"New suspects in the case could surface soon," an official said. "The investigation is continuing involving a number of senior [police] officials and low ranking employees."
The Kommersant daily reported Friday that Mikhail Yanykin - deputy head of a secret police department responsible for wiretapping, covert video surveillance, and other technical support operations - had been apprehended pending official charges. Nikolai Orlov, deputy chief of the Moscow Criminal Investigations Department (MUR), has been ordered not to leave the city.
Investigators said phone tapping, which can be conducted as part of a criminal investigation and requires court approval, had been turned into a profitable business, with services, including printouts of tapped telephone conversations, being provided to a wide range of "clients."
Yanykin signed fake wiretapping applications provided by top MUR officials, the paper said citing the FSB domestic security agency.
The daily said a search of Yanykin's office had revealed a bunch of fake applications and illegal printouts, and about 300,000 rubles ($11,500) which he had failed to account for. Copies of illegal printouts were also found at the office of Orlov, who was suspended from his post.
The FSB may have launched the probe several months ago after telephone conversations between Russian and Ukrainian politicians and businessmen about an ongoing political crisis in the neighboring state were published in the Internet, Kommersant said.
Orlov's subordinate reported the illegal activities of the Moscow police to the security services after being fired from his post, the newspaper said.
