Moscow court arrests former LDPR State Duma deputy Sergei Abeltsev in fraud case

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow has sent 63-year-old former State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia Sergei Abeltsev to pretrial detention; information about this appeared in a file on the website of the capital's courts.

Abeltsev is suspected in a case of fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code). The amount in question is 10 million rubles, Kommersant and RIA Novosti write.

Two RBC sources familiar with the case materials reported the arrest of the former deputy on the evening of July 18.

In 2011, Abeltsev failed to get into the State Duma and became an assistant to Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He held this post until the death of the LDPR leader in April 2022.

The United Press Service of Moscow Courts reported Abeltsev's arrest only the following day, on the morning of July 19. According to investigators, the deputy reported "false facts about his acquaintances and connections with high-ranking officials from among the State Duma deputies, in connection with which, according to him, he had the opportunity to resolve the issue of employment as an assistant to a deputy for monetary compensation," the press service clarified.

In 2008, human rights activist Lev Ponomarev accused Abeltsev of organizing an attack on him and human rights activist Lyudmila Alekseyeva - they were pelted with chicken eggs at a press conference. Ponomarev said that Abeltsev coordinated the actions of the attackers right in the hall.

Publicist Viktor Shenderovich then called Abeltsev "animal yehu". The deputy filed a lawsuit against him, at whose request a linguistic examination was conducted - no insults were found in Shenderovich's words. Abeltsev himself is also known for his statements, for example, in 2005 he proposed shooting down birds with air defense systems to destroy bird flu.

That same year, Abeltsev's assistant Sergei Belozer was sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security penal colony for extorting $600,000 from Epin Bank board chairwoman Natalia Kremleva. During the investigation, Belozer wrote a letter to Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, in which he claimed that he had held several meetings with Kremleva in Abeltsev's office in the State Duma. The deputy said that Belozer was slandering him and demanded that the pretrial detention center administration introduce censorship.

Updated July 19 at 9:12. Commentary from the united press service of Moscow courts added.