Putin spox says Magomedov’s arrest follows budget spending checks

MOSCOW, Apr 2 (PRIME) -- Arrest of brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov, co-owners of Russian multi-industry holding Summa Group, is not a one-time measure, but a focused policy of monitoring of budget spending, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

“No, this is not some one-time action. You know, we conduct tough and straight policy in monitoring of budget spending. We’ve heard about the Magomedov brothers’ charges. The investigation is going on, so it would be incorrect to say something about it. The court is to study the evidence and to define the degree of guilt or innocence of the arrested people,” Peskov said.

On March 31, the Tverskoi District Court of Moscow sanctioned arrest of the Magomedov brothers on charges of a 2.5 billion ruble embezzlement. It also arrested Artur Maksidov, CEO of Summa’s construction subsidiary Inteks, on charges of a 669 million ruble embezzlement.

Ziyavudin Magomedov’s arrest pushed shares of his companies -- Commercial Port of Vladivostok, Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port (NCSP), and railway container operator TransContainer – down on the Moscow Exchange.

Peskov said that claims that arrest of the Magomedov brothers is part of the fight of different political elites prior to formation of a new government is mere gossip.

(57.2649 rubles – U.S. $1)

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