Intelligence Information

Karina Turcan, a member of the board of Inter RAO, arrested on charges of espionage, is suspected, among other things, of the transfer of information about negotiations on the organization of electricity supplies to the Crimea and the unrecognized republics of Donbass. About this RBC told the interlocutor in one of the Russian special services and confirmed by two officials familiar with the preparation of territorial schemes of electricity.

"Turcan's operational development took more than a year, was carried out by the counterintelligence department and the FSB's economic security service. Primary information came through the service of foreign intelligence. The active stage of the operation was in April-May, "RBC's interlocutor told one of the power structures.

"From the SVR came the information that someone is pouring information to a member of NATO of Romania, for which the US can stand. It was political information about who is working with us in Ukraine, in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, in the Crimea and other regions where we supply electricity: who is cooperating, who refuses, with whom we talk, what problems there are, what schemes, "explained one of the sources of RBC.

According to him, when Ukraine threatened to disconnect Crimea from electricity in 2014, the daughter of Inter RAO, OOO TsOR, organized electricity supplies to Ukraine, and that, in turn, to the Crimea. The organization of this scheme involved Turcan, who knew all the contacts of Russian officials in Ukraine, the source said.

Electricity for Crimea

In 2014, after the accession of the Crimea, Russia had to negotiate with Ukraine on a new scheme for the supply of electricity to the peninsula, which at that time almost did not have its own generation. The operator of deliveries to the Crimea was the structure of Inter RAO - the Settlement Center (LLC ZOR), established in April 2014. The CBR began to buy electricity from Ukraine through DTEK Krymenergo Rinat Akhmetov and deliver it to the Crimea.

In the summer, the Ukrainian government introduced a state of emergency in the country's electricity market because of problems with the transportation of coal from the Donbass and threatened to limit supplies to the Crimea. After that, Inter RAO started exporting electricity to Ukraine so that it could supply electricity to the Crimea: the countries signed a contract for the supply of 1.5 GW during 2015. The COR supplied electricity to Ukraine at 2.4 rubles / kWh, and then bought from Ukraine for Crimea at 2.99 rubles per kilowatt-hour.

In November 2015, unknown persons undermined the power transmission lines on the territory of Ukraine, where electricity was supplied to the Crimea, the Ukrainian side could not fix it, according to official reports, because it blocked the "Right Sector" banned in Russia and other radicals. Within a week the first Russian line of energy bridge to the Crimea was launched. In May 2018, the Central Electoral Commission decided to liquidate, follows from SPARK data.

Electricity for Donbass

In the summer of 2015, Ukraine officially refused to pay for electricity, which Russia supplied to unrecognized republics. These deliveries were attributed to the regulatory losses of FGC (owns backbone grids in Russia), which are covered by a tariff for industrial consumers, told RBC one of the creators of the scheme and a source close to one of the relevant Russian ministries. The Ministry of Energy and the Federal Grid Company have always denied that supplies to the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of Germany are for losses.

Basically, Russia delivers electricity to the Lugansk People's Republic; The DNR does not experience a deficit due to two power plants - Starobeshchevskaya and Zuevskaya. The supply of about 2.5 billion kWh in LNR costs approximately 2.5-3 billion rubles. per year, RBC sources and experts assessed.

Witnesses from federal ministries

The FSB operatives detained Turcan on June 14, the next day the judge of the Lefortovo court, Elena Kaneva, granted the petition of the FSB investigative department about her arrest in the espionage case (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The defense of the suspect appealed against this decision.

The website of Inter RAO indicates that Turcan is a Russian citizen. A source close to the Moldovan Foreign Ministry told RBC on June 20 that Tsurkan refused from Moldovan citizenship in 2016. Later, her citizen, Karina Turcan was recognized by Romania. According to Foreign Minister Teodor Meleshkan, the arrested "several passports."

After the detention of Tsurkan, searches were conducted in the office of Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia Vyacheslav Kravchenko. According to the source of RBC, close to the Ministry of Energy, Kravchenko at this point was not at work. Kravchenko also searched the house, says another source of RBC. According to Interfax sources in the energy sector, an official can pass a witness in the Tsurkan case, which is confirmed by one of the sources of RBC, Tsurkan has already testified to three more officials from the Ministry of Energy, with whom she spoke on electricity supplies to the unrecognized republics of Donbass and Crimea, the source of RBC in one of the special services reported. The same information was confirmed by a source close to the government. According to him, these officials, like Kravchenko, are not suspects.

Representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Inter RAO refused to comment on this information. RBC sent requests to the SVR and the FSB to comment on the investigation.