It seems that Rakova is on the run. On Thursday morning, she did not appear for interrogation, turned off the phones and left the place of residence. She also did not show up at work. Rakova, who now holds the post of vice president of Sberbank, became a defendant in the case of embezzlement of more than 50 million rubles. The day before, searches were carried out at her workplace and at home.

If the investigators are right about Rakova and the case goes to trial, she faces up to ten years in prison. In addition, she can receive another fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of salary or other income for a period of up to three years.

Presumably, Rakova is still in the capital region and has not managed to leave Russia. The information is being verified that the former official can be helped by allegedly her common-law husband and an employee of the FGAU "Fund for New Forms of Education Development" Artur Stetsenko.

According to the investigation, Marina Rakova, being the Deputy Minister of Education of Russia, in 2019, lobbied for the allocation of the Fund for New Forms of Education Development to the Federal State Agrarian University of 150 million rubles within the framework of the federal program Teacher of the Future of the national project Education. As a contractor, the fund attracted the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (the famous Shaninka).

As a result, the contractor mastered the money, however, as the examination established, "the quality characteristics of the work performed by the contractor do not meet the requirements specified in the terms of reference, the goal has not been achieved, the tasks have not been fulfilled, and practical application is not possible." Simply put, the project was carried out only on paper, and the money was stolen. The alleged damage is 50 million.

Prodigy from Barnaul

According to the official biography of Rakova, she was born into an intelligent family. Her father served in special forces, after which he worked for 20 years in the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation as an investigator, and then as a prosecutor. Recently, he was engaged in private law practice and wrote fantastic books. Mother devoted her whole life to teaching at school.

The future official grew up as a gifted child and participated in international forums, competitions and competitions, including Intel ISEF and the European contest for young scientists. In addition, her track record of scientific achievements includes the authorship of 30 theorems in the field of classical planimetry.

In 2002 she graduated from the Moscow State Technical University named after N.E. Bauman, where she studied fundamental mathematics. Later she studied at the Altai Academy of Economics and Law.

In 2016, Rakova became the leader of the strategic initiative "New model of additional education for children". Then she headed the project office of the priority project "Accessible additional education for children", and in 2018 she became the administrator of the entire project.

In her position, in particular, she was engaged in the creation of children's technoparks "Quantorium". In 2017, the project received the Development Award nomination. In October 2018, Rakova was appointed Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation, and in this status she worked until the spring of last year.

In March 2020, Rakova wrote a letter of resignation. After the order of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, she went to work the next day as vice president of Sberbank. Here she headed the Digital Education Platforms project, as well as the bank's subsidiary, Sberobrazovanie LLC.

Success curve

None of the published biographies indicate the period between the end of her studies at universities and the meteoric rise of Rakova's career in Moscow. And there are also dark spots.

Life found out that after graduating from Baumanka, the girl returned to her home in Barnaul, but she worked not at all in the field of education or science, but as an ordinary salesman-cashier at the local trading company "Gortorgodezhda".

At this time, Rakova drove a used right-hand drive car Toyota Vitz and lived in an inconspicuous panel Khrushchev on Glushkov Street on the outskirts of Barnaul. Judging by the photos left on the Web from her closed account in one of the social networks, she could be in a relationship with a person who looks very similar to the drummer of local rock groups, businessman and former deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Altai Territory Andrei Volkov. In some photos, both are holding the same newborn baby.

Volkov is a well-known person in Barnaul. In addition to his musical talents, the townspeople remember his activities in the housing and utilities sector, he was the owner of a number of management companies engaged in servicing the housing stock.

In 2019, Volkov, together with the director of Progress Plus, was sentenced to five years for fraud - a businessman stole payments in the amount of 43 million rubles from Barnaul residents. It is believed that he spent part of this money on a PR campaign in order to sit in the chair of the deputy of the regional legislative assembly. In addition, in 2017, Volkov went through a personal bankruptcy procedure and owed a large amount of money to creditors from Novosibirsk.

By 2011, Rakova, perhaps not without patronage, became the commercial director of the Barnaul branch of the "Big Holiday Lights" chain of stores. At that time, she often took money on credit from banks, and also had problems with the Federal Bailiff Service due to delays in payments and an abundance of traffic fines.

Dawn over the Mediterranean

At this stage, Rakova's traces in Russia are cut off, and the next time she appeared in public as the legal consul of the Greek firm Ilios Peristilon Ltd, located in Athens. Rakova is a co-author of the scientific work of the Altai Academy of Economics and Law "Illegal migration in the system of transboundary threats: on the issue of the problems of normative regulation of migration processes."

Life checked firms with this name and found a similar one in Cyprus in the city of Limassol - Peristylon LTD. Director - Marina Rakova. At the same address, another company was found under her leadership - Vkaz Mandarinoto LTD.

In addition, the full namesake of the future official turned out to be a co-founder of a construction company in Spanish Valencia (Instalaciones Y Decoraciones Mediterraneo SL). All these firms closed in 2015–2016, and at the same time Rakova reappeared in Russia.

After this episode, the career of the blonde went up sharply. In July 2016, she headed the same FGAU "Fund for New Forms of Education Development", for which she sought contracts for 150 million. In December of the same year, she became the founder of ANO "Quantorium". Then there was Sberbank. The bank's press service has already made a statement that the case against the top manager has nothing to do with the activities of the financial organization.