Press release, 28.08.2015

Yesterday Chair of the Karelia branch of YABLOKO, party Political Committee member and entrepreneur Vasily Popov was detained by the police of Finland in Joensuu. According to the politician, the police arrived at his country house. Popov was taken to the pretrial detention centre in Joensuu where he spent the night. He was allowed to keep the phone.

This morning the court decided to release the politcian but the investigation will continue. According to Popov, it may last for about two months and afterwards the court will decide whether Vasily Popov will be extradited to Russia or not.

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 have been filed in the Republic of Karelia within 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.