Alexey Ulyukaev was sentenced to 8 years of strict regime

Photo: Kirill Zykov, AGN "Moscow"

Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced Alexei Ulyukaev to 8 years in a maximum security colony, a fine of 130 million rubles and a ban on civil service within 8 years after the release.

The announcement of the sentence took more than two hours. Although the guarantee for Alexei Ulyukaev was given by Andrei Kostin, Anatoly Chubais, Vladimir Mau and Alexander Shokhin, none of them were on the verdict - only the politician Leonid Gozman came to support the minister.

During the announcement of the sentence, Ulyukaev listened to Judge Semenov with a calm expression on his face. When the bailiff approached him with handcuffs, the ex-minister did not change in his face. He was brought into a cage. “Do you understand the verdict?” The judge asked Ulyukaeva. “Yes, the verdict is clear,” the minister answered. He was surrounded by five bailiffs along the corridor. Ulyukaev’s lawyers refused to comment - they will be able to appeal within ten days.

The comments of the press were given only by the prosecutor Boris Immaculate. He called the sentenced to the Minister adequate. When asked by journalists why the accusation did not achieve the arrival of his main witness, Igor Sechin, to the court, the immune said that Sechin could not appear in court because of business trips, and this reason seems convincing. Ulyukaev’s property, as the non -resistant, was supposed to confiscate.

What did the court decide:

At the Summit, Brix in Goa Ulyukaev demanded a bribe from Igor Sechin for the positive decision of the government on privatization. Prior to this, in the report of the Ministry of Economic Development of the transaction, Ulyukaev proposed introducing additional criteria for applicants for privatization and, according to the testimony of the head of the Rosneft Security Service Oleg Feoktistov, made Rosneft understand that the ministry’s conclusion on future transactions of the company depends on him.

Three days after the approval of the transaction, during the BRICS summit on October 15, Ulyukaev demanded from Sechin reward for his aid in the approval of the transaction. On November 14, he repeated his demand for a bribe, and then arrived at Sechin's office and took a bag of $ 2 million from the head of an oil company.

The minister’s guilt, according to the court, confirmed:

• The act of inspection of a bag with $ 2 million and a protocol for inspection of the scene. According to the documents, a bag was found in the trunk of Ulyukaev’s car (he claimed that there was a “gift in the form of bottles of good wine”). During the inspection, Ulyukaev took the key from his pocket, which approached the lock of the bag. $ 2 million was found in it.
• The testimony of the witness of Kalugin , the inspector of the FSB, on the processing of the bag and the key with a special drug. When examining the bag, Kalugin saw in it $ 2 million.
• Indications of the driver Ulyukaev . According to him, Ulyukaev himself put his bag in the trunk with the help of a driver.
• The act of issuing money that Kalinichenko (the FSB officer delayed Ulyukaeva) handed over to Feoktistov for conducting an investigative experiment.
• Examination of the audio recording of conversations Sechin and Ulyukaev. She showed that the dialogue contains the “linguistic features” of the preliminary agreement: Sechin speaks with “elements of lack of fire” (“fulfillment of the order” and the transfer of unnamed objects), and Ulyukaev allegedly understands what it is about.

What we never found out:

• Could Ulyukaev interfere with Rosneft's transactions. All the way the accusation insisted that Ulyukaev tried to prevent the purchase of Bashneft by Rosneft, and the demand of the bribe was connected with this transaction. But even if such attempts on the part of Ulyukaev were, he failed to block the deal. At the time of Ulyukaev with Sechin in Goa, where the minister allegedly demanded a bribe, the privatization of Bashneft in favor of Rosneft was already approved by the government.
• What Sechin and Ulyukaev were talking about in Goa. Sechin claims that at the Brix Summit, Ulyukaev “asked to thank it” for the government’s positive decision on the privatization of Rosneft “by paying the so -called bonus”. Ulyukaev denies this. The content of this conversation is known only from the words of Sechin - he had no witnesses.
• What two fingers mean. According to Sechin, he clarified Ulyukaev, what kind of rewarding was in question, and the minister showed the size of a bribe with a gesture in the form of two fingers and verbally clarified that it was about $ 2 million. Ulyukaev insists that the gesture meant something else: "I jokingly twisted a" hole "in a jacket, hinting at Sechin's representation for the state department."
• Who called someone to the meeting. Sichin in his written testimony claimed that Ulyukaev himself invited him to meet in the Rosneft office, which Sichin regarded as a reminder of a bribe. Ulyukaev and his assistant claimed that the initiator of the meeting was Sechin. The audio recording of the conversation, which was the first to published by The Bell, confirms the version of the minister.
• Did Ulyukaev knew that there was money in the bag. Direct evidence that Ulyukaev knew that he was taking a bribe, in an open process and in a sentence read out by the judge, were never represented. The version of Sechin - Ulyukaev knew what he came for. The Ulyukaev - Sechin version promised to treat him with wine, and he decided that it was in his bag. In the words of the minister there is only one inconsistency - during the first interrogation, immediately after the detention of wine, he did not say, answering the operatives that he does not know what he was in the bag, which he himself put in the trunk of his service car.

Ulyukaev’s lawyers will appeal, its consideration may be scheduled for the second half of January, says a source close to the defense. Until that time, Ulyukaev will most likely be kept in the SIZO Sailor Silence. Ulyukaev, according to the same source, was counting on a conditional term, and the verdict became his family for him and his family. The only thing that was not taken from Ulyukaev, as the prosecution required was awards and titles. Protection hopes that if the president declares an election amnesty, Ulyukaev will fall under it.

Svetlana Reiters, Artem Gubenko, The Bell