Tributive art

In Moscow, the former director of the State Center for Contemporary Art and his deputy for financial issues were detained. As the source close to the leadership of the center told Interfax, the detention was carried out according to the results of searches in the GCC.

“Both are now in Lefortovo,” the source said. According to him, the detainees are suspected of "misuse of budget funds." The interlocutor of the agency noted that searches and detention are associated with a corruption scandal in the Ministry of Culture.

The interfax notes are not called the names of the detainees, however, according to Lifenews, we are talking about Mikhail Mindlin and Dmitry Machabeli.

On Wednesday night, Arthid reported that Mindlin and Macchabels were released home after interrogation.

Mindlin, as the poster writes , headed the GTSIS until May 25, when the Ministry of Culture announced the merger of the GTSI with the Rosiso museum and exhibition center. According to the ministry, the association was carried out to increase the efficiency of both institutions.

The new united structure will be headed by the current leader of Rosiso Sergey Perov. Earlier, the Ministry of Culture offered Mindlin an alternative position - the head of the Central Museum of ancient Russian art. Andrei Rublev, and he agreed to occupy her.

On March 15, the FSB officers detained the deputy minister of culture Grigory Pirumov in the case of the theft of state reasons for the restoration of cultural heritage monuments. The director of the Department of Property Management and Investment Policy of the Ministry of Culture Boris Mazo, Director of the subordinate Ministry of FSUE "Central Spanish" Oleg Ivanov, businessman Nikita Kolesnikov, General Director of the construction company Baltorstroy JSC Dmitry Sergeyev and its manager Alexander Kochenov, were also detained. The company was the largest contractor during the restoration of monuments.

Searches were carried out in almost all departments of the Ministry of Culture. For more than ten addresses, documentation related to construction and restoration work was withdrawn. In addition, the searches were held in the administration of Pskov, the "Baltra" and a number of other commercial structures.

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." The investigation presented all participants in the alleged criminal group of four episodes of fraud. "The case appears in the restoration of the Pskov Drama Theater, the Novodevichy Monastery, the monastery of John the Forerunner in Moscow and the Cosmonautics Museum in Kaluga," said Pirumova lawyer Fedor Kupriyanov.

On April 20, the court as a security measure in the framework of a preliminary investigation in the case arrested the property of Pirumov . It was reported that the deputy minister found bank accounts for tens of millions of rubles.

On April 23 , the head of the Directorate for Construction, Reconstruction and Restoration Boris Tsagaraev was arrested as part of the Ministry of Culture. The petition for the imprisonment of the official received from the FSB. At the same time, it was not specified what exactly was charged with Tsagaraev. The court also authorized the arrest until June 21 of the Baltstra employee Vladimir Svanbek in the same case.