Russia opened a criminal case against Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, the highest-profile official to be detained under President Vladimir Putin, for allegedly receiving a $2 million bribe to approve a privatization sale last month.
Ulyukayev, 60, was detained on Monday “in the act” of receiving money, said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee. He’s suspected of demanding a bribe from state-run Rosneft PJSC to allow its purchase of the government’s 50 percent stake in regional oil producer Bashneft PJSC, she said. The Rosneft deal complied with the law and isn’t a subject of the probe, according to Petrenko.
“These are very serious accusations, and only a court can pass a verdict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.
Ulyukyaev, an economic liberal who initially opposed the Rosneft deal, may face criminal charges, the most prominent figure to be caught in a wave of cases against governors, deputy ministers and lesser officials for alleged corruption, fraud and extortion. Some of the investigations have been described as politically motivated or an indicator of infighting by analysts. Putin named Ulyukayev, at the time a first deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, economy minister in June 2013.
‘Political Motive’
“Ulyukayev had been associated with liberal economic reforms since the 1990s and a lot of people in the elite didn’t like him,” Olga Kryshtanovskaya, an expert on the Kremlin’s inner circle at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said Tuesday. “This suggests that there could be some political motive.”
Investigators have been listening to Ulyukayev’s phone for months, Interfax reported, citing an unidentified law enforcement official. Economy Ministry spokeswoman Elena Lashkina didn’t respond to repeated calls and texted requests for comment outside working hours.
Putin was aware of the case “from the start of the investigative operations” and was given all the information about it, Peskov told reporters. Asked whether there was a chance of a revision of Rosneft’s purchase of Bashneft’s shares, he said: “I don’t know.”
Rosneft, run by long-time Putin ally Igor Sechin, is preparing a mandatory offer to buy out minority investors in Bashneft, after purchasing a 50.08 percent stake for 329.69 billion rubles ($5 billion). Rosneft doesn’t see any threat to the company or the Bashneft acquisition because of the criminal case, spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said by phone on Tuesday.
Bashneft Sale
The government sold Bashneft at a premium to the market, or 3,706.4 rubles for each common share it bought. Bashneft shares closed at 3,480 rubles in Moscow on Nov. 14, after gaining about 11 percent since the Oct. 12 purchase.
Rosneft’s bid to buy Bashneft provoked a high-level conflict which divided the government, with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and other officials opposing the deal. Ulyukayev said in August that Rosneft’s participation in the government’s Bashneft share sale doesn’t make sense because it means selling one state company to another one.
In September, the Economy Ministry said that Rosneft is legally entitled to bid for the smaller crude producer because the state controls the buyer indirectly. The statement went days after Putin acknowledged the deal is possible because the budget needs the best price even if “it’s not the best option when one company under state control acquires another purely state company.”