RBC: among the intelligence officers suspected of robbery was the grandson of a general from the FSB Academy

The Moscow District Military Court placed Alexander Karelin, the grandson of state security general and teacher at the FSB Academy, under house arrest in a robbery case (part 4 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code), RBC reports , citing a source in the FSB and an interlocutor familiar with the investigation.

Three RBC sources familiar with the case materials said that an officer from the K department of the FSB, Alexander Karelin, was a participant in the raid and “one of its inspirers.” He was detained right in the courtyard of the main building on Lubyanka.

The publication's interlocutor also said that among the defendants in the case there is a tax service employee and civilians. In addition, both the defendants in the case and about ten other officers of the FSB central apparatus are being checked for involvement in a series of similar robberies.

According to the investigation, RBC reports, on June 10, 2018, security service officers in uniform burst into the office of the small Moscow bank Metallurg and, threatening them with weapons and showing a search warrant, took 136 million rubles in cash from the victim.

The attackers believed that the victim of the robbery would not contact law enforcement agencies, since the bank was suspected of cashing out money, but the next day the victim wrote a statement to the police.

In turn, Rosbalt, citing an unnamed source, reports the names of seven FSB officers who were subject to a preventive measure the day before. According to the publication, this is H.V. Margiev and D. E. Kapyshkin, who were assigned house arrest, as well as the arrested A. A. Karelin, R. M. Obolensky, V. M. Urusov, D. A. Chikvin and A. A. Vlasov. At the same time, RBC, citing sources, wrote that Karelin was sent under house arrest.

Rosbalt's interlocutors in the intelligence service claim that FSB officers were targeted because of the increasing number of cases of money going missing during searches. In particular, of the nine billion rubles seized from the apartment of Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, 100 million rubles were missing. Also, part of the money was not found after the arrest of the head of the banking department of the FSB department “K”, Kirill Cherkalin.

“Iron plates were removed from the fighters’ bulletproof vests in advance, and during the search, wads of money were placed there. It’s quite difficult to see any changes from the outside,” Rosbalt’s interlocutor suggested how money could be stolen during searches.

The publication’s source also said that secret service officers, under the guise of investigative measures, took money from illegal financiers, and also guarded the amounts that were transported by the “cashers.”

The day before, five FSB officers were sent to a pre-trial detention center, and two more were placed under house arrest. Officially, the special service announced the detention on July 4 of its employees “involved in the theft of funds belonging to a private entrepreneur.”