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Two new suspects in Vostochny spaceport embezzlement case arrested

The construction process is accompanied by many criminal cases related to the funds’ embezzlement, abuse of authority, delays in the payment of wages to workers

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. The Lyublino district court of Moscow has ruled to take into custody director of the VIP Stroi Engineering company Vadim Mitryakov and former head of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga-Vyatka construction company (VVSK) Yevgenia Degtyareva, suspected of embezzling 300 million rubles ($4.42 million) allocated for the construction of roads to the Vostochny cosmodrome, the court said on Monday.

"The court granted the investigation’s request on the measure of restraint for Mitryakov and Degtyareva — arrest for 2 months, i.e. until November 7," the court’s press service told TASS.

According to media reports, there are five defendants in the criminal case over embezzlement initiated under Article 160, part 4 of the Russian Criminal Code. In addition to Mitryakov and Degtyareva, her father Sergey Degtyarev is also a defendant in the case.

The Vostochny (Eastern) spaceport is being built near the town of Uglegorsk in the Amur Region. It will become the first national cosmodrome for civilian use. The spaceport has been under construction since 2010. The Vostochny cosmodrome will comprise two launch platforms, an airfield, facilities for crew members’ pre-launch preparation, oxygen-nitrogen and hydrogen plants, 115 kilometers of roadway and 125 kilometers of rail track.

The construction process is accompanied by many criminal cases related to the funds’ embezzlement, abuse of authority, delays in the payment of wages to workers. This spring alone, the Russian Accounts Chamber has revealed the fact of overstating the estimated cost of the spaceport’s construction by $161.8 million, as a result of which several corruption and criminal scandals broke out at the construction site.