Press release, 27.08.2015
Chair of the Karelia branch of YABLOKO and entrepreneur Vasily Popov was detained by the police of Finland in Joensuu. According to the politician, the police arrived at his country house. At the moment he is at the pre-trail detention centre in Joensuu. He was allowed to keep the phone.

Tomorrow the court will decided if Popov is going to stay under arrest during the investigation period. According to Popov, the invasrigation may last about two months and afterwards the court will decide whether Vasily Popov will be extradited to Russia.

Recently the politician recieved the residence permit in Finland. When he went on a business trip abroad he was accused of large scale fraud in Karelia. Together with Olga Zaletskaya and Alexandra Kornilova Popov was accused of supposedly selling and purchasing a building at a lower price which did damage to the city of Petrozavodsk at the amount of 16.5 million rubles. However, this non-residential building passed three state examinations to estimate its value, and the decision to sell the building at an auction was taken by court, which confirmed both the legality of the transaction and the estimated value.
The Interpol launched the international search. Vasily Popov asked his lawyer to contact the criminal police of Finland to inform about his location and agarre on conduction of the investigation procedure.
A large number of criminal cases against political opponents of Governor of Karelia Alexander Khudilainen were filed in the Republic of Karelia for the past year: both against YABLOKO members and politicians not related to our party. Recently the parlament of Petrozavodsk adopted the amendments to the city charter canceling direct mayoral elections. This was done to prevent Galina Shirshina, the current mayor from YABLOKO party, from being reelected for the next trem.