Law enforcement authorities in southwestern Russia’s Kursk region searched the business of a regional lawmaker over reported defense failures that Ukrainian forces exploited during their cross-border incursion this summer.
Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in the Kursk region on Aug. 6, breaching two lines of defensive fortifications that reportedly cost 15 billion rubles ($109 million) and took nearly three years to construct.
Kursk region lawmaker Maxim Vasilyev wrote on social media late Tuesday that police searched the company “where he works” as part of an investigation into defense fortifications in the border region. The lawmaker said he was not personally charged with any crimes.
“The organization where I work was indeed searched and the police representatives were provided with all the documents of interest,” Vasilyev wrote on the social media website Vkontakte.
Neither Vasilyev nor the Telegram news channel that first reported the police searches on Tuesday mentioned where exactly they took place. The channel, Plokhaya Kuryanochka, claimed that police searched the office for the Kursk region’s maintenance fund and “several firms connected to” the lawmaker.
Vasilyev said the investigation targeted “civilian contractors.”
“I’m personally happy that the authorities took up the issue of defensive construction, but I’m concerned that no one needs the truth,” he wrote.
Vasilyev also accused film director Nikita Mikhalkov of “hyping up” defense failures in the Kursk region. Mikhalkov, who hosts a show on state television, claimed last month that unidentified local officials embezzled the 15 billion rubles allocated to defense fortification construction.
Last year, Vasilyev came under fire after a video of him celebrating the New Year at a beach resort in Mexico went viral. Following the scandal, he vowed to volunteer for the Russian military in Ukraine.
Vasilyev said Tuesday that he returned to work in the Kursk region and was ready to cooperate with the police investigation into defense fortifications.
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