Penza, 18 May 2018. PenzaNews. A Deputy Minister of Forestry, Hunting and Nature Management of the Penza region was detained under Art. 91 of the Russian Federation Code of Criminal Procedure on suspicion of committing a crime under Part 3, Art. 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Illegal felling of forest stands". This was reported by Tatyana Makhnitskaya, senior assistant of the head of the regional investigative department for media relations under the Investigative Committee of Russia.

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She specified that the criminal case against the official had been initiated by the 2nd department for investigation of particularly important cases under the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia in cooperation with officers of the regional department of the Federal Security Service of Russia.

"According to the investigation, in the period from June to December 2016, occupying the post of the head of the department of reproduction, afforestation and forest protection under the Ministry of Forestry of the Penza region the suspect organized and committed illegal felling of live pine trees in the territory of the Kuznetsky are Sosnovoborsky areas together with the deputy director and master of the state autonomous institution Yursovsky Leskhoz as well as the director of the state public institution Kadadinskoe Lesnichestvo. It was held under the guise of a sanitary measure – continuous sanitary felling of forest stands – on the basis of forged documents containing false information about the condition of the trees," the interlocutor explained.

Tatyana Makhnitskaya specified that as a result the forest had been destroyed in the area of 17.8 hectares, and the forest land of the country suffered the damage of over 90 million roubles.

She also reminded that the director of the Kadadinskoe Lesnichestvo and the deputy director and master of Yursovsky Leskhoz had been charged before.

"The issue of charging the deputy minister and the selection of a measure of restriction against him is being solved," the representative of the investigative department said without specifying the name of the suspect.