Why Sechin did not appear in court: the judge and Rosneft have different versions. Sechin appeared in court for consideration of the appeal in the case of Ulyukaev and testified "Sometimes the documents were corrected"

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, arrived at the Moscow City Court, where on April 12 consideration of a complaint against the sentence against the former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Alexei Ulyukaev began. This is reported by the TV channel "Rain".

The unexpected appearance of Sechin became known after the prosecutor filed a petition to summon him for interrogation. He stated that Sechin's appearance was guaranteed and asked the court to hold the meeting behind closed doors, Mediazona reports.

Ulyukaev's defense opposed. However, the court granted the request. It should be noted that this is the first time that Sechin appeared in court for this process, although he had previously been repeatedly summoned as the main witness.

The interrogation of the head of Rosneft lasted about an hour and a half and ended at about 12:30 Moscow time. Earlier, after the announcement of the interrogation of Sechin, all journalists and spectators were expelled from the courtroom. Thus, none of the media representatives present in court ever saw Sechin himself.

"In itself, Sechin's testimony is a good reason to cancel the sentence (to Ulyukaev)," RBC quoted Gridnev as saying. He added that "Sechin's testimony not only did not bring clarity," "they gave rise to a huge amount of doubt that the demand for a bribe really took place."

Case of Ulyukaev

Recall that in December last year, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced Ulyukaev to eight years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 130 million rubles.

The high-profile trial of the ex-minister lasted several months, during which the defense repeatedly tried to get Sechin to appear in court. Lawyers noted that the head of Rosneft is a key witness in the case of Ulyukaev. "Thanks to Sechin, we are all here today. The interrogation of Sechin and the interrogation of Ulyukaev are, in fact, the most important thing in this court," Timofei Gridnev, the ex-minister's lawyer, said at a meeting in the Zamoskvoretsky court.

The court sent subpoenas to Sechin four times - on November 8, 15, 22 and 27, 2017. However, Sechin never showed up. His representatives attributed this to various reasons, including Sechin's extreme busyness. Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev also pointed to the fact that Sechin had already testified during the preliminary investigation.

Sechin's refusal to appear in court on subpoenas caused condemnation in society. The question of the legality of the actions of the head of the state corporation was asked by journalists to President Vladimir Putin. However, he said that Sechin did not violate the laws, although.

In connection with Sechin's failure to appear in court to testify, Ulyukaev's defense asked the court to return the case to the prosecutor's office, but she was refused. After that, the court, without hearing the main witness Sechin, moved on to the interrogation of the defendant.

During the testimony, Ulyukaev declared his innocence. He also accused Sechin of provocation.

Recall, on April 12, the Moscow City Court began considering a complaint against the sentence of the former Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Alexei Ulyukaev, who was sentenced to eight years in a strict regime for extorting a bribe in the amount of two million dollars. The meeting started at 10 am.

During the hearing, the defense stated that they considered the verdict passed on the accused to be unfair, and asked the court to cancel it. In turn, the Prosecutor General's Office called the verdict justified and asked the court to leave it unchanged.

The complaint against Ulyukaev's sentence is being considered by a trio of judges - Olga Nedelina, Yusup Zaurbekov and Svetlana Fedorova.

Before the start of the hearings, Ulyukaev asked to be admitted to the process as a public defender of his wife. The court rejected the petition, since Ulyukaev's wife is not a qualified lawyer and is not familiar with the materials of the criminal case. In addition, the court accepted the arguments of the prosecutors that the interests of Ulyukaev are already represented by as many as four professional lawyers. ​

Before the start of the meeting, Ulyukaev said that he was feeling well. Since mid-December last year, he has been in a pre-trial detention center - the so-called Kremlin central, located on the territory of Matrosskaya Tishina. According to media reports, the ex-minister is already accustomed to the internal regime of the isolation ward, is actively involved in sports, including yoga, and also reads books. This was reported in particular

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The appeal against the verdict against the former Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev began at 10.00 Moscow time in the hall of the Moscow City Court. During the day, the lawyers tried to convince the court that the evidence of the ex-minister's guilt was unconvincing, while the prosecution insisted on the opposite. The court eventually commuted the sentence, but the term remained the same, and the amount of the fine did not change. Gazeta.Ru followed the developments in the courtroom.

Promising to appeal again, Darejan Kveidze — by the way, in 2017, it was she who decided to appeal the court’s verdict — left the journalists, asked them to stop asking questions, citing fatigue and high blood pressure.

And yet there will be comments: lawyer Darejan Kveidze said she would appeal the verdict, and the decision, in her opinion, was expected.

And Gazeta.Ru collected a photo gallery all day, so that at the end you could not only read, but also see how everything was. Especially for those who no longer have the strength to look at the letters.

However, one comment from Ulyukaev’s defenders did come in: “What is there to comment on,” Gridnev said.

Lawyers left the courtroom, refusing to talk to reporters. There will be no comments.

Everything else remains in effect. This means eight years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 130 million rubles.

The court ruled that the verdict be changed. The judges decided to exclude the deprivation of the right to hold positions in state corporations and other state institutions.

