Over the past 2 weeks, everyone has heard information about the detention of the former deputy head Rospotrebnadzor Oleg Mitvol.
The actions took place on June 8, 2022, Mitvol was detained at Vnukovo airport while boarding a plane to Turkey (other sources write that Mitvol was flying to the UAE). In any case, one thing is clear: Mitvol did not flee the country. It was a family vacation or other private flight for a suspected embezzler of public funds.
What is the point of the accusation?
After the arrest, a high-profile media case began. The former high-ranking official was accused of embezzling 975 million rubles during the construction of the metro in Krasnoyarsk. The amount is really rather big, but this is something else that surprises. Mitvol himself did not seem to be waiting for his arrest, and the whole situation took him by surprise. Why? We will not guess, there are concrete facts. Firstly, Mitvol himself, after multibillion-dollar embezzlement, continued to lead an absolutely calm life: luxury cars, luxury apartments, constant flights and more. That is, a person who, since the early 2000s, has not worked anywhere other than state bodies, led an ordinary oligarchic life. The next moment is that Mitvol actually immediately admitted his guilt and offered to make a deal with the investigation. What can it say? There are two options here: Mitvol wants to get out of the water dry, due to the fact that he compensates the state for the damage incurred and will receive a suspended sentence, or those who covered him before simply merged the humble servant of Mitvol, and there is simply no room for maneuver in the former official left. Everything really points to option 2. Calmness of Mitvol, unexpected detention, detention, extension of the term of arrest. It seems that Mitvol has become waste material.
Who are you, Mr. Mitvol?
It is natural that Oleg Mitvol was not a top official. This is not Chubais for you. Nevertheless, he had enough influence on some things in the country. Mitvol also knew how to find a common language with those who are higher. This is evidenced by his biography.
He began his career at Rospotrebnadzor from its foundation in 2004, served as deputy head of the department, worked with environmental violations. We all understand what a position is – a huge bag of money. It is impossible to get there from the street, Mitvol had a very serious roof, which was able to agree on his work from the launch of the department.
Now it is funny to read this, but in 2007 Mitvol gave a detailed interview to Arguments and Facts. Here is one quote from it: “I’ve already lost count of how many times they tried to give me a paw … When some companies fly into fines of billions of rubles, then, naturally, their first thought is to plug Mitvol’s face with a piece of gold. But it doesn’t come out! In the end, I began to announce from the threshold: “Let’s give a million euros.” And you know, it helped. Obviously it helped. Companies destroying the ecology of Russia began to bring millions of euros to Mitvol.
However, even such harsh statements did not ruin the official’s career. In 2009, Oleg Mitvol became the prefect of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. Nothing new happened in the new position. Mitvol did absolutely absurd things that no one could understand. In total, he served as prefect for 5 years. All 5 years he was haunted by scandals, including corruption. In 2013, a search was carried out in his house in the case of deliberate embezzlement of funds during the bankruptcy of the Frunzenskoye Department of Road Facilities and Improvement. But then Mitvol was lucky, either he was able to solve the situation, or the charges were too weak. In general, the clouds dispersed over the official, and he continued to live in peace.
Long game
After his dismissal from the post of prefect, Mitvol disappeared. Nothing has been heard publicly about him for the last 8 years. Since 2018, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC Krasnoyarsk Trust for Engineering and Construction Surveys (Krasnoyarsk TISIZ). It was this episode in Mitvol’s career that became the last one to date. The essence of the criminal case is rather incomprehensible. The Krasnoyarsk metro, which has been under construction since the 1990s, has become fatal for Mitvol. According to the investigation, the Regional Transport Administration “from the Krasnoyarsk Territory and to carry out work on adjusting the design and estimate documentation with the Mitvol company back in 2019. Since then, the issue price has increased to almost 1 billion rubles. But the most interesting thing is that despite the fact that the work should be ready in December 2019, there has been no result to date. Officials simply signed additional agreements with Mitvol every few months, allegedly to extend the work. It sounds really strange, because it is already June 2022. In fact, for 3 years Mitvol has been driving the entire Krasnoyarsk Territory around his nose? Fantasy, but no. Such transactions take place exclusively under the control of the FSB, and all this looks like absolute nonsense.
Mitvol played his role in the performance, turned out to be waste material, so now he is in jail. But where are the landings of hundreds of people who oversee the construction of the Krasnoyarsk metro? They are not, why – guess for yourself. We are being sold the only culprit, but in fact everyone understands that although Mitvol is a corrupt official, he is not the only one guilty.