Medinsky: checking the FSB in the Ministry of Culture will only benefit the department

A check in the Ministry of Culture after a corruption scandal with the participation of managers will benefit the department. This was stated by Minister Vladimir Medinsky, reports TASS.

“We are very happy in a sense that it was the FSB that is engaged in this, because there are experts of the highest class,” Medinsky said. “They are only a plus for us. Because they know better by profession, and they know it better, what kind of loopholes, tricks, etc. can be there.”

The minister also assured that the agency is actively cooperating with the investigation. "We, the humanities, perhaps do not understand many things. And any adjustments to which the relevant authorities will indicate us will be made," Medinsky noted.

Medinsky also said that the department was preparing an appeal to the court with a request to change the preventive measure against the arrested employees for house arrest. "We will see how to correctly arrange this correctly, it should be tactful. Since we in no case do not want this to be perceived as in some field of pressure," Medinsky said.

Meanwhile, the investigation checks the involvement of the theft of the accused in the raider seizure of a number of buildings in the center of Moscow Alexander Konstantinovsky. "One of the controls controlled by Konstantinovsky won the Ministry of Culture tenders and was engaged in the restoration of cultural monuments, while the results of restoration work were deplorable. The involvement of the Ministry of Culture accused in the fraud is currently being checked," a TASS source close to the investigation said .

On March 23, Konstantinovsky was detained, and subsequently arrested. He was charged with large fraud, perfectly organized by a group. She held the capture of premises in more than 20 buildings in the center of Moscow. The investigation estimates the damage at half a billion dollars.

On March 15, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow arrested the Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Pirumov , the director of the property management and investment policy of the Ministry of Culture of Boris Mazu and the director of the subordinate ministries of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Centernstaszation Oleg Ivanov. Dmitry Sergeev, managing company Alexander Kochenov and large entrepreneur Nikita Kolesnikov, were also sent to custody.

The case was initiated by part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud on an especially large scale). According to the FSB investigator, the damage caused is estimated "at least 50 million rubles." In the case, four episodes are already appearing: the theft of funds allocated for the restoration work of the ensemble of the Novodevichy Monastery, the Drama Theater in Pskov, the John-Baptist Monastery and the Cosmonautics Museum in Kaluga.