1998 The beginning of the "Mabetex case"

Twenty years ago, on October 8, 1998, at the direction of Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov, a criminal case was initiated on suspicion of abuse by a number of officials when concluding contracts for the reconstruction of the Moscow Kremlin and some other objects. It was alleged, in particular, that the Swiss construction company Mabetex Engineering and its subsidiary Mercata Trading & Engineering SA paid millions of dollars to Pavel Borodin, the presidential affairs manager.

After Skuratov was dismissed with a scandal in April 2000, in December of the same year the "Mabetex case" was terminated "due to the lack of corpus delicti".