Samara Minister of Health denied information about his detention

The HEAD of the Ministry of HEALTH of the Samara region, Armen Benyan, denied the information about his detention, TASS reports with reference to the press service of the regional government. The minister said he was at work.

“Yesterday, August 3, I was summoned to the Leninsky District Department of Internal Affairs for questioning about a statement received by law enforcement agencies,” he said. Benyan added that after that he took up his official duties.

According to the minister, the department is working as usual.

The day before, TASS reported that searches were being carried out at the Ministry of Health of the Samara Region. According to 63.ru and the TELEGRAM channel Baza, Armen Benyan was detained. At the same time, "KP-Samara" stated that "there is no talk about the detention of the minister yet."

Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, wrote about the detention of Minister Armen Benyan and his deputy Aslanbek Mayramukaev in his Telegram channel. He added that they are suspected of fraud in regional medical institutions. The Samara police are investigating.

The press service of the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that Mayramukaev was detained on suspicion of fraud, and the investigation of the criminal case is ongoing.

Benyan headed the regional Ministry of Health in the summer of 2020. Previously, he worked at the Seredavina Hospital, one of the main covid hospitals in the region, where he was the head of the surgical thoracic department, and in 2019 he became the head physician. In 2018, Benyan was the chief physician of the FIFA competitions in Samara, that year the city hosted World Cup matches.