RTWed, 16 Nov 2016 15:24 UTC
© Igor Zarembo / Sputnik
Russian law enforcement has launched criminal investigations targeting several high-ranking regional officials with charges including embezzlement, theft, bribery, and extortion.The main news of the week was the arrest of Russian Minister of Economic Development Aleksey Ulyukayev for allegedly accepting a $2 million bribe, but more investigations have been initiated all over the country in just the last two days.
The Federal Security Service has arrested two deputies to the governor of central Russia's Kemerovo Region, Aleksey Ivanov and Aleksandr Danilchenko, on charges of extorting a 51-percent stake in a coal mining company from a local businessman. The media estimated the minimum price of the securities in question to be about 1 billion rubles, or well over $15 million. Besides the two deputy governors, FSB operatives also detained a group of agents working in the regional directorate of the Investigative Committee - a Russian federal agency responsible for pursuing especially important crimes - including the head of its investigative department.
They all have been charged with complicity in extortion.
In Moscow, the Investigative Committee arrested a former deputy governor of St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, and launched a criminal investigation into large-scale embezzlement of state funds that had been allocated for the construction of a football stadium. Investigators have told reporters that the suspect, Marat Oganesyan, allegedly arranged for a friendly company to win the tender to supply a special screen for the stadium and received an advance payment of over 50 million rubles (about $770 000) that was later laundered through shell companies and stolen.
Oganesyan is currently in custody and awaiting transfer to St. Petersburg, where he will be investigated and tried.
On Wednesday the Investigative Committee reported that it had also opened a criminal case against the mayor of the central Russian city of Pereslavl-Zalessky, Dmitry Koshurnikov, who is suspected of large-scale misuse of funds belonging to the state hi-tech corporation Rusnano through the local pharmaceutical firm NT-Pharma. Several senior managers of NT Pharma have also become suspects in this case.
Also on Wednesday, Interior Ministry officers searched the office of the director of the state property agency for the republic of North Ossetia, Alan Tsabiyev, who is suspected of abusing his office and committing large-scale theft in 2013 during the privatization of land plots belonging to one state-owned enterprise. Tsabiyev has been placed under house arrest.
Comment: Putin is cleaning house big time.
Eduard Popov of
Fort Russ adds some analysis:
What does all of this mean? Several things are immediately indicated.
1. Purges in the state apparatus can now touch even the highest spheres, up to the level of ministers and vice ministers.
2. The "hunt" for corrupt high-ranking officials has a systemic character as evidenced by the number of people potentially subject to investigations and the breadth of its geographical and institutional reach.
3. A blow is being inflicted first and foremost against representatives of the pro-Western liberal grouping in the Russian establishment. In the opinion of specialists asked by the author, Ulyukaev was no professional in his work. Even less of a competent professional is Dvorkovich, the youngest and perhaps most incompetent vice minister in the Russian government. How the outcome of this rapid investigation against him will end is still unknown. But the chair beneath him has been shaken.
Of course, it is too early to draw any far-reaching conclusions. But certain facts suggest that the purge in the higher echelons of power is gaining tremendous momentum. Several months ago, we wrote in an article for Fort Russ that President Putin is getting rid of (1) the corrupt and (2) the liberal-Westernist layer of the Russian ruling elite. Now this opinion is being backed by supporting evidence. These purges began after the Russian parliamentary elections and after the change (even if not yet official) of the US administration.
I would posit that both factors are significant, and the circumstances are not accidental. If we are right, then Russia and its president are starting a new game at home and on the international field.
Comment: Putin is cleaning house big time.
Eduard Popov of Fort Russ adds some analysis: