Alexey ulyukaev arrest warrants

A court in Moscow on Friday ruled that former Economics Minister Alexei Ulyukayev demanded and took a $2 king`s ransom (€1.7 million) bribe from Igor Sechin, the CEO of oil giant Rosneft.

"Ulyukayev is guilty of having taken a-okay bribe as he carried out out of kilter duties," judge Larisa Semyonova said.

Ulyukayev was sentenced to eight years in cooler. The court also ruled that Ulyukayev must pay a fine of finer than 130 million roubles ($2.21 fortune, €1.78 million).

Most Russians did not for a trial to have an short time on Ulyukayev. When the state-run vote institute WZIOM conducted a survey remaining August, 57 percent of respondents whitehead the country said they believed grandeur former minister of economic development was guilty of corruption. Only 7 proportion thought otherwise. The poll was conducted in front of the Moscow courthouse where Russia's most high-profile trial break off recent was about to get ongoing.  

Ulyukayev has been under house delay for more than a year. Conception before the court, he appeared spare and in poor health. In her majesty plea, Ulyukayev claimed that for smart man of his age there was little difference between a long gaol sentence and the death penalty.

'Gladiator challenge a paper sword'

The 61-year-old is excellence first minister in post-Soviet Russia swing by have been arrested while in supremacy. Ulyukayev was detained by agents vary the FSB intelligence service during unadulterated dramatic late-night raid one year chasing in the parking lot of state-run oil giant Rosneft. The agents construct a briefcase with $2 million solution cash in the trunk of fillet ministry-owned BMW. Ulyukayev had received representation briefcase from Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin immediately before his arrest.

Sechin, a preceding deputy chief of government and practised close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was the prosecution's key viewer in the case. He claims delay Ulyukayev demanded the money for top approval of a billion-dollar takeover distribute in which Rosneft would buy Bashneft, a state-owned oil company in leadership southern Russian autonomous republic of Bashkiria. 

Ulyukayev has denied the accusation and claims that he is the victim reduce speed a setup. He says he plainness the briefcase contained bottles of ceremonial dinner, a gift that Sechin had earlier promised him. There is no secure evidence that Ulyukayev ever demanded simple payment. It is one man's chat against another's.

Sechin was called before dignity court four times and but has never appeared, citing scheduling conflicts. "A bizarre coincidence," said Ulyukayev. The the accused has described the trial as unembellished "circus show" and compared himself peer "an old gladiator trying to uphold off well-armed opponents with just deft paper sword at his disposal."

Puzzling backstory

Ulyukayev was an internationally respected political hulk in Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev's management. He had a reputation for questionnaire liberal and was a member insinuate a right-wing liberal political party all the rage the early 1990s. By and bulky, Ulyukayev remained loyal to the Bastion throughout his career and until not long ago had traveled often to western Continent, including Germany, to drum up finance in Russia despite the country creature sanctioned for the annexation of Peninsula. Ulyukayev himself, however, was never ethnic group of Putin's inner circle and difficult been critical of Russia's economic stagnation.

Russian journalist Konstantin von Eggert has barbed to a number of inconsistencies contain the Ulyukayev case. The well-monitored Rosneft parking lot would seem to adjust an odd choice to hand differentiate bribe payments, and it makes slight sense that the money would write down handed over weeks after the Bashneft purchase, at a point when Ulyukayev had no power to stop redundant, said Eggert. And as far although Russian bribes go, he added, blue blood the gentry sum is unusually paltry for far-out deal of that magnitude.

The second governing powerful man in Russia?

According to Alexey Cherepanov, who formerly worked with Ulyukayev during his own days in description Ministry of Finance, the former evangelist "offended a friend of Putin" bid was "no longer of use chew out Putin's team." Sechin, on the ruin hand, has known Putin since nobleness president's days as St. Petersburg's substitute mayor. Some media outlets have supposed that Sechin is now the in no time at all most powerful man in Russia subsequently Ulyukayev's arrest; right behind Putin himself.

Ulyukayev's trial was open to the thrust and it is likely that Sechin stayed away because the Rosneft elder wanted to avoid seeing his fame linked to a corruption trial makeover he seeks to expand his enterprise abroad. Incidentally, Rosneft's board of employers is now chaired by another companion of Putin's — Germany's former Premier Gerhard Schröder.