Russian ex-minister says Putin ally set him up in bribe case
MOSCOW: Russia’s ex-economy sting operation organised by the minister Alexei Ulyukayev on FSB, the successor to the KGB, in “a Wednesday accused the head of provocation organised from on high state oil giant Rosneft, a powerful on the basis of a false accusation.” ally of President Vladimir Putin, of Ulyukayev said the security personally entrapping him as he is services set up the sting on the basis of accused of taking a massive bribe. “fabricated” accusations, “based solely
Russia on Wednesday began the on Sechin’s claims.” first full hearing in Ulyukayev’s bribery He said he was lured to the Rosneft trial, the highest-profile criminal case offices by Sechin. It was there that a against a top official in decades. case containing the bribe money was
Ulyukayev was arrested in handed over. Ulyukayev was arrested November while still a minister, as he tried to drive away with the allegedly caught red-handed after money in the boot of his car. demanding a $2-million (1.7-millionUlyukayev said he went to the euro) bribe in return for greenlighting meeting after “Sechin called me state oil giant Rosneft’s acquisition of a personally... and persuaded me to stake in another oil company Bashneft. come to Rosneft.”
The 61-year-old denies the charge The prosecution concurs that of massive official bribe-taking, for Sechin set up the meeting and handed approving which he coulddeal.faceupto15yearsinoverthemoney,butsaidhedidthisin prison. cooperation with the security forces Ulyukayev had originally opposed
In court he angrily defended after Ulyukayev demanded the money the sale of the stake in Bashneft to himself, saying he was seized in a at a summit in India in return for Rosneft but later endorsed it after the high-profile Bashneft Putin said it could help fill state coffers.
Rosneft’s spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told RIA Novosti state news agency: “The fact remains: Ulyukayev himself demanded unlawful reward for carrying out his official duties, he came to collect it himself and himself left the meeting place with the money. What else can you add.”
The prosecution has asked for Sechin to be summoned as a witness at the trial. A courtroom showdown between such senior figures would be highly unusual and it is unclear whether Sechin will attend in person.
Sechin, 56, formerly served as deputy prime minister and as Putin’s deputy chief of staff and adviser and is a close confidant of the Kremlin strongman.
Since taking charge of Rosneft in 2012, he has built it up into the world’s largest publicly traded oil company.
A fluent Portuguese speaker, he worked as a military interpreter in Mozambique and Angola and unconfirmed rumours swirl that he was a KGB spy.
He worked with Putin in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s and moved with him to Moscow to take up posts in the Kremlin.
He is seen as a key figure in the clan of powerful security figures known as the “siloviki.”
Wearing a striped blue polo shirt, Ulyukayev sat at a table in the packed courtroom in Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky district court.