As it became known to Kommersant, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office have finished presenting their evidence at one of the most notorious and scandalous "espionage" trials of recent years - on charges of transferring Russian energy secrets to Moldovan intelligence by the top manager of Inter RAO, Karina Turcan. At the closed hearing, a number of witnesses testified, including two former deputy ministers of energy. Now there is an interrogation of a secret witness - an employee of the foreign intelligence organs, who at one time obtained documents about the alleged espionage activities of one of the leaders of Inter RAO.

According to informed sources of Kommersant, the other day at a regular meeting in the Moscow City Court, where three judges are considering the criminal case of 46-year-old Karina Turcan, representatives of the prosecutor's office announced that they had finished presenting evidence of the prosecution.

Prior to this, several witnesses were questioned, including two former deputy energy ministers Vyacheslav Kravchenko and Andrei Tcherezov.

The first, according to some information, was in contact with Mrs. Turcan not only at work, but was also well acquainted with her personally. He stayed in office for about five years and resigned two years ago, several months after Karina Turcan was detained by FSB officers. In her case, he was a witness, however, he himself became a defendant in a case of especially large fraud (part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) - getting a job in the structures of "dead souls" subordinate to the Ministry of Energy - his acquaintances who did not perform any duties, but they regularly received their salaries. In the summer of this year, Vyacheslav Kravchenko, after a rather lengthy investigation, was formally charged.

In turn, Andrei Tcherezov served as deputy minister until November 11 of this year and lost his post due to the reduction of his post almost simultaneously with the summons to the court to testify. Also, in addition to two former high-ranking officials, several ex-colleagues of Karina Turcan from work at Inter RAO spoke in court, who allegedly confirmed that the woman had access to data on the supply of electricity to the LPR and DPR, but they can hardly be called secret, so how they were discussed more than once at various meetings and did not represent state secrets. At the same time, none of them heard anything about the possible recruitment of Ms Turcan and her work for foreign special services.

One of Karina Tsurkan's lawyers, head of the human rights association Team 29, Ivan Pavlov, confirmed to Kommersant the information about the interrogations of witnesses, but refused to talk about their essence, citing the secrecy of the process.

He only specified that in fact nothing new was said in the court. “After that, the defense side proceeded to present the evidence,” explained Pavlov. According to him, the lawyers petitioned the court to summon a number of senior FSB officers who were at the origin of the investigation into the top manager of Inter RAO, but they were refused. At the same time, as the defenders clarified, the court nevertheless agreed to invite a secret witness - a certain Russian intelligence officer who, according to the investigation, received documents from his sources in the Moldovan special service about the activities of an agent with the call sign Karla, as Karina Turcan was allegedly called.

Ivan Pavlov once again recalled that his client categorically denies her guilt in espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and the transfer of any information to the Moldovan special services, including secret data on Russian energy supplies to the east of Ukraine. According to him, in the criminal case, apart from the poorly readable copies of several pages of the agent's "questionnaire", there is no evidence of Ms Turcan's guilt.

“We will insist on the acquittal of Karina Valerievna,” Ivan Pavlov said, noting that the woman was going through hard separation from her family. He recalled that this weekend has already marked two years and five months since her arrest, but the former top manager of Inter RAO “is trying to hold on and not lose heart.” The lawyers suggest that the process is unlikely to be dragged out, and by the New Year, the court may begin the debate of the parties.