Top Russian university rector Vladimir Mau detained on embezzlement charges

Vladimir Mau, rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), was detained in Moscow, a source of Novaya Gazeta. Europe reports. The Russian police stated that he had been charged with embezzlement of university funds.

Mau is a suspect in a criminal case opened earlier against former Russian Deputy Minister of Education Marina Rakova, head of the RANEPA Institute of Social Sciences and rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Science (known as Shaninka) Sergey Zuev and others.

Police carried out searches at the homes of Mau and other university employees, the press service of the Russian police stated. RBC newspaper reports that the prosecution had requested to place Mau under house arrest.

Earlier today, Mau was listed among the members of Gazprom Board of Directors.

UPDATE
A source close to Mau told Novaya Gazeta. Europe that over the past two weeks, university employees have been interrogated by the police several times.

The RANEPA rector had been interrogated before. He suspected that he might be arrested, hoping that he would be placed under house arrest.

In June, the rector met with several high-ranking Kremlin officials.

In late May, the Russian police carried out searches at the homes of eight former and current RANEPA employees, including former Deputy Education Minister Maksim Dulinov, his deputy Evelina Alieva and head of RANEPA Research Centre for Strategy, Development and Legal Support Olga Radionova.

The searches were carried out in relation to the fraud and embezzlement case against Rakova and Zuev. The criminal case was opened over suspected fraud and embezzlement of the Foundation for New Forms of Educational Development funds allocated for the Teacher of the Future federal project.

Zuev, Rakova, as well as former employees of the foundation Yevgeny Zak, Maksim Inkin and Artur Stetsenko, are currently held at a pre-trial detention facility. Shaninka executive director Kristina Kryuchkova is under house arrest.

On 22 June, the Moscow City Court ruled to keep Zuev at a pre-trial detention facility despite the ruling of the cassation court that deemed the 67-year-old professor’s arrest unlawful and sent the court ruling for further consideration.

Zuev’s defence team insists that his time at a pre-trial detention facility may affect his health. In late 2021, shortly after his arrest, Zuev was hospitalised with a hypertensive crisis for emergency heart surgery.