Dmitry Savelyev was far from the first among current and former senators for whom investigators came

Murders, bribes, dual citizenship

Here are some examples of what his colleagues in the upper house were caught doing.

Rauf Arashukov

Belonging to the influential Karachay-Cherkess clan, Arashukov became the youngest senator in the history of the Federation Council (he received the post at the age of 31). In January 2019, he was detained in the meeting room on charges of involvement in the murder of an adviser to the president of the republic. During the investigation, other facts emerged – the creation of an organized crime group and the theft of gas worth 30 billion rubles.

A noteworthy moment: during interrogation, the senator who approved federal laws stated that he did not speak Russian. The court sentenced Arashukov to life imprisonment.

Rauf Arashukov

Konstantin Tsybko

Konstantin Tsybko

The senator from the Chelyabinsk region was convicted of accepting a bribe of 27.5 million rubles from the city manager of Ozersk and a local businessman – in exchange, the legislator promised to lobby their interests. Tsybko was sentenced to nine years in prison and a fine of 70 million rubles.

Igor Izmestiev

Igor Izmestiev

In 2006, the trial of the “Kingisepp group” began, whose members were accused of committing 12 murders. The defendants admitted that the crimes were committed in the interests of one of the founders of the “Fatherland-All Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)” party and a representative of Bashkiria in the Federation Council, Igor Izmestyev. The court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Sergey Popelnyukhov

Sergey Popelnyukhov

The former senator from the Belgorod region was detained in 2015. The construction company he previously controlled, having signed a contract with Rosoboronexport to build a cartridge factory in Venezuela, thwarted the project. It turned out that Popelnyukhov transferred part of the money he received to the accounts of third-party companies, stealing 1.1 billion rubles. The court sentenced him to seven years in prison.

Leonid Lebedev

Leonid Lebedev

Lebedev served as a senator from the Tver region for 13 years. A year after leaving the Federation Council, he became involved in a case of embezzlement of 220 million dollars from the company “TGK-2”. In addition, it turned out that Lebedev had long had a Cypriot passport. Since the ex-senator prudently went abroad, he had to be arrested in absentia. It is unlikely that Lebedev will one day be detained and extradited to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).