Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov may become involved in a criminal case

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov may soon be summoned for questioning as part of an investigation into the sale of real estate, land plots and shares of enterprises owned by the Ministry of Defense at deliberately reduced prices, writes Kommersant .

Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov may become a defendant in a high-profile criminal case initiated by the Main Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee on the grounds of crimes under Part 4 of Article 159 ("Fraud"), paragraph "c" of Part 3 of Article 286 ("Exceeding official authority "), part 3 of article 285 ("Abuse of official powers") and part 2 of article 201 ("abuse of powers") of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Companies affiliated with Oboronservice OJSC, whose chairman of the board of directors until recently was Serdyukov, carried out real estate fraud, the damage from which amounted to more than 3 billion rubles.

As part of this case, the minister’s neighbor, the former head of the property relations department of the military department, 33-year-old Evgenia Vasilyeva, whose house was searched by law enforcement officers on October 25 and confiscated documents, jewelry and antiques, has already given testimony. Vasilyeva stated that she was not involved in any fraud, the investigation continues.

The investigation intends to interrogate Anatoly Serdyukov - for now as a witness, the publication clarifies.