Dagestani state minister is jailed on embezzlement charges

Two days after police arrested him at the airport in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s economic and territorial development minister, Osman Khasbulatov, has been formally placed in pretrial detention, while investigators build their case against him. Khasbulatov is charged with embezzling more than 20 million rubles ($306,700) when fulfilling government contracts to equip several multipurpose centers in Dagestan.

Investigators say Khasbulatov stole the money in 2015, when he served as head of Dagestan’s Multipurpose Center for the Provision of State and Municipal Services. He allegedly organized a criminal group that sold furniture, computers, and office equipment at inflated prices to the state. Khasbulatov and his accomplices then supposedly collected the extra money through affiliated companies.

Osman Khasbulatov took over Dagestan’s Economic and Territorial Development Ministry in February 2018, after managing the republic’s Multipurpose Center for the Provision of State and Municipal Services since 2013.