The sentence to the minister

On December 15, Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced to the former Minister of Economic Development of Russia Alexei Ulyukaev. He was found guilty and sentenced to a real term - eight years in prison with serving a sentence in a maximum security colony. In addition, the court fined the former minister more than 130 million rubles. Alexey Ulyukaev was taken into custody in the courtroom, he called the sentence "unfair."

The 61-year-old official is accused of bribery. According to the prosecution, he extorted two million dollars from the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin for a positive assessment of the Bashneft's privatization transaction. The prosecutors asked for Ulyukaev 10 years in a maximum security colony. The former minister did not plead guilty and throughout the process he said that a criminal case was a provocation by the FSB and Igor Sechin. Sechin - the key witness of the process - did not appear in court. The announcement of the sentence began with a delay for an hour and a half, the court forbade a direct video broadcast of the sentence of the sentence.

Broadcast from a court building after a sentence

Alexey Ulyukaev before the announcement of the sentence

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Alexey Ulyukaev in anticipation of the verdict

Over the year of the criminal case, Alexei Ulyukaev lost 14 kilograms and read the stories of Anton Chekhov, the “process” of Franz Kafka, “Robinson Crusoe” Daniel Defoe. The former minister told reporters about his literary preferences at almost every meeting. The former minister began to comment on neutral topics, and not his own business, on the advice of lawyers after he accused the FSB of provocation at one of the first meetings, and the head of Rosneft - of a deliberately false denunciation.

Alexey Ulyukaev was detained on the night of November 15, 2016 at the Rosneft office. Since then he has been under house arrest. According to the prosecution, a month before, during a business trip to Goa, Alexei Ulyukaev demanded from Igor Sechin a bribe as a gratitude for a positive assessment of the Bashneft privatization transaction. Initially, Alexei Ulyukaev spoke to the press, and then repeated in court that, in his opinion, Rosneft is an inappropriate buyer of this asset. Sechin, as follows from the indictment, agreed to the conditions of the former minister, but applied to the FSB with a statement against him. The accusation claims that in the Office of Rosneft on the evening of November 14, 2016, Ulyukaev received a bag with two million dollars personally from Sechin, put it in the trunk of the car, after which he was detained.

Igor Sechin and Alexey Ulyukaev in Baku, August 2016

The trial in the Zamoskvoretsky court began in August 2017. For 4 and a half months of the process, the prosecution interrogated dozens of witnesses, including the former FSB General and the former head of the Rosneft security service Oleg Feoktistov, who, according to the media, has been developing the case of the former minister for more than a year. Also in the court, telephone conversations between Ulyukaev and Sechin were heard.

You have a familiar official who for some reason stopped you like. You invite him for a walk and say: "Hold, please, briefcase, my lace has untied"

Igor Sechin himself, a key witness in this case - did not appear in the Zamoskvoretsky court, despite the fact that he was sent for three times the summons. For the third time, a letter came to the court from the lawyers of the head of Rosneft, which reported that Sechin could not come to court for a “good reason, he has a complex, pre -agreed schedule“ before the end of the year. However, the head of Rosneft confirms the accuracy of all the testimonies to them earlier. In court, the testimony of Sechin was not announced, but the Russian BBC service , referring to a copy of the protocols of the interrogation of the head of Rosneft, wrote that Sechin testified three times and, according to him, no one, besides him, had heard a conversation during which Ulyukaev extorted a bribe from him.

"Ulyukaev A.V. in the form of two fingers showed the size of the remuneration he required, clarifying verbally that this gesture corresponds to 2 million US dollars", "the fact of this meeting with Ulyukaev A.V., but not the content of the security service of PJSC Rosneft PJSC,-quoted BBC as a SECHIC. Leontyev called this publication "stuffing or factory."

During the annual press conference on December 14, Vladimir Putin stated that Igor Sechin did not violate the law, but "could have come" to the meeting.

Alexey Ulyukaev, accompanied by an employee of the FSIN, goes to court

Representatives of the state prosecution during the debate of the parties said that they consider the guilt of Ulyukaev completely proven. According to the prosecutor, the fact that Ulyukaev could not interfere with the transaction on the purchase of Bashneft is not a convincing argument, since the ex-minister still received the money. The Operation of the FSB on the detention of a former official, the prosecutor considered it legal. The state prosecution demanded that Ulyukaev were sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 500 million rubles.

The lawyers of the former minister are asked to justify their client, stating that the prosecutor's office did not provide actual evidence of the fault of their client. “Even the emotionality of state prosecutors indicates that they have nothing to say,” said lawyer Timofey Gridnev. The second lawyer - Larisa Kashtanova - described the case with the words: "I blinded you from what was."

Aleksey Ulyukaev during the process repeatedly declared his innocence. He said that, taking the bag from Sechin, he was convinced: there was wine in it. In the last word, the former minister called his business a “monstrous and brutal provocation”, the process in the Zamoskvoretsky court - the “circus”. “But I want to say that the bell can start calling any of you,” said Ulyukaev, adding that “history will justify it.”

Only when you get into trouble yourself, you begin to understand how hard people actually live

“Now it has become very easy: a bag, a basket, a poorly shot video, three clicks-and you're ready. Imagine the situation: you have a familiar official who has stopped you like for some reason. You invite him for a walk and say:“ Hold the portfolio, my cord has untied it. ”And they don’t have time to get off the hands of the bush, take their hands under the white, take it under the white. This former friend is not guided by a person - there is no problem.

The former minister asked for forgiveness that "too often compromised, chose easy paths, career and prosperity often preferred to defend principles." He promised to devote the rest of his life to "defending the interests of people." “Only when you get into trouble yourself, you begin to understand how hard people actually live. And when you have weight, you just turn away. Forgive me, people,” said Ulyukaev.

As the former head of the oil company Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the situation with Alexei Ulyukaev, said in an interview with the present time, is a precedent, "because before him federal officials of this level have not been sent to trial in such a level."