Sergey Furgal, governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region has been arrested.
Russian state news agency, TASS reported that the governor was taken into custody outside his home.
Furgal, 50, is accused of of orchestrating the murder of a string of entrepreneurs 15 years ago.
He is considered the “organiser of an attempted murder and the murder of a number of businesspeople” in 2004 and 2005.
The charges were published on Thursday by Russia’s top investigative agency.
The statement said Furgal would be would be further grilled in Moscow and officially charged.
The member of the populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), won the 2018 election against the longtime incumbent, Vyacheslav Shport.
Party leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, said the development “is a very big political case”.
Some members of the criminal group Furgal is allegedly linked with had been convicted for murders.
The killings were committed in Khabarovsk and the neighbouring Amur region.
