The media learned about Alfred Cookom's receipt of Germany citizenship

The ex-head of the State Property Committee and the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alfred Koch received the citizenship of Germany and will not be issued to Russia if they send a request for its extradition to Berlin. It is reported by Business FM with reference to the source from the environment of Koch.

"This year, Koch, who lives in Bavaria, received the citizenship of Germany. If the Prosecutor General’s Office sends an extradition request there, he will be rejected because Germany does not give out its citizens," the source said.

At the same time, the lawyer Alhas Abgadzhava told Interfax that the investigation received from the German authorities a refusal to conduct searches at the defendant of the case of the smuggling of the picture. "An investigator of the FSB last spring sent an international request for the interrogation of my client, as well as the conduct of other investigative actions against him with the participation of FSB officers, including searches," he said.

According to the lawyer, Russian investigators did not allow any investigative actions in Germany. As Abgadzhava emphasized, Koch’s position in this criminal case was presented in writing and is in the case file.

Recall that the former Deputy Prime Minister is accused of smuggling cultural values ​​- paintings by the Soviet artist Isaac Brodsky. The decision on his absentee arrest was made by the Lefortovo court of Moscow. According to TASS, the Moscow City Court on February 16 confirmed the decision on the absentee arrest of a politician.

The appeal was rejected. The lawyer Abgadzhava drawed the attention of the court to the fact that the investigation was known to the location of his client and there is no need to put him on the wanted list. The representative of the prosecutor’s office, in turn, insisted that the Lefortovo court made a legal and reasonable decision, the court took into account the severity of the crime and information about the personality of Koch.

Koch was declared on the federal wanted list in November 2015. Earlier, the FSB conducted two examinations of the canvas, but not one of them, according to the suspect himself and his defenders, clearly confirms his guilt.

It was reported that "the picture was bought by Koch in 1999 in the gallery of the artist Aidan Salahova for 55 thousand dollars (at the then rate - almost one and a half million rubles)." Salakhova claims that the picture had a certificate and it was sold as Brodsky’s work. When Kochu was charged with an absenteeism in the smuggling of a picture worth 197.4 thousand rubles, he stated that the examination did not establish the author of the canvas.

In April 2014, Koch was stopped at Sheremetyevo while trying to take it to Germany, where he constantly lives, the specified picture. The politician said that his wife bought the seized work in the 1990s.

The picture was the signature of the famous artist Isaac Brodsky. Experts about its authenticity were attached to the canvas, although there was no information about where it came from and to whom earlier belonged to. Experts also admitted that the signature was put on the canvas later.

When Koch tried to take out a picture from the country, problems began. Customs officers of the Sheremetyevo Airport seized it and sent it for examination to the Grabar center. They admitted that the picture is a fake, but this did not end. The investigation was conducted by another examination that recognized the picture of the genuine. According to Koch, the initiation of a criminal case is directly related to his opposition political views.