Man Arrested For Stealing A Road In Russia

Russia has detained a senior prison service official on suspicion of stealing a 30-mile (50km) stretch of highway, investigators said.

Alexander Protopopov oversaw the dismantling of a concrete highway and sold off the slabs while prison service chief in the far-northern Komi region, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The road, which was made up of more than 7,000 reinforced concrete slabs, was “dismantled and driven away” over more than a year, between 2014 and 2015.

The slabs were subsequently used by a company that sold them on for a profit, investigators said.

Protopopov, now acting deputy chief of the national prison service, faces charges of misappropriating state property while using his official position, which could lead to 10 years in jail.