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Mr Ulyukayev is the first Russian minister to be arrested during Vladimir Putin’s presidency
Russia’s Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev has been accused of taking a bribe to endorse a state takeover.
Russia’s main anti-corruption body, the Investigative Committee (SK), said he received a payment of $2m (£1.6m).
Mr Ulyukayev is the highest-ranking Russian official held since the 1991 coup attempt in what was then the USSR.
The SK said he had “threatened” to create obstacles for Rosneft’s operations when it took a 50% stake in another state oil company, Bashneft.
The minister pleaded not guilty to the bribe charge and saw his arrest as “an act of provocation against a state official”, his lawyer said.
According to SK spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko, “Ulyukayev was caught red-handed”, receiving a $2m bribe on 14 November for giving a favourable assessment of the Rosneft deal. Investigators asked the court to place him under house arrest, Interfax reported.
Mr Ulyukayev’s deputy Yevgeny Yelin was appointed later on Tuesday as acting economy minister.
A ‘strange’ arrest
The apparent sting operation came after months of electronic surveillance, including phone-tapping, officials said. Unconfirmed reports said the internal FSB security service had run the entire operation.
The arrest was big news on Russia’s state-run TV channels.
However, sources told the Novaya Gazeta website that Mr Ulyukayev himself did not take any money, contradicting earlier reports, and there was no video footage of his arrest.
The economy ministry described the arrest as “strange and surprising”.
Show of state strength or payback? By Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, Moscow
News of the minister’s arrest sparked a mixture of shock and bewilderment.
A stream of commentators have been telling viewers that this means that no-one is untouchable, or above the law. Even ministers.
So on one level, the FSB operation is a clear show of state strength. A message to senior officials and far beyond.
But elsewhere there are doubts, and questions about the possible politics behind this.
Alexei Ulyukayev is a well-known economic liberal, with a career dating back to the turbulent market reforms of the 1990s.
He’s against increasing state-control of the economy and opposed the Bashneft privatisation deal which was led by a close and powerful ally of President Putin.
So some suggest this could be a dramatic form of payback. More effective, than simply sacking him.
Others see a symbolic blow to the liberal camp in government.
“You have to think Ulyukayev has spent 25 years in politics and they’re portraying him like some kid who acts in that field like a complete novice.
“It’s hard to tell who’s actually gaining from all this, apart from the SK which is diverting attention away from their generals who are being investigated.”
If found guilty, Mr Ulyukayev, 60, could face a prison sentence of between eight and 15 years.
An economic liberal in the 1990s, he became deputy chairman of Russia’s central bank in 2004. He was appointed economy minister in 2013.
Russia’s controversial privatisation
It was only in October that Rosneft, an oil giant controlled by the Russian government, bought 50% of Bashneft for 330bn roubles ($5bn). Bashneft itself was one of Russia’s largest state oil companies.
Russia is in the middle of an economic slump, largely because of the fall in crude oil prices, and had lined up several state companies for privatisation to replenish state coffers.
BBC