MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – A policeman has been arrested for allowing a passenger to skip passport and security checks at an airport in northeast Russia in exchange for a bottle of cognac and a box of chocolates, local transport prosecutors said Wednesday.
The passenger, who was in possession of a passport that was not his own and an air ticket bought under a false name, was detained by police in the departure lounge of Yakutsk Airport last month.
Prosecutors said Ruslan Shamgunov, a junior officer from a pre-flight inspection department, had accepted a half-liter bottle of cognac and a box of chocolates worth an estimated total of 1,500 rubles ($47) for allowing the passenger to bypass the “entire [security] control system” of Yakutsk Airport.
The passenger explained that he had used someone else’s passport to buy an airline ticket to Vladivostok at a discount available for people under 23 years old.
The policeman has been arrested on charges of abuse of power and taking a bribe in exchange for knowingly allowing an illegal action. An inspection into the airport’s security procedures has been launched by transport prosecutors following the incident.
