Forgiven for now

The former deputy minister heard his first sentence

The trial in the scandalous criminal case of former deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations (MFER) Andrei Dogaev ended yesterday in the Moscow City Court with an unusually lenient sentence. The Prosecutor General's Office believed that for a certain bribe he illegally issued licenses to companies to export raw materials abroad, and accused the official of complicity in smuggling, abuse of power and taking bribes. However, the Moscow City Court did not agree with the last charge, so it gave Mr. Dogaev only three years probation. Moreover, the court decided to return to the defendant the valuables seized during the investigation, and these are 150 valuable paintings, apartments in Moscow and Switzerland, etc.

Andrei Dogaev came to the attention of the special services in 1993. Then, in Belgorod, State Customs Committee employees detained 132 tons of copper, which the Moscow MPO Kvazar sent to a Singaporean company. The customs officers were confused by the fact that the accompanying documents had the wrong stamps. A criminal case was opened, and employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation joined the investigation, who found out that the smuggling was carried out with the direct participation of the then deputy head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations, Andrei Dogaev. According to investigators, the official personally issued Kvazar a license to export copper, although he did not have the right to do so. MPO did not have permission for foreign economic activity; moreover, copper at that time was considered a strategic raw material; only special exporters established by the government could export it, and Kvazar was not one of them. Then the investigation moved to the Prosecutor General's Office (by that time Mr. Dogaev had taken the post of deputy minister) and began to grow like a snowball.

As investigators found out, back in 1992, the Azerbaijani company Petro Chem and its Russian partner, the joint venture RTD, led by Nazim Akhundov and Sergei Lukashin (now on the wanted list), had problems sending 750 tons of nickel abroad. The commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations for the Northern Region, Evgeniy Petrov, and the same Andrei Dogaev agreed to help. The latter first sent a letter signed by Murmansk customs, allowing Petro Chem (it did not have licenses for foreign economic activity) to temporarily export nickel (with mandatory return to Russia). When this did not help, Messrs. Petrov and Dogaev personally flew to the head of the Murmansk customs, Muravyov, and persuaded him to release the goods. As a result, the nickel never returned to Russia, but was sold in Rotterdam. By the way, Mr. Muravyov was found hanged shortly after that story.

Also, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Mr. Dogaev illegally issued licenses for the export of cod abroad to the Murmansk companies “Kramds-Center” and “IKTs VEV”. The latter company paid Mr. Dogaev, under the pretext of paying for certain lectures, 125 thousand rubles, which investigators regarded as a bribe. As the prosecutor’s office found out, in 1992, Akhundov asked Mr. Dogaev to issue a license for the capital company “Quinta” to transport 30 tons of cobalt abroad, which was also done. Mr. Dogaev was detained in 1995. At the same time, his Russian and foreign real estate and a collection of 150 paintings (including brushes by Aivazovsky, Petrov-Vodkin, Kuindzhi, Serov, Perov, etc.) were seized.

During the trial, at which ex-deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations Sergei Glazyev acted as a witness, the judges considered that Mr. Dogaev received 125 thousand for the lectures that took place, so they dropped the charge of taking a bribe against him. Regarding the remaining episodes, the court considered that the statute of limitations had expired, so a three-year suspended sentence was sufficient for the former deputy minister. Also, when passing the sentence, the judges took into account that the ex-deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations served one year and three months in prison and is a group I disabled person. Evgeniy Petrov received a suspended sentence of one and a half years.

However, perhaps next year Mr. Dogaev will face a new trial. Now the Prosecutor General's Office is finishing the investigation into the activities of RAO International Economic Cooperation (IEC), in which Mr. Dogaev is accused.

At one time, this structure was organized with the participation of the Moscow Patriarchate, and its leadership included Oleg Soskovets, Vitaly Kirillov, Yuri Shalunov (the latter was killed two years ago). MES became an authorized company in Russia in transactions for the sale of oil for state needs (in particular, funds from its proceeds went to the restoration of the Kremlin under the leadership of Pavel Borodin), and some permits for the export of oil through MES were personally signed by Viktor Chernomyrdin. However, as it turned out, part of the proceeds remained abroad, and part was spent with violations. In addition, the export process itself, as the prosecutor’s office believes, was carried out, to put it mildly, incorrectly.

Alexander SHVAREV