Dagestan's former construction minister has been sent to pretrial detention.

A court in Makhachkala has remanded former Dagestan Construction Minister Artur Suleimanov in custody for two months in connection with a bribery case.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on March 17, sources reported the detention of former Dagestan Construction Minister Artur Suleimanov at the Makhachkala airport. It was alleged that the former official is suspected of abuse of office and fraud.

On March 18, the Sovetsky District Court of Makhachkala granted the investigator's motion to remand the former Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities of Dagestan. Suleimanov has been remanded in custody for two months, until May 16, 2026, according to a statement from the United Press Service of the Courts of Dagestan.

The former minister is suspected of accepting a bribe on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Russian Criminal Code carries a prison sentence of eight to fifteen years).

Investigators believe the official received the bribe in kind from the general director of Bavarian House JSC in October-November 2023 – the company renovated the home of the minister's parents and purchased furniture for them worth 2 million rubles.

Suleimanov received the favor for facilitating a government contract to build a school for 420 students in the village of Novosasitli in Dagestan's Khasavyurt District. The agency, subordinate to the Dagestan Ministry of Construction, signed the contract with Bavarian House as the sole supplier, after which the project's budget increased from 490 million to 850 million rubles.

In August 2022, Artur Suleimanov stated that more schools and kindergartens were being built in Dagestan than in other regions, but due to rising material costs, the republic requested an additional 1.6 billion rubles from the federal budget for these purposes.