AP News, November 16th, 2007
A deputy finance minister who is one of Russia's top officials on international financial relations has been detained, a Finance Ministry spokesman said Friday.
There was no immediate word on whether charges had been filed against Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak. But the state-run news agency RIA-Novosti quoted an unnamed police source as saying the detention was connected to a criminal case "in relation to Storchak himself."
Finance Ministry spokesman Andrei Saiko confirmed the detention and expressed the ministry's hope for an objective investigation, but did not give further details.
Storchak, one of three deputy finance ministers, has specialized in international financial relations and been a prominent figure in negotiations on paying off tens of billions of dollars in Soviet-era debt.
In 2006, Russia, its coffers filled with surging oil revenues, paid off the last of its debt to the club of international creditors ahead of schedule with a tranche of $21.6 billion.
Storchak helped broker the deal for the early repayment, in which Russia paid a $1 billion penalty for premature repayment, but overall saved the country $7.7 billion in interest. The deal was a public-relations coup for Russia, underlining its booming economy and buffing up its image eight years after the ignominy of defaulting on debts in the 1998 financial crisis.
Although foreign investors have largely regained confidence in Russia in recent years, concerns about official corruption persist and Storchak's detention could amplify the worries.
The international corruption watchdog Transparency International lists Russia as 143rd out of 179 countries on its corruption-perception index, on the same level as Togo and Gambia.
