To prison, on business, urgently!

Finance Minister demands meeting with his arrested deputy

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said at a briefing at the White House yesterday that he urgently needs to meet in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center with his arrested deputy Sergei Storchak, whom the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (SKP) accuses of attempting to steal $43 million from the state budget The desire to see the prisoner, as Mr. Kudrin explained, arose in connection with the urgent need to discuss important issues relating to the work of the ministry. As the Ministry of Finance explained to Vremya Novostey, due to the arrest of Mr. Storchak, in particular, negotiations on the settlement of the Libyan debt to Russia, which together with interest amounts to about $3.5 billion, are in jeopardy. Documents on these negotiations why They were seized by investigators. Kudrin's deputy was responsible for solving this problem, and, as noted by the Ministry of Finance, the official was actually detained during the final stage of negotiations.

In addition, Mr. Kudrin said that he had fulfilled his promise and sent a petition to the Investigative Committee for the release of Sergei Storchak from custody on his own responsibility. However, sources close to the investigation doubt that the minister's requests will be satisfied. The lawyer of the arrested official, Igor Pastukhov, said that everything would depend on the will of the investigator.

“Only Storchak has operational information on a number of issues,” Mr. Kudrin explained at a briefing yesterday the reason for his desire to get to Lefortovo. - I requested a meeting, it is urgently needed. On the day of his arrest, Storchak not only planned to report one issue at a government meeting, he had a package of documents for flying to one of the countries where we were supposed to hold negotiations that day at the local Ministry of Finance. All these documents were confiscated, including in his office and departments.” Without personal communication with a subordinate, it is impossible to solve the problem, according to the minister: “There are a number of issues that I need to discuss with him, and now all these points are beginning to negatively affect the negotiation processes, which the ministry nevertheless continues.” At the end of his speech, the Minister of Finance noted that “they expect a response to the petition in the coming days.” “I would like it right away, but there are certain procedures; it may be necessary to consider a cassation appeal in court regarding the preventive measure,” explained Mr. Kudrin. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, “Storchak’s mood is generally normal”: “Conditions want to be better, but I would not give details.”

The Ministry of Finance clarified yesterday that due to the arrest of their high-ranking employee, tension arose in negotiations with three foreign countries at once. “The deputy minister was arrested on the day when our delegation flew to South Africa for a meeting of finance ministers. At the same time, it was planned to continue negotiations with Libya. It is impossible to say that the work is paralyzed, it is simply disrupted. It will be especially offensive if the negotiations on the “Libyan issue,” which have actually reached the final stage, drag on,” one of the financial department employees told Vremya Novostey.

Another colleague explained the essence of the negotiations with Libya. According to him, negotiations to resolve Libya's debt to Russia were difficult from the very beginning. Borrowers did not recognize the debt due to the fact that in the early 90s our country joined the UN economic sanctions against Libya. Tripoli stated that they borrowed money from the USSR, and refused to recognize Russia as a legal successor for external debts. The Russian Ministry of Finance, as the source said, “did a colossal amount of work” to convince the Libyans and offer them an option that would satisfy the interests of both states. “We managed to find an approach to the borrower largely thanks to the efforts of Mr. Storchak,” the ministry employee emphasized. According to him, the Ministry of Finance was going to use the following scheme in relation to the Libyan debt. Most of the debt would be written off in exchange for concluding contracts with the Russian side for the supply of military equipment. The other part would be “restructured” into cooperation between the parties in the oil industry (Libya is one of the ten countries producing “black gold”). According to a source in the Ministry of Finance, long and difficult negotiations “actually reached the finish line when the special services intervened, detaining the person who occupied a key position in the negotiations, whom the foreigners knew well.” Now, as experts note, it is impossible to predict the further course of the negotiations, since relations with Libya are still shaky, and competitors, a number of Western states, are also showing interest in this oil state.

Deputy Prime Minister Kudrin yesterday expressed hope that he would receive a response to his petitions from the SKP in the very near future. But the likelihood that it will be positive is extremely low. Thus, one source close to the investigation yesterday expressed doubts that the minister would be allowed into Lefortovo, and Storchak himself would be released from arrest. “The position of the investigation remains unchanged. The crime Storchak is accused of is classified as serious. The evidence available in the criminal case indicates that, while at large, the accused can hide, engage in criminal activities, put pressure on witnesses, and also destroy evidence of his guilt, the source recalled the reasons for which the Basmanny court arrested the official, and added: - The decision to change the preventive measure is the prerogative of the investigator. However, given the personality of the applicant (Kudrin - Ed. ), it is obvious that such an issue will be discussed at a higher level.”

The lawyer of the arrested deputy minister, Igor Pastukhov, confirmed to Vremya Novostei that the decision to grant the petition lies within the competence of the investigator. “Whether he agrees with the arguments presented there, I don’t know. By law, he has three days to consider it. In addition, on December 3, the Moscow City Court will consider our complaint against the arrest of my client. We believe that the arrest is illegal and unfounded, we ask you to release the deputy minister from custody,” said Mr. Pastukhov. =

Let us recall that Deputy Minister of Finance Sergei Storchak, as well as two businessmen - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Interregional Investment Bank (IIB) Vadim Volkov and General Director of Sodexim CJSC Viktor Zakharov were detained on November 15. They are accused of attempting to steal more than $43 million from the state budget under the guise of returning Algerian debt to Sodexim. According to investigators, in the mid-90s, Sodexim bought from the state part of Algeria’s debt to the USSR in the amount of $26 million. However, in 2006, Russia wrote off the Algerian debt. In this regard, businessmen turned to the Russian government with a request to compensate this amount, as well as accrued interest. After lengthy negotiations, the Ministry of Finance agreed to compensate the entrepreneurs for the written off debt and transfer the money to Sodexim’s accounts in the IIB. According to the leadership of the Ministry of Finance, the actions of officials in this situation were absolutely legal and were subject to dozens of approvals from other departments. However, the investigation thinks differently. The UPC is confident that the deputy minister and businessmen, having created a criminal group, wanted to steal money from the budget under the guise of covering costs.

Alexey IVLEV