The Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (SKP) has opened a criminal case against the former rector of the Russian State University of Physical Education (RSUPE) Oleg Matytsin, the committee's website reports. He is suspected of abuse of power. The investigation believes that he leased 66.4 hectares belonging to RSUPE for the Cherkizovsky Market. But the rent payments, bypassing the federal budget, went to the RSUPE accounts. According to the investigation, the former rector caused damage to the state in the amount of 77.6 million rubles. First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman called the Cherkizovsky Market a source of "corruption, administrative violations, and other crimes." "All branches of government, all authorities have taken up the task of eliminating this fiend of hell," he said in an interview with the Rossiya TV channel (quoted by Interfax).

In early June, Vladimir Putin demanded that the FSB step up the fight against smuggling. On June 7, the Investigative Committee announced an investigation into the fact of storing 58 containers of children's goods "that do not meet safety requirements" in the warehouses of the AST Group at the Cherkizovsky Market, the committee's website says.

RGUFK press secretary Olga Firsova says that Matytsin has not worked at the university for a long time. And the last lease agreements expired in May 2007.

It was not possible to obtain comments from representatives of AST and the Investigative Committee. AST lawyer Pavel Astakhov claims that the company has nothing to do with the containers, since it only owns warehouse premises, which it leases out. A source in the Moscow mayor's office points out that criminal investigations intensified immediately after the AST group opened the Mardan Palace hotel in Turkey, worth $1.4 billion. The head of the press service of the Moscow government, Sergei Tsoi, declined to comment on this issue.

According to Tsoi, the Moscow government issued several decrees on the demolition of the market. "We were ready to close it, but the closure must be coordinated with RGUFK. If we close it, then it means that something needs to be built in its place. The city is ready to close the market when there is a joint decision," Tsoi asserts. According to Firsova, all these issues were agreed upon two years ago. She could not explain why the market has not been closed yet.

Everyone is against Ismailov