UPDATE: Russia may involve more officials in bribery case

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SOCHI/MOSCOW/NEW YORK, Nov 16 (PRIME) -- Russia may involve seven more officials in a bribery case of former Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, who was put under house arrest and dismissed on suspicion of bribe extortion from oil company Rosneft, a source in the law enforcement authorities told PRIME on Wednesday.

“It is very likely that more officials will be attracted to the case very soon. Such criminal schemes are not made by a single person. Right now, the issue is about attracting up to seven people more to the case,” the source said.

The Investigative Committee’s official representative Svetlana Petrenko said that Ulyukayev received a U.S.$2 million bribe for granting his ministry’s approval that allowed oil major Rosneft to buy the state’s 50.08% stake in Bashneft oil company, and he was caught red-handed.

Ulyukayev’s lawyer Timofei Gridnev said that his client thinks that it was a provocation, and he pleaded not guilty. He said that Ulyukayev plans to cooperate with the investigation fully.

Vedomosti business daily reported citing three government officials that Ulkyukayev has been monitored for a long time and the government has received many complaints about appointments in the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography, overseen by the ministry, and it was even reported to the president.

A high-ranking official in a law enforcement authority told Vedomosti that Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, presidential aide Andrei Belousov, aide to First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov Marina Romanova, and Oksana Tarasenko, head of the ministry’s corporate management department, were also monitored.

Alexei Kudrin, a former finance minister and the current head of the Center for Strategic Research, said that he doubts that Ulyukayev wanted to extort money from Rosneft under the Bashneft privatization deal, and supposed that the law enforcement authorities may have made a mistake.

“We are waiting for further steps and clarification from the Investigative Committee. We would like the committee to be transparent and to inform us, because we do not see clearly what has happened and why it has happened on the territory of Rosneft. It is hard to believe that someone would like to argue with Rosneft,” he said.

He added that it was not Ulyukayev, but the government who made a final decision on privatization of Bashneft.

“I have doubts that Ulyukayev was able to block the decision or influence it. I have very many questions on why he would want the bribe,” he said.

He said he sees no political background in the arrest of the minister.

But business daily Kommersant reported that the minister’s defense in court insists on the absence of Ulyukayev’s direct contact with the money. A source close to the Federal Security Service told the business daily that Ulyukayev did not touch the money, but only a case with the cash, the handle of which was doused in a special composition.

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