Mr. Amirov has been mayor of Makhachkala, capital of the multi-ethnic republic of Dagestan, since 1998, and has survived 15 assassination attempts in the past two decades. His power base is a major ethnic clan, the Dargans, which experts say has enabled him to run the city almost as his private fiefdom. Russian law enforcement also believes he was at the center of a vast organized crime ring.
A note posted on the official website of the Investigative Committee says Amirov and his men were arrested in connection with the 2011 murder of a senior state investigator and that they are under investigation “in a number of other serious and especially serious crimes in the Republic of Dagestan.”
Appearing in Moscow’s Basmanny court Sunday, Amirov said that the case against him “is concocted and I do not admit any guilt.”