Moscow court orders arrest of Russian-Israeli businessman

Moscow credit: Yirmi Pinkus

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Oleg Kiselev, who is not in Russia, is accused of large embezzlement from Russian state-owned nanotechnology company Rusnano, of which he was deputy chairperson.

On Tuesday, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow issued an arrest warrant for Russian-Israeli Oleg Kiselev, who between 2008 and 2019 was deputy chairperson of Rusnano, the Russian state-owned nanotechnology company.

Kiselev, who is not in Russia, is accused of "especially large embezzlement", for which Russia has issued an international arrest warrant to Interpol. According to Duma member Alexander Khinshtein, Kiselev and several other former senior executives at Rusnano are accused of embezzling a total of 1.676 billion rubles between 2012 and 2015, through a Cypriot fund and Moscow-based Peresvet Bank. As with other affairs connected to the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, there are many questions about this one.

The investigation of Kiselev began after the head of Rusnano, Anatoly Chubais, who was close to Putin, fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kiselev was his deputy. When Chubais fled, the regime began an extensive investigation of him and other former senior Rusnano executives, for alleged embezzlement. Besides Kiselev, an arrest warrant was also issued for former CEO of Rusnano subsidiary Rusnano Capital, Irina Rappoport.

Another question about the affair arises from statements by President Putin himself. In September 2023, at an economic forum, he called Chubais "Moshe Israelevich", accusing him of corruption at Rusnano. "Why is Anatoly Borisovich (Chubais’s full Russian name is Anatoly Borisovich Chubais) hiding there?" Putin asked, commenting on Chubais’s move to Israel, "I was shown a picture in which he was no longer Anatoly Borisovich but Moshe Israelevich."

Kiselev (71), who for many years was active in the Russian Jewish Congress, filled a number of senior roles in Russia, not just at Rusnano. He was chairperson of Alfa Bank and Impex Bank and later moved to mining and metallurgy giant Metalloinvest as chairperson and then to investment bank Renaissance Capital as president. He was a donor to Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal and to Jewish university campus organization Hillel.

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 29, 2024.