Top Russian economic expert faces embezzlement charges

MOSCOW (AP) — A leading economic expert in Russia has been detained on embezzlement charges. Investigators on Thursday accused Vladimir Mau, the rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, of taking funds from the institution. The investigators said the accusations were part of a broader embezzlement probe involving a former deputy education minister who worked alongside Mau and testified against him. Mau denied the charges. Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court put Mau under house arrest pending the ongoing probe. Some observers see the case as linked to purges targeting members of Russia’s liberal elite. Since the early 1990s, Mau has served as a senior economic adviser to the Russian government.