The court arrested the permanent rector of the RANEPA Vladimir Mau, refusing to accept bail in the amount of 21 million rubles – the amount of harm for which the accused is accused. A recognizable financier became a defendant in the case of embezzlement of funds from the FGAU “Fund for New Forms of Education Development”: within the framework of it, the former Deputy Minister of Education Marina Rakova and the head of Shaninka Sergey Zuev were accused. It might seem, what does the head of the Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina have to do with it, and whose other names will come up in a resounding process?
On June 30, information appeared about the detention of the rector of the RANEPA Vladimir Mau, who has headed the university since 2010 – in other words, since its inception by combining several educational organizations. According to media reports, the procedural measures were started on June 28. Searches were carried out at the university – both at Mau and at his deputies. During the interrogation by the investigator of the Main Procedural Department of the Police of the city of Moscow Egor Krasnov the rector of the RANEPA was charged. According to the investigating authorities, Mau is involved in a high-profile case of embezzlement of funds from the treasury, and the harm caused to him is 21 million rubles. The rest of the defendants in the case are the former Deputy Minister of Education Marina Rakova and head of the Institute of Public Sciences RANEPA, head of Shaninka Sergey Zuev. The investigation asked for house arrest for the accused.
On the same day, a meeting of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow took place, during which a restrictive measure was determined for the accused. The investigation asked that Mau be sent under house arrest, believing that under another option, he could hide or interfere with the investigation process. Moreover, during the searches, law enforcement officers did not find the foreign passport of the RANEPA rector, but found tickets to Turkey for July 2. The prosecutor also supported the appeal, noting that some of the eyewitnesses were Mau’s subordinates, whom he could put pressure on.
The rector’s defense proposed an alternative restrictive measure in the form of a bail in the amount of the same 21 million rubles, but the court did not agree to this option. Mau is to remain under house arrest until at least August 7th. He is forbidden to use the phone and the Internet. The defense wants to appeal the decision.
Did you go by ferry?
Mau is among the most revered Russian financiers. He is the owner of the orders “For awards to the Fatherland” III and IV degrees, the Order of Honor, the Stolypin medal and the title of “Honored Financier of Russia”. With his participation, a huge number of important events are held (the same Gaidar Forum), and this does not indicate that Mau has been heading one of the largest universities in the state for more than 10 years with 52 branches and almost a quarter of a million students. And right on the day of the arrest, Mau was elected to the board of directors of the Gazprom company as an independent member, together with the rector of the Gubkin Russian State University Viktor Martynov. What does the head of the RANEPA have to do with the case of “dead souls”? And where did the information about his complicity in the theft come from?
During the hearing in court, information appeared that Marina Rakova, the former deputy head of the head of the Ministry of Education, who ended up in a pre-trial detention center in October 2021, like Zuev and several other defendants in the case, testified against Mau. At the same time, they were placed under arrest on charges of embezzling funds from the treasury, which were allocated as part of the implementation of the nationwide projects “Education” and “Teacher of the Future” in 2019-2020. Then, on November 25, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the city of Moscow charged Zuev, Rakova and the ex-deputy general director of the Foundation for New Forms of Education Development Yevgeny Zak with an episode of fictitious employment of employees of the Ministry of Education of Russia, who are accused in accordance with which Mau became. The unfortunate 21 million rubles were allocated for their wages for the period from November 2018 to December 2020.
The Golovinsky District Court of Moscow sent under house arrest Anton Astakhov, the son of Pavel Astakhov, the former commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation for the rights of the baby, to investigate a major fraud (part 4 of Art.
In court, Mau declared his own non-involvement, pointing out the “absurdity of the accusation.” As the financier singled out, he “did not take part in some embezzlement of funds from the treasury, receiving ?? other people on grounds unknown to him. In addition, he noted that at the moment none of these people are working at the RANEPA.
Huge funds
The very figure of 21 million rubles, taking into account the post of Mau, looks rather ridiculous. Was it worth tempting fate with naming, official and public position and, obviously, freedom for an amount equivalent to the price of a one-room apartment on the Third Ring Road in the capital of Russia? Apparently, the scope still does not correspond to the scale of this personality. Maybe the figure that appears in the criminal case is just an attempt to assure the public of the relative modesty of the rector of the RANEPA, but in reality the conversation can be completely about other amounts? Moreover, there is a great possibility that the arrest of Mau is only the first link in a long chain, and even more sonorous names will follow after it. The head of the RANEPA is obviously not the ultimate goal, and the main intrigue at the moment is what he will say.