The judges entered.

They waited: Ulyukaev was again brought into the courtroom and placed in a box. He entered in handcuffs and extended his hands through the opening of the cage to have them removed.

To brighten up the expectation, let us remember that one of his lawyers, Darejan Kveidze, spoke about the convicted ex-minister after the sentencing of Ulyukaev on December 15, 2017. Regarding the verdict, she said that she "has no words" - the defense believes that Ulyukaev is innocent. As we could understand today, she continues to insist on this position, and today she once again tried to convince the court of this.

Ulyukaev himself, by the way, is not in the hall - he was taken away. The lawyers remained in the courtroom. Operators with cameras lined up behind a wooden fence in front of the box - everyone is waiting.

The court retired for deliberation. We wait.

“The verdict is built on the only derivative evidence,” one grandmother said. In this case, one man said, ”Ulyukaev began his speech. In the hall of laughter.

The prosecutor's office considers Ulyukayev's guilt proven. Debates are over. The convict has the last word.

The second prosecutor, Pavel Filippchuk, took the floor. He intends to devote his speech to the process of obtaining evidence and operational experiment.

Neporozhny concluded that Ulyukaev was a man in power and decided to use his official position for personal enrichment. He asked that the sentence be left unchanged.

Neporozhny convinces the court that Ulyukaev knew about the contents of the bag. “When people give wine, the conversation goes something like this: “Red, such and such exposure” - “Thank you, I’ll try.” And not: "While collecting the volume, the task is completed." What task is it?” the prosecutor asks.

Neporozhny continues to give his arguments: he says that nothing prevented Ulyukaev from clarifying with Sechin what was in the bag, he did not do this and dragged 22 kg to the car without any questions. The prosecutor notes that Ulyukaev did not thank Sechin - "I could at least say thank you."

The defense side says that Neporozhny violates the code of ethics - he made the expression "stupid statements." The judge says that he does not offend anyone, Kashtanova is interested - what are “stupid statements” in this case?

He also notes that when examining the scene, the question “What is in the bag?” is not the question. Ulyukaev answered "I don't know", not "Wine".

The prosecution believes that "a lot of strange and incomprehensible" sounded just from the side of the defense. “We do not see anything indecent in the refusal of an official of this level to come to a businessman. Obviously, he went for money, ”says prosecutor Boris Neporozhny.

The prosecutor says there was no reason for Sechin to mislead the investigation by claiming that Ulyukayev demanded a bribe from him on the stairs. This makes lawyers smile.

The prosecutor is speaking. He says that the prosecution has no reason to doubt Sechin's testimony (unlike the defense). “If you constantly repeat “I’m hot”, maybe after a while it will become a little warmer. But not in a criminal case. The defense, like a mantra, repeats the same arguments, we have already answered them more than once, ”he ironically.

Alexey Ulyukaev is speaking. He talks about himself in the third person. He recalls, like the lawyer Gridnev, about the bag locked with a key. He insists that Sechin was the initiator of the meeting. He reads phrases from his sentence and disputes them.

Daredzhan Kveidze, Ulyukaev's fourth lawyer, began speaking. She also says that after today's testimony of Igor Sechin, there are even more reasons to doubt the evidence presented by the prosecution.

The lawyer recalls: “there is a well-established practice of the Supreme Court that the court cannot take into account derivative evidence without considering primary evidence.”

Burkovskaya draws the attention of the court to the fact that the court of first instance ruled in the absence of primary evidence. “The operational experiment was presented on the basis of only secondary evidence; at the stage of the operational experiment, the main witness did not testify, it was made on the basis of the words of a third person,” she says.

Lawyer Victoria Burkovskaya is speaking. In total, Alexei Ulyukaev has four defenders.

Gridnev gave the floor to the lawyer Kashtanova. It would be kind of her to come up to the microphone, but even without it, you can hear that she talks a lot about the statement about the commission of an illegal act that Sechin filed with the FSB. Kashtanova says that Sechin is in court today, he said that he did not file such an application.

Gridnev says that he has given all his arguments and asks the court to “repeal the verdict against Ulyukaev and issue an acquittal”, as well as “remove the arrest on property, and return the seized property to the owner.”

Another detail that proves, according to Gridnev, that Ulyukaev knew nothing about money is the fact that the bag with banknotes was locked. “Picking in a bag in the cold would be disrespectful to Sechin. Therefore, both the lock and the key are so that Ulyukaev does not have the opportunity to see what is in the bag, ”says Gridnev.

All of Gridnev's arguments are designed to convince the court that Ulyukaev did not ask for a bribe and did not expect to receive money, while Sechin's actions were aimed at forcing him to come to the Rosneft office, hand over the money and prosecute him. In other words, he is trying to prove Ulyukaev's claims that it was a provocation.

“The court attached evidence to the basis of the verdict, the circumstances of which were not established at the trial. The phrases were so incomprehensible that an examination was appointed. None of the experts' conclusions suggests that Ulyukaev knew what he was getting into. Why did Sechin resort to such a complex verbal structure if Ulyukaev knew what was in the bag?” Gridnev asks.

