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Close to the government: Vladimir Mau (right) at a ceremony by Vladimir Putin in 2017
Photo: Aleksey Druzhinin / Kremlin / Sputnik / REUTERS
Influential Russian economist Vladimir Mau has been charged with fraud "of an unusually large scale".
This was announced by the Russian Interior Ministry.
The case against Mau is part of a larger case involving another high-ranking academic and a former deputy education minister.
Mau, 62, is a liberal economist who has close ties to political leaders and has advised several governments.
He was an associate of Yegor Gaida, who prescribed economic "shock therapy" for Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
There was initially conflicting information about Mau's whereabouts.
The state news agency Tass reported that the economist had been arrested.
According to the Interfax agency, however, Mau should be placed under house arrest.
dab/Reuters
