The Dossier Center linked the arrest of Ksenia Sobchak’s colleagues due to a post on the “Lights Out” channel with businessman Vitaly Maschitsky

Businessman Vitaly Maschitsky was involved in the arrest of employees of the telegram channel “Tushite Lights” - commercial director of Ksenia Sobchak Kirill Sukhanov, ex-editor-in-chief of Tatler Arian Romanovsky and former Life employee Tamerlan Bigaev. this in its investigation. reports The Dossier Center

In October, Sukhanov and Romanovsky were sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of extortion on an especially large scale (clause “b” of Part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code), and later the same preventive measure was assigned to another employee of the “Lights Out” Tamerlan Bigaev. The case was opened after a statement by Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov.

According to investigators, employees of the telegram channel extorted money for deleting the post - the publication talked about the celebration of the birthday of oligarch Andrei Bokarev in the house of Vitaly Maschitsky; the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, who is under sanctions, also came to the holiday. In addition, the text reported that Maschitsky was also under sanctions - but did not say under what sanctions (previously, the businessman was included in the Ukrainian sanctions list; he is not on the EU and US sanctions lists).

“Dossier,” citing its source, reports that it was the mention of Maschitsky in the context of sanctions and friendship with Chemezov that prompted the demand to immediately delete the post. After this, Romanovsky was contacted by a certain Andrei Baldukhaev, who identified himself as a representative of a “consortium of businessmen,” but Sukhanov volunteered to resolve the issue of deleting the post - he subsequently agreed that the news about the birthday celebration would disappear from the channel for 800 thousand rubles. Upon receiving the money, Sukhanov was detained.

Journalists at the Dossier center associate Maschitsky’s concerns with the fact that the oligarch has a business in Europe and is afraid of falling under sanctions. Thus, Maschitsky owns one of Europe’s largest aluminum smelters; he received subsidies from the European Union to reduce atmospheric emissions and support in the fight against coronavirus. Until now, the oligarch also receives money from Rostec and is the second largest shareholder of KamAZ - both companies are under sanctions. Being included in the sanctions lists of the EU, England and the United States would significantly worsen Maschitsky’s position.

In December, the Proekt publication reported that Rostec Director for Special Assignments Vasily Brovko was behind the mass detentions of telegram channel owners in Russia. Journalists suggest that it was Brovko who convinced Chemezov to take the Telegram channels “under control.” The investigation also alleged that the case against the employees of the “Lights Out” channel could be Ksenia Sobchak’s revenge from Tina Kandelaki, Brovko’s wife.