The Moscow Basmanny Court arrested, until May 25, the ex-minister for open government, Mikhail Abyzov, who is accused of creating a criminal community and embezzling 4 billion rubles. This was reported by the correspondent "Vedomosti" from the courtroom. Protection Abyzova asked the court to release him on bail of 1 billion rubles. either sent under house arrest — to his Moscow apartment or to a dacha in Barvikha. The pledge for the former minister was ready to be paid by the co-owner of Novaport Roman Trotsenko (the Russian Forbes estimates his fortune at $ 1.7 billion).

Abyzov was not helped by the guarantee of eight influential friends, including Trotsenko, Co-Chairman of the Skolkovo Foundation and former Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman of the Management Board of RUSNANO Anatoly Chubais, Deputy Chairman of the Board of VEB.RF, Natalia Timakova and a member of the Board of Directors “ Yandex "Alexander Voloshin.

During the meeting, Abyzov stated that he did not admit guilt, did not commit a crime, but is ready to cooperate with the investigation. According to the former official, the investigation imposes "heavy articles" on him for the purpose of pressure. He admitted that due to the vagueness of the wording he could not fully assess the charge. In the text of the prosecution, Abyzov found factual errors (the investigation incorrectly indicated his status in the Ru-Com group) and said that he was accused of creating a criminal group because of a call to the guard of another defendant, one of the former leaders of Ru-Com, Nikolay Stepanov.

The investigator insisted on remand in custody, pointing to the extensive contacts of the former minister, real estate abroad and several foreign passports. “Today [Abyzov] planned to fly to Belgrade - all this makes it necessary to arrest,” the investigating spokesman said. He stressed that the actions of the accused "endangered the energy security" of the Novosibirsk region. Abyzov stated that he had two international passports, which he surrendered to the investigators.

The criminal case against Abyzov was initiated on March 25th. March 26, the former minister was detained. On the same day he was charged under Part 3 of Art. 210 (creating a criminal community with the use of official position) and in accordance with Part 4 of Art. 159 (fraud on a large scale) of the Criminal Code. Abyzov faces up to 20 years in prison. Abyzov’s lawyer, Alexander Asnis, said earlier that the case was not of a political nature. “This is a business conflict that has been given the status of a criminal offense,” he noted (quoted by Interfax).

The investigation believes that in the period from April 2011 to November 2014, the former minister created and led the criminal community. By deceiving the shareholders of the Siberian Energy Company and the Regional Electric Grid (RES), he and five other defendants in the case kidnapped 4 billion rubles. and took them abroad. In addition to him, the criminal group included Stepanov, deputy general director of Ru-Com, Maxim Rusakov, director of economics and finance of Ramis JSC, Galina Freidenberg, and chairman of the board of directors of the First Building Fund, Alexander Pelipasov. Another member of the criminal community - the former head of the RES, Sergei Ilyichev, was abroad at the time of the arrest of other defendants, the Investigation Committee of Russia (SKR) specified.