Russian senator arrested for organising murder

Prosecutors detained Dmitry Savelyev, a Senator from the Tula region, as he was leaving a meeting of the Federation Council, RIA Novosti reports.

The senator was detained for investigative measures.

On August 2, it was reported that the Federation Council agreed to deprive Dmitry Savelyev of immunity due to his involvement in organizing a murder. The Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov requested the senator should be stripped of immunity too.

"We received an appeal from the Prosecutor General asking to consider a possibility of lifting Senator Savelyev's immunity. It was received in the afternoon and, in accordance with the regulations, the Chairperson of the Federation Council [Valentina Matviyenko] brought up this issue at the end of the plenary session. Senators voted to include this issue on the agenda. Senators then voted to lift the immunity," Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Rules and Organization of Parliamentary Activity Vyacheslav Timchenko said, RBC reports.

Senator Savelyev left the session hall and was detained by law enforcement officers on the way out.

Dmitry Savelyev called his prosecution unfounded and the facts against him "fabricated."

As reported by Mash Telegram channel, the senator is suspected of preparing the assassination of his business partner. The man, named only as Ionov, allegedly embezzled the money from an organization in which Savelyev was involved, for which he received a prison term. Savelyev ordered to assassinate Ionov for $100,000 dollars. The senator gave the money to a former employee of the Federal Penitentiary Service. However, the assassin contacted the FSB. The Investigative Committee confirmed reports about Senator Dmitry Savelyev ordering the assassination. The assassination was subsequently staged, and Savelyev received falsified evidence of the crime. When the assassin received the money, all participants of the criminal association were detained.

Dmitry Savelyev represents the Tula Region in the Federation Council. He entered the upper house of parliament in 2016.

The senator was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1968. He served in Afghanistan and worked at a Nizhny Novgorod plant (now AO RUMO). In the 1990s, he worked in oil companies, such as Lukoil, Norsi-Oil and Tatneft.