Gridnev believes that Sechin lured Ulyukaev - he invited him to "see the company." “To see the company is already a kind of informal occasion, an invitation not to negotiations, but to visit, and it was already inconvenient for Ulyukaev to refuse such an offer. If Ulyukaev knows that he is going for a bribe, then why invite him to Rosneft like that?

Ulyukaev's lawyer is trying to convince the court that it is clear from the conversation: Ulyukaev was not going to go to Rosneft. “This whole conversation shows that Ulyukaev was not going to go to any Sechin. The next day he was supposed to go to Rome and represent the Russian delegation there. He had a lot to do, he was scheduled all day, but Sechin changed his plans,” says Gridnev.

The next defense argument is a telephone conversation between Sechin and Ulyukaev, during which Ulyukaev, as the court ruled, “confirmed” his desire to receive a bribe and agreed to come to the Rosneft office. The lawyer analyzes him, based on today's testimony of Sechin. He believes that in the conversation there is no hint of Ulyukaev's desire to receive a reward. Moreover: “After Feoktistov's testimony, the question also arose of who exactly was the initiator of this conversation. But today, Sechin confirmed that he himself initiated this conversation,” Gridnev says.

“We have irrefutable proof - a video that shows that Ulyukaev, having moved away from the billiard table, did not return to it anymore. Now I have the right to say that it’s hard for me to imagine that, while climbing the stairs in a crowd of people (according to Sechin’s testimony today, they climbed for 10 minutes), he demanded a bribe from him,” says Gridnev.

Timofei Gridnev, Ulyukayev's lawyer, is speaking. He believes that the court could not establish when and where exactly Ulyukaev demanded a bribe from Sechin. He does not understand why the court decided that in Goa the Minister of Economic Development was next to the head of Rosneft and believes that today it has been confirmed: the fact that Ulyukaev demanded a bribe has not been proven. “You first prove that he demanded a bribe, and then what he received. Because without a demand, a bribe is just a fiction,” says Gridnev. Pretty emotional, by the way.

The fact that Igor Sechin personally appeared in court remains the highlight of the day so far. As the head of Rosneft told TASS, he came to court as soon as the opportunity arose, because he wanted his testimony to be taken into account. “I am the main witness and for me it was a matter of honor,” he said. “I felt my responsibility to ensure that the fight against corruption in our country received an additional result,” he added. He told the agency that during his testimony, he confirmed his position: he considers Ulyukaev's demand for remuneration to be illegal.

Moved to debate. Ulyukaev's defender Timofey Gridnev is speaking. He believes that "the verdict should be declared illegal and unreasonable, and be canceled." “But, unfortunately, I need to immediately assess Sechin’s testimony,” he says.

Ulyukaev told the defense about what he was doing when he walked away from the pool table in the hotel lobby in Goa (we are talking about the case when, according to investigators, he demanded a bribe at the summit in Goa). “I returned to my place where the other members of our delegation were sitting, after which, after a while, we were invited to a meeting. When we went to the meeting room. I didn’t cross paths with Mr. Sechin and didn’t talk to him about anything.”

The break really ended, journalists were launched into the hall. Ulyukaev is in boxing, bending over papers, writing something.

In anticipation of the start of the meeting, we recall that the Ulyukaev case is not the first in a series of high-profile bribery trials. For example, on February 1, former governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh received eight years in a strict regime colony - he was found guilty of taking a bribe from the head of Novovyatsky Ski Plant JSC and Forestry Management Company LLC Yuri Sudgaimer. The total amount that Belykh received was €400,000. The ex-head of the Kirov region denied his guilt.

Since it's lunchtime, let's talk about food. One can recall the most striking detail of the Ulyukaev case - a basket of sausages, which Igor Sechin handed over to him. The sausage suffered a sad fate - they did not eat it, but destroyed it by decision of the Basmanny Court. In November 2017, during the hearing, Ulyukaev’s lawyer Timofei Gridnev listed what was in the famous grocery basket - in particular, it contained a “meat ball with green pepper”, “huntsman sausages”, “Polish sausages”, “salami ". The basket was seized from Ulyukaev's car by operatives - they stopped and searched it at the exit from the Rosneft headquarters. Along with the sausages, a bag of money was also found.

In court, in the meantime, like all normal people in the middle of the day - lunch. The journalists were asked to leave the courtroom. According to the correspondent of Gazeta.Ru, Alexey Ulyukaev remained in boxing, after which he could either be taken to the convoy department or left with lawyers.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov did not comment on the visit of Igor Sechin to the court. “This has nothing to do with the Kremlin,” he told reporters.

The sensational, albeit invisible, appearance of Igor Sechin in court was commented on by Rosneft press secretary Mikhail Leontiev. He stated that the head of the company did not appear in court under pressure, but "as soon as the opportunity arose." “I have said a thousand times that this problem was invented on purpose to divert attention from the content of the process,” Leontyev told RIA Novosti.

Along with the verdict on Alexei Ulyukaev on December 15, reactions followed. Gazeta.Ru publishes some of them.

“Based on the responsibility for the crime itself, in which Ulyukaev