Blogger who investigated corruption in Russia's traffic police now finds himself behind bars

Police in Moscow have arrested a video blogger named Erik Kituashvili (known online as Erik Davidych) on charges of fraud. He was taken into custody over the weekend, and law enforcement officers searched his apartment.

According to the website Mediazona, Kituashvili is accused of being a member in an organized crime group that's committed several offenses, including a fraud case involving a Lexus and damages estimated to be 1.3 million rubles ($17,100).

For the past six months, Kituashvili has been publishing investigative films revealing corruption in Russia's traffic police. According to his lawyer, he's currently working on an investigation into the traffic police's role in an assassination attempt on Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the president of Ingushetia (one of Russia's republics in the North Caucasus).

Kituashvili claimed in court that he's outed more than 300 crooked cops in the traffic police, and he says he has evidence that Moscow's top traffic police officer, Viktor Kovalenko, bought his position for $300 million.

Kituashvili says his arrest was a “special operation by the police.” “I'm not the opposition. I'm not some [Alexey] Navalny. I just love my country,” he said.

Mediazona