The British press reported that the former head of Sevastopol Dmitry Ovsyannikov was arrested in London on charges of violating the sanctions regime – allegedly keeping money in a bank. How did the bearer of secrets end up in the capital of Great Britain and how does he live there?
Why was the ex-governor of Sevastopol detained?
According to the authoritative English daily The Times, Dmitry Ovsyannikov, the former deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and the ex-governor of Sevastopol, was detained at his home in London. The former Russian official is accused of violating UK sanctions and money laundering. With reference to local security officials, it is alleged that he, bypassing restrictions, illegally opened an account in a British bank and kept “criminal funds” in the amount of 77.5 thousand pounds sterling. The next court hearing in this case will take place on February 20.
Dmitry Ovsyannikov has been under sanctions since 2017, since he was elected governor of Sevastopol. He managed to lift the European Union restrictions through the courts a couple of years ago, but the British ones remained in force.
The London arrest of Dmitry Ovsyannikov, a former high-ranking Russian official with access to state secrets, has raised a sea of questions on both sides of the English Channel. How was he allowed to go abroad? Why didn’t sanctions prevent him from settling in the West? How was he even able to pass Russian and European border checkpoints under current conditions? Didn’t the Western help him with this? intelligence services?
As Life found out, Dmitry Ovsyannikov had no particular intention of returning to his homeland. In London, he felt so at ease and confident that his family even decided to sell their Moscow four-room apartment in a historic mansion on Sadovnicheskaya Street – on the artificial island “Balchug” near the Kremlin. An advertisement for the sale of this property was posted on one of the specialized sites. Big discount price – 37 million rubles. Previously, the same living space was rented out for 120 thousand rubles per month.
Biography of Dmitry Ovsyannikov
46-year-old Dmitry Ovsyannikov was born in Omsk and grew up in Izhevsk. Until the mid-2000s, his mother was a co-owner of the Udmurt Energy Sales Company, Udmurt Trunk Networks, Udmurt Energy Management Company and Udmurt Territorial Generating Company.
Ovsyannikov has an excellent education: in his youth he graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Udmurt University and the Tolyatti Academy with a degree in Public Administration, in adulthood he graduated from the capital’s RANEPA with a degree in Jurisprudence and a Higher School economy in the Executive MBA program.
Dmitry Ovsyannikov’s first place of work was the international non-profit organization AIESEC – in fact, this is a UN division that searches for and cultivates certain “leaders” around the world. Moreover, the future governor was not listed as an ordinary employee there, but as the head of the Izhevsk branch. After working in this NGO for several years, he received a good position in one of the Udmurt industrial production companies.
A career breakthrough for Ovsyannikov turned out to be participation in the “Personnel Reserve” competition, which was held by the plenipotentiary to fill vacant positions in the Volga region. As a result, 24-year-old Dmitry Ovsyannikov was recognized as one of the winners and appointed a federal inspector from the Presidential Administration. First he inspected the Kirov region, then his native Udmurt Republic.
Note that Udmurtia has always been closely connected with the country’s military-industrial complex; it is even called the weapons capital of Russia (*aggressor country). Today, for example, UAVs, Kalashnikov assault rifles and cartridges are produced there.
In 2007–2014, Dmitry Ovsyannikov worked as a top manager in industry. His most interesting position at that time was director of economy at OJSC “Perm Motor Plant”, where they make engines for domestic aviation. Next, Dmitry Ovsyannikov was appointed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism). There he first headed the regional department politiciansthen received the post of deputy minister.
Ovsyannikov held the position of governor of Sevastopol from 2017 to 2019, and then asked to be dismissed at his own request. Experts called this outcome of events natural.
In particular, they were probably talking about accusations against Dmitry Ovsyannikov of connections with the company Sevastopolstroy-Marina-de-Lux, which illegally built high-rise buildings in Crimean cultural heritage sites on the basis of permits issued while the peninsula was still part of Ukraine. Prosecutor’s office filed a lawsuit and stopped this construction.
The name of Dmitry Ovsyannikov was associated with a scandalous construction site within the boundaries of the cultural heritage site “Ancient Chersonese Tauride”
Since then, failures have haunted Dmitry Ovsyannikov. He returned to the post of Deputy Minister of Industry, but within six months he was dismissed and even expelled from the party. All because of the resonance that followed the brawl that the official caused at the Izhevsk airport. When he was detained at the control point and asked to show his ticket, he became furious and swore at everyone around him – this was caught on video and posted online.
After that, Ovsyannikov went into the shadows. The media wrote that he went into business in Cyprus. Nothing was heard from him until his arrest in London.