Over the course of a year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was unable to collect evidence of the guilt of the ex-chief of the capital’s metro.

Yesterday it became known that during the year of investigation, the former head of the capital's metro, Dmitry Gaev, was never accused of abuse of power and left Russia. The investigation period in the case expires on March 23, and Mr. Gaev may not return before its completion.

The investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case under the article “Abuse of Power” (Part 1 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against the former head of the capital’s metro Dmitry Gaev on March 23 last year. The basis for this was the results of an audit by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which came to the conclusion that Mr. Gaev "performed his duties in bad faith, contrary to the interests of the unitary enterprise, creating a system of personal enrichment at the expense of the organization he headed." In the audit materials, the prosecutor's office saw that after in 1997 the State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow Metro" entered into contracts with Ankey Holding and Ankey Smart Technologies (the company is owned by British citizen Olga Bayt) for the supply of an automated metro fare payment system for $23, 9 million, Dmitry Gaev in January 1998 sent an application and then received a patent for the invention of an “Automated system for paying fares and checking travel documents for transport.” The prosecutor's office, and then the investigation, considered that this was done "for the purpose of personal gain." The benefit, according to prosecutors and investigators, was that Mr. Gaev, having a patent, entered into a license agreement with the State Unitary Enterprise for the use of an “automated system”, receiving 112 million rubles from the metro from 1999 to 2010. (first - a one-time remuneration in the amount of 12 million rubles, and then - 10 million rubles annually). Moreover, payments continued even after the patent expired in November 2004.

Mr. Gaev did not admit his guilt, and his defense turned to nine independent experts, including in the field of patent law, who, as lawyer Alexander Asnis told Kommersant yesterday, recognized the legality of the actions of the ex-chief of the metro. In turn, the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation ordered two examinations, but the defense has not yet been familiar with their conclusions - most likely, they are simply not completed.

According to the lawyer, the main investigative actions with his client were completed in September last year. Nevertheless, the charge under Art. The investigator did not charge Dmitry Gaev with Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, releasing him for treatment in one of the European countries. “He has a fairly serious illness, but after treatment, my client intends to return to Russia,” the lawyer assured Kommersant. However, yesterday the defense lawyer did not predict whether Mr. Gaev will return by March 23, when the investigation period in the case expires.

Yuri Senatorov

Dmitry Gaev left unindicted