A St. Petersburg resident was arrested in connection with the theft of archaeological finds worth 5 million rubles from the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg arrested local resident Yuri Otopkov in the case of the theft of archaeological finds from the archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This was reported by the press service of the city courts.

The man was accused of theft on an especially large scale (clause “b” of Part 4 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code).

Representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk noted in a conversation with TASS that Otopkov stole 26 items worth about 5 million rubles from a scientific institute on Palace Square.

In addition, the police established that the detainee was involved in “similar crimes” in the Vasileostrovsky and Petrogradsky districts. According to security officials, he stole historical valuables from the institute’s division on Roentgen Street and the archive’s branch on Vasilyevsky Island.

During a search of Otopkov, they found a fragment of a seal impression from a 12th-century manuscript from the archive worth about 8 million rubles.