FSB seizes documents in the Hermitage

Employees of the Federal Security Service began to confiscate documents from the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, according to Fontanka.

According to the publication, operatives from the district department for the Central District of St. Petersburg and the Service for the Protection of the Constitutional System and the Fight against Terrorism (this unit also oversees cultural objects) came to the museum on the afternoon of January 31.

The press service of the Hermitage told Novaya Gazeta: “At the moment we have no such information [about the seizure of documents].”

However, Fontanka claims that the operatives were interested in documents related to the state contract for the construction of the second phase of the Hermitage's new storage facility on Shkolnaya Street.

We are talking about a contract with Mekhstroytrans worth 3.67 billion. As the publication notes, in 2016 Mekhstroytrans was significantly behind the work schedule and did not pay for the work performed by subcontractors, although the company received an advance payment of 1 billion rubles. The Hermitage then asserted that the backlog was not of a critical nature.

The management of Mekhstroytrans, notes Fontanka, is involved in a large criminal case of the Ministry of Culture, in which charges were brought against ex-Deputy Minister Nikolai Pirumov, head of Baltstroy Dmitry Sergeev, head of the Restoration Center Oleg Ivanov, director of the property management department of the ministry Boris Mazo.