On Tuesday evening, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of Karina Turcan, a suspect in espionage, Interfax and TASS reported citing a court representative. Turcan is suspected of espionage (Article 276 of the Criminal Code), she faces 10 to 20 years of imprisonment. The criminal case is classified as "Secret", the representative of the court specified. According to her, the protection of Tsurkan appealed the arrest, the date of consideration in court has not yet been appointed.

The name, surname and patronymic of the suspect completely coincide with the surname, name and patronymic of the top manager of the state company Inter RAO. According to the company's website, Turcan is a board member and head of the trading block. According to the company, she has been working for Inter RAO since 2010. First she managed the geographical division "Moldova, Ukraine, Romania" of the company, in 2011 she headed the geographical division "Europe". In 2012, she joined the board of Inter RAO. In addition, Turcan is Chairman of the Board of AB Inter RAO Lietuva and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Moldavian GRES. Until 2017, she was a member of the Board of Directors of Akkuyu Nuklear Anonym Shirketi, which was developing the project for the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey.

The source of the "Vedomosti" in law enforcement agencies asked whether arrested by the top manager of Inter RAO, replied: "There are no such coincidences (in the name and name." - "Vedomosti"). " The fact that the prisoner is working for Inter RAO, was confirmed by a federal official and another interlocutor in the special services. Suspicions regarding Tsurkan are related to her possible work for the special services of Romania and other Eastern European countries of NATO, while in the case of several episodes, a person close to the Russian special services told Vedomosti. A representative of Inter RAO reported that "member of the board of" Inter RAO "Karina Turcan is on vacation," he declined to comment further.

Tsurkan was taken to the FSB Investigation Department last Friday. Simultaneously, searches were conducted in the office of Tsurkan, at her home, as well as in the company itself and among high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Energy, Kommersant reports. One of them is a witness in the case and, according to some sources, has already filed an application for dismissal.

Law enforcement agencies have conducted operational and investigative actions with Deputy Energy Minister Vyacheslav Kravchenko, Interfax reports citing three sources. The interlocutors of the agency noted that they are related to the investigation in relation to Tsurkan, one of the interlocutors suggested that the official is going through the case as a witness. "The Ministry of Energy does not have information on the progress of the investigation on this issue, since this falls within the competence of law enforcement agencies," the ministry spokesman said. Kravchenko himself held a meeting on Tuesday evening at the Ministry of Energy, a man familiar with him told Vedomosti.

The maximum punishment is 20 years of imprisonment under art. 276 of the Criminal Code - can be appointed only in the extremely rare case, for example, if a person has already been brought to criminal responsibility, says Ilya Prokofiev, the lawyer of the ICAO "Centrureservice". "The percentage of convictions under this article, like in others, is close to 100%," he notes, adding that the crime can only be incriminated to a foreign citizen, since if it is committed by a Russian citizen, Art. 283 of the Criminal Code "Disclosure of State Secrets". "In order to say how legitimate the charge against Turcan is, it is necessary to determine from which sources it received information, which was later transmitted or disseminated. If it turns out that these sources were open, then its actions can not constitute a crime, "adds the lawyer.