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Former Russian Defence Minister Serdyukov ends to answer questions of detective in Oboronservis fraud case

The Main Military Investigation Department has earlier opened the criminal cases for the criminal schemes with the property entities, which were owned by Oboronservis company
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) — Former Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov ended to answer the questions of the detective in the Oboronservis fraud case and left the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee.

Serdyukov arrived at 10:00 Moscow time for an interrogation with his lawyer Genrikh Padva. Several tens of journalists met the former minister at the gates to the Main Military Investigation Department, but he drove by in his black Mercedes with the tinted windows, his lawyer refrained from any comments before the beginning of the interrogation.

The interrogation lasted 2.5 hours. After the interrogation the car of the former minister drove out of the gates of the Main Military Investigation Department. Meanwhile, the telephone of Serdyukov’s lawyer remains switched off, and he is not available for any comments.

The Main Military Investigation Department has earlier opened the criminal cases for the criminal schemes with the property entities, which were owned by Oboronservis, which is subordinate to the Defence Ministry. The criminal cases are being investigated under the criminal articles for fraud and abuse of powers.

The damages in this criminal case are preliminarily estimated at over four billion roubles. However, a financial and economic expertise was conducted to find the exact sum of damages.

Former head of the centre of legal support Expert Yekaterina Smetanova and her husband, former general director of a warehouse in the Moscow district of the Russian Air Force Maxim Zakutailo are being kept in arrest on the fraud accusations in this criminal case. Former head of the Department of Proprietary Relations of the Russian Defence Ministry Yevgeniya Vasilyeva is being kept under home arrest.