By Lucy Papachristou
TBILISI (Reuters) -Police arrested the mayor of Armenia's second-largest city on bribery charges on Monday, hauling him out of his office while crowds protested outside, as authorities crack down on government critics before an election next year.
Vardan Ghukasyan, the mayor of Gyumri, is an ally of the pro-Russian opposition leader Robert Kocharyan, who served as Armenia's president from 1998 to 2008.
Led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who swept to power following street protests in 2018, Armenia has moved closer to the West and distanced itself from traditional ally Russia.
Recent months have seen a clampdown on opposition figures tied to Kocharyan, as well as other opponents of Pashinyan such as senior church figures and another former president, ahead of a parliamentary election to be held next June.
Armenia's anti-corruption committee said on Monday it had opened an investigation into Ghukasyan and seven others on suspicion they had demanded a bribe of roughly $10,000 from a local citizen in connection with an unauthorised building project.
Video on Armenian media showed Ghukasyan being led out of a government building surrounded by large numbers of police and officers clad in camouflage.
Crowds briefly scuffled with Armenia's 'red beret' special forces outside the mayor's office in the city of some 110,000.
"THROW OUT" THE MAYOR
Armenian news reports said at least 23 people were detained at the protests. Armenian authorities said they had opened a criminal case into mass rioting and interference in a law enforcement investigation.
The Gyumri mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment on Ghukasyan's detention.
Pashinyan vowed earlier this month to "throw out" the Gyumri mayor, and questioned his victory over Pashinyan's Civil Contract party in an election in March.
"I think we also have a problem with the election results," Pashinyan told parliament on October 1. "We know that election bribes were distributed there, and we need to have mechanisms to exclude such cases in the future."
Gyumri, which lies close to the border with Turkey, hosts a large Russian military base.
Ghukasyan is facing several other criminal charges related to a previous tenure as Gyumri mayor from 1999 to 2012. His son, Spartak, was put under house arrest last week on extortion charges rejected by the elder Ghukasyan as politically motivated.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Alex Richardson and Peter Graff)
