The wife of an expatriate businessman held by the tax police for questioning said she was scheduled to meet her husband in prison January 29.
Lena Burston, wife of Australian businessman Robert Burston, said her husband was arrested for tax concealment and was being held at St Petersburg's infamous Kresty Prison.
Tax police spokesman Vladimir Alexandrov would not confirm Burston's whereabouts or any charges against him.
"But there's no secret, everything's in order," Mr Alexandrov said, adding he would answer questions this week.
Mrs Burston said she raised around 20 million roubles ($4,255) bail last week but, when she brought the money in, prison authorities told her bail had been raised to $100,000.
"They'll ask for more and more, and I don't know why," she said. "I still don't know what happened. Put him in jail, fine, but tell me why."
She said that, after Burston's arrest, she spent days trying to find where he was being held and how to get him out.
"I'd go to Kresty, they'd say he wasn't there and I should talk to the local militia," she said. "I'd go to the militia, they'd say go back to Kresty."
Burston's lawyer has seen the accused, visiting him at Kresty, Mrs Burston added. Mrs Burston said she was not at home when her husband was arrested, but her mother was.
"My mother said that, when the tax police came to get Robert, they said `Give us $100,000 and we'll drop this,'" she said. "Why $100,000? Where do they get that amount? Already that kind of sum was being discussed."
She said her husband "writes everything down" and said if he were allowed access to his papers, "he could explain everything."
"This is just a crazy situation," she said.
In Moscow, Australian consul general Geoffrey Becher said he had "heard nothing further" about the case.
* Editorial, commentary.