Smolensk’s continuing night-mayor

The newly appointed mayor of Smolensk has been arrested on suspicion of corruption.

­The scandal comes less than a day after his deputy, Nikolay Petrochenko, was detained on the same grounds during a late-night raid.

A local City Hall source claims the deputy was caught red-handed accepting a bribe. Petrochenko, however, says he was merely delivering the money to his boss.

The city’s previous mayor was arrested in 2010 on suspicion of extortion. The investigation into that is ongoing.

Leave a comment