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248 Russian scientists, including academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, signed an open letter to Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov in defense of the rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (“Shaninki”) Sergei Zuev. Letter published popular science publication “Trinity Variant – Science”.
“Numerous guarantors of Sergei Eduardovich Zuev, just like us, are convinced of his impeccable academic and public reputation and deep human decency, which does not allow us to believe in his involvement in any theft,” the letter says.
Scientists draw attention to the fact that 67-year-old Zuev, soon after it became known about the charges against him, was hospitalized with myocardial infarction and suffered heart surgery… This operation is the third in a row only in the last year, the authors of the letter note. However, the prosecutor’s office is seeking his arrest.
As the scientists emphasize, Zuev has been given a number of serious diagnoses, including stage III hypertension, which excludes imprisonment. In their opinion, in these circumstances, his detention “not only cannot meet the legitimate interests of the investigation, but also becomes a means of pressure, which has all the signs of torture.” And this is happening despite the fact that Zuev voluntarily appeared at all investigative actions, did not hide from law enforcement agencies and did not violate the conditions of house arrest.
The letter was signed by 22 academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences and 44 corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The appeal was also signed by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University Alexander Auzan, Director of the Federal Institute for the Development of Education Alexander Asmolov, Rector of the Russian School of Economics Ruben Enikolopov, linguist and author of popular science publications Maxim Krongauz, Head of the Department of Political Science at the Higher School of Economics, author of a number of classic textbooks on political science Andrei Melville Natalya Tolstaya, director of the Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts of the Russian Academy of Arts; political scientist Ekaterina Shulman.
Sergei Zuev was detained on October 12 embezzlement case 21 million rubles from the Fund for New Forms of Education Development. Together with the rector of the university, the former deputy minister of education Marina Rakova is taking part in the same case. In this position in the government, she, according to the investigation, received state funding for a project for the Fund for New Forms of Education Development, which she herself headed. In addition, Rakova stole funds when concluding government contracts for the implementation of the Teacher of the Future project in 2019, investigators say. Shaninka was the contractor for the Teacher of the Future.
According to the findings of the investigative expertise, reports on ongoing scientific research have signs of falsification. The investigators estimated the amount of embezzlement at 50 million rubles.
Lawyer Sergei Sevruk confirmed that the case is about two contracts with an initial value of 50 million rubles. However, during the year they were not executed in full and were terminated by agreement of the parties. By that time, the performers had already received 21 million rubles. Where is this money, the lawyer does not know. According to him, Zuev is not familiar with Rakova.
On October 7, Rakova was arrested for two months and charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by a group of persons on an especially large scale). The former official faces imprisonment for up to ten years.
As part of the investigation of the same criminal case, ex-employees of the fund Yevgeny Zak and Maxim Inkin (now top managers of Sberbank are managing directors of the Digital Education Platforms division of Sberbank, which was headed by Rakova after leaving the government), as well as the former executive director of Shaninki ”, teacher of RANEPA Kristina Kryuchkova. They were charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code.
The court also arrested the general director of the Foundation for New Forms of Education Development Artur Stetsenko, Rakova’s common-law husband, in a case of large-scale fraud. According to the investigation, he was placed in the fund fictitiously at the time when the organization was headed by Rakova. His salary from 2017 to 2019 amounted to more than 9 million rubles.
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