the largest breweries in the region, since 1994.
After becoming mayor, his wife Galina Klyain was elected by Tomsk Beer's board of directors as the facility's director-general.
In 2013, the Kommersant newspaper wrote that Klyain owned 51 percent of Tomsk Beer, while his spouse and daughters owned 20 percent of the company's shares.
For several years, Klyain declared one of the highest incomes among Russian mayors, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets.
Klyain is the third mayor of the Siberian city to be detained on suspicion of abuse of office since 2006.
Siberian City Mayor Arrested For Corruption Live On The Internet
Ivan Klyain is the third mayor of Tomsk in fourteen years to be detained on suspicion of abuse of office. (file photo)