The case of Petrovich

Report from the Investigative Committee: how illegally arrested Vladimir Yevtushenkov

The motorcade of Vladimir Yevtushenkov at the building of the Investigative Committee. Moscow, September 15, 2014 /Photo: Olga Romanova

The luxurious "Maybach" pressed against the curb, people in a blue militarized form fussed at the escort car. The experienced lawyer Alhas Abgadzhava slowed down and nodded, pointing to me at a strange motorcade - at the wrong time and in a very inappropriate place: a technical lane, a torn fence opposite the Investigative Committee, noon, Monday, September 15.

The position of the motorcade clearly indicated that someone important had big troubles. The type of car left no doubt that this is not about an official, but a representative of a very large legal business. The fact that the Maybach was left at the tattered fence, and did not go inside the spacious court of the Investigative Committee, spoke about the absence of a pass on the car, that is, about the onset of a black strip in the fate of a serious entrepreneur.

- Alekperov? Friedman? Yevtushenkov? - I asked lawyer Abgadzhava.

“Let's go, ask,” Alhas almost joked.

And we went to the Investigative Committee. In the marble lobby, SK smelled with sour shoes, and in the office of a colonel, an investigator for particularly important matters - acetone and nail polish. We came because I was summoned for interrogation, but an important investigator quickly lost interest in me due to my uselessness due to the lack of memory, vision, hearing and oral skills, and after half an hour we left the colonel.

And slam Petrovich

There was no motorcade on the street. We went to drink coffee and discuss what we saw. By all signs, this is their person for the authorities - strangers do not go here like that. For coffee, we developed a version under the working name "The Tale of Petrovich":

“Serious bandits put a small authority to control the factory district, collect tribute from small shopkeepers. And one fine day, large authority speaks to small authorities: it is necessary to hand over a million to the common fund by the end of the month. The small problem has a problem - how to assemble? Explain to the shopkeepers that the tribute has grown three times? So they will apart: that, crisis. A small authority, if there weren’t a fool, collects his punks and says: and slam the shopkeeper Petrovich. “How is Petrovich? Why Petrovich? He is his own, he is humble, you know him since childhood. "But Petrovich."

This is such a gangster logic: you need to slap your own. Who is not expected. And everyone will say in horror: "If Petrovich did not save ... we must pay."

The next day, September 16, details became known: at the request of the Investigative Committee, Yevtushenkov Vladimir Petrovich, a billionaire and head of the AFK Sistema, who owned,, among other things, MTS and Bashneft. The decision on house arrest was made by the Basmanny court, no one knew about the meeting, except for the narrow circle of participants. Neither on the website of the Basmanny Court, nor in the GAS system "Justice" there are no references to this meeting. The case is conducted by investigator Veryeliev, until recently - the senior referent of the SK statistics department. Exactly on the same day I, a little man, was interrogated by a whole colonel for particularly important matters with an excellent and long track record. And the important Yevtushenkov is a recent referent of Veryeliev.

The second oddity is a meeting in the Basmanny Court. It is impossible to assume that Vladimir Yevtushenkov had bad lawyers. Nevertheless, they first abandoned any struggle, announcing only one request - so that the accused was not contained in the apartment where he was registered, but at the villa in Zhukovka. At the same time, the defenders of Yevtushenkov said nothing that his arrest was absolutely illegal. The accusations that were brought to him (embezzlement and legalization of property extracted by criminal means) are subject to Art. 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, known as the Medvedev amendment. She says: if a citizen is accused of committing an economic crime, he cannot be detained if the scope of his activity is entrepreneurial. And in the Code of Criminal Procedure is specially chewed: house arrest is applied in relation to the suspect (accused), taking into account Art. 108 Code of Criminal Procedure. And only on Thursday, September 18, the defense appealed to house arrest.

He hopes to win

But the question remains: why did the defenders not raise the question of the legality of the arrest in court? Answer: House arrest was probably agreed on Monday, in the UK, on ​​the eve of the Basmanny Court. And this means only one thing: Evtushenkov said - rejoice that this is only a house arrest. Yevtushenkov knew that he would be arrested. He initially accepted the tactics of maximum confidentiality, and it was agreed with all the highest authorities.

Could he leave? Could. It is clear that this would cause an attack on the company and the loss of a significant part of his business. He stayed and went under arrest. That is, he hopes to win.

And he has a chance. The general public was amused by the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov, telling Urbi et orbi that the case of Yevtushenkov should not be compared with the Yukos case, Yevtushenkov does not have politics. He, Peskov, three days after the arrest of Yevtushenkov will say that Vladimir Putin knows about the liberation of Yevtushenkov from house arrest. But the problem is that the UK does not know anything about the liberation, the Moscow City Court generally makes square eyes and nods towards the UK, the agency reports that it was the head of the RSPP Shokhin who misunderstood Yevtushenkov and who said that house arrest was removed.

So it became known that Yevtushenkov can speak on the phone. And also to go to work, I immediately added the UK. At the same time, three days before, all this was prohibited to Yevtushenkov. Evtushenkov’s lawyer Vladimir Kozin (arbitration specialist) refused to comment on the booth. The court thought and said that it might tighten the preventive measure - for violation of the regime. Then he was cycle, and he also fell silent.

Trading is now not about the extent of suppression, but about the verdict. The question is whether it will be in relation to individuals not related to the group, or will it be in relation to the AFC System? How was it with Yukos? You can lose shares by court order in favor of the state or agree on its state, conditions.

As the analysis of events shows, many knew or guessed about the possible persecution of Yevtushenkov. Some attentive entrepreneurs and lawyers were worried about the fate of Vladimir Yevtushenkov even after the sudden arrest this summer of the influential businessman Levon Ayrapetyan and the Bashneft shares belonging to the “system”. Ayrapetyan was also detained on suspicion of embezzlement of Bashneft shares, which occurred during their purchase by Yevtushenkov.

The testimony of Ayrapetyan allegedly gave the convict for life imprisonment (for murders and explosions in Ufa as part of the Kingisepp Crime Group) ex-Senator Igor Izmestiev. And again, the coincidence: this summer Igor Izmestyev was left without a defender, but at the same time he was taken to Moscow and made a deal with the investigation. What he actually tells what he does not tell is unknown. But in itself, the fact of using Izmestiev says a lot: the dirtiest thing is to receive readings from a person who sits on a lifelong.