Hermit from the Hermitage

The Lefortovo Court of Moscow sent under house arrest for two months the deputy director of the Hermitage for the capital construction of Mikhail Novikov. This was reported by Interfax with reference to the press secretary of the court Ekaterina Krasnov.

"By the decision of the Lefortovo Court of Moscow dated March 28, a preventive measure in the form of house arrest for two months, and Krasnova said, in a total of May 23, 2017, in relation to the Deputy Director of the State Hermitage" Mikhail Ivanovich Novikov "Mikhail Ivanovich Novikov". According to her, Novikov is suspected of committing a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale). The case is not reported about the specific plot.

Meanwhile, the source of Interfax in law enforcement agencies confirmed that the son of Novikov, director of the Department of Investment, Restoration and Construction of the Ministry of Culture Artem Novikov was detained in the building of the Ministry of the Restorers, but was subsequently released.

The press service of the Ministry also denies the detention of Artem Novikov. "Novikov will take part in the work of today's collegium of the Ministry of Culture," the department said .

Last June, the Accounts Chamber said that improper control by the Hermitage leadership for restoration work led to an increase in their value by more than 140 million rubles . In addition, the work was not completely completed. Baltstra CJSC did not perform waterproofing work, which "bears the risk of the loss of the building, the reconstruction of which is spent more than 2.7 billion rubles," the joint venture was noted.

On January 31, FSB officers held investigative actions in the Hermitage. On February 2, the director of the museum Mikhail Piotrovsky explained that the special service checked construction contractors. “There are a lot of construction projects in the Hermitage, almost all construction sites are successful. Regarding the FSB, we are constantly in contact with the FSB, they follow all our construction sites from the very beginning, check our documents. Because there are crooks, in particular, in the construction field. We need to force them to work before they go bankrupt,” said Piotrovsky.

Currently, the Investigative Committee is investigating the so -called "restorers' case." The former deputy minister of culture Grigory Pirumov and seven more defendants are on it. The accused is charged with damage worth more than 100 million rubles. The investigation believes that the money was stolen during the restoration of the Novodevichy Monastery, the Cosmonautics Museum in Kaluga, the John of the Baptist Monastery, the drama theater in Pskov, as well as the fortress of Friedrich the Great in Kaliningrad.

The investigation suspects Pirumov of organizing a group in which he attracted other participants, including the director of the Department of Property Management and Investment Policy of the Ministry of Culture of Boris Mazo, the heads of two subordinate FSUEs of Oleg Ivanov and Boris Tsagaraev, the head of the Baltorstra company Dmitry Sergeyev and his subordinate Vladimir Svanbek. All of them are in jail.

Entrepreneur Nikita Kolesnikov is under house arrest. The manager of the Baltztri company Alexander Kochenov was exempted on bail of 10 million rubles.