On Tuesday, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court issued an arrest warrant for Oleg Kiselyov, a Russian-Israeli who served as vice chairman of Russia’s state-owned nanotechnology company Rusnano from 2008 to 2019.
Kiselyov, who is not in Russia, is accused of “embrace of particularly large sums,” and Russia has issued an international arrest warrant with Interpol. According to Alexander Hinshtein, a member of the Russian State Duma, Kiselyov and several other former Rusnano executives are accused of embezzling a total of 1.676 billion rubles between 2012 and 2015 through a Cyprus fund and Moscow’s Peresvet Bank. But like other cases linked to the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, many questions remain about this one.
The investigation into Kiselyov began after the head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, who was close to Putin, fled Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kiselyov was his deputy. After Chubais’s flight, the regime launched a full investigation into Chubais and other former Rusnano executives on suspicion of embezzlement. Arrest warrants were issued for Kiselyov as well as Irina Rapoport, the former CEO of Rusnano subsidiary Rusnano Capital.
Another question on this subject arises from Putin’s own remarks. In September 2023, Putin called Chubais “Moshe Israelevich” at an economic forum and accused him of corruption at Rusnano. “Why is Anatoly Borisovich (Chubais’ full name in Russian is Anatoly Borisovich Chubais) hiding there?” Putin asked, commenting on Chubais’s move to Israel. “I was shown a photo where he is no longer Anatoly Borisovich, but Moshe Israelevich.”
Kiselev, 71, was a longtime member of the Russian Jewish Congress and held a number of senior positions in Russia, including at Rusnano. He was chairman of Alfa-Bank and Inpex-Bank, and later chairman of mining and metallurgy giant Metalloinvest and president of investment bank Renaissance Capital. He was a donor to the Keren Haysod United Israel Appeal and the Jewish college campus organization Hillel.
Published by Globes (en.globes.co.il), an Israeli business news site, on August 29, 2024.
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