Long-term interest in Mau from law enforcement agencies is nothing new. Almost everyone at the university was aware of this, including the deputy rector Sergey Sinelnikov-Murylev, ex?? I do not mind taking the rector’s chair and decided certain steps for this purpose.
Officially, Mau’s arrest is related to the academy teaching scam, but there is a feeling that this is a drop in the ocean, and the main reason is his work, which is not related to the position of rector.
A cohort of “liberal financiers” has been mastering the funds for years, which means that after Mau, in theory, they can go to the dock Boris Mintz and Vadim Belyaev, probably, who had a hand in the development of the funds of the Otkritie Bank. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why Mau for the time being was beyond the reach of the law due to the patronage of the head of the Central Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina. However, in the end, she probably changed the reappointment to the post of head of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the surrender of the rector of the RANEPA and all others. In today’s conditions, everyone protects their interests – the game is no longer a team game.
Therefore, the episode with the arrest of Mau is part of the history of huge bank funds, and the continuation will definitely follow.
21 million and 3.36 billion
Let us return to the case of Rakova, in which Mau became a defendant. The story looks, to put it mildly, unusual. Rakova began her career in the regions, then extremely rapidly “grew up” to the post of deputy head of the Ministry, and after her dismissal she became deputy president of Savings Bank. The fall turned out to be just as fast – a corruption case that thundered throughout the state. And the main oddity is that Rakova was given the opportunity to escape, releasing the lady on the obligation not to leave, but the conversation was about billions of rubles of economical funds. Rakova really disappeared – the former deputy minister did not appear to testify, her phone was turned off, and traces of urgent fees were found in a house in the village of Nemchinovka near Moscow. And already on October 6, the former civil servant showed up, without the help of others, having come to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow. Maybe she realized that they “released” her only in order to get rid of an unnecessary eyewitness without unnecessary trouble in the near future? After that, Rakova was under arrest.
At the moment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that Rakova expressed her readiness to interact with the investigating authorities – it probably found expression in the testimonies against Vladimir Mau, after which the RANEPA case was singled out for some establishment. As mentioned above, Rakova, Zuev and Mau are accused of fictitious employment at the university by 12 employees of the Ministry of Education, who received a salary of 21 million rubles. The indicated amount can practically be perceived as a bribe to persons who contributed to the fact that 3.36 billion rubles fell into the pocket of Rakova from the project “Teacher of the Future”.
However, nothing is heard about the arrests of the unfortunate 12 employees, read, accomplices. But without their concrete participation, it would not have been possible to implement the scheme. Let’s not forget about the employees of the Ministry of Finance, who allocated funds from the treasury, but turned a blind eye to the details and did not carry out an audit. It is not mind-blowing if it turns out that Rakova ended up with less money than everyone else.
Accurate Signal
As mentioned above, on June 30, Mau was elected to the board of directors of the Gazprom company, and in the evening he left the courtroom as a person placed under house arrest. This is hardly an accident; rather, it is an obvious signal to the liberal-minded Russian elites to behave more calmly in the light of the latest decisions of the North Atlantic Alliance, the EU and the G7. In fact, there were no liberals left in power, and what happened was a severe blow to this minority, also to the reputation of the RANEPA.
The episode does not really fit into the scheme of the usual planned anti-corruption work, and primarily because the RANEPA is not an ordinary Russian university, but a forge of future personnel for the presidential administration. For most civil servants, having a diploma from this university is actually a standard. In general, it is unlikely that something threatens the academy.
If Mau does not receive protection from “their own” and his case starts to spin further, it will be a political blow that will put an end to the ambitions of the technocrats. However, given that Mau is highly respected among the Russian elites, the possibility is high that he will receive support – both in public and not. And it is possible that house arrest will soon be changed to release on bail.
It is worth noting that so far there has not been a single comment from influential civil servants on the Mau case. Authorized person of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskovgiving answers to the question about whether the head of the Russian Federation was appointed Vladimir Putin informed about the arrest of the rector of the RANEPA, said that he did not know about it. The Cabinet of Ministers, whose prerogative is the appointment of the head of the largest Russian university, also did not give any explanation on this matter.
Will Mau keep his post? It’s hard to report. It is possible that such a possibility is already being studied, but it is unlikely that the process will be frisky. With a high percentage of probability, the current head of the RANEPA will retain his opportunities until the court verdict in the case in which he became a defendant.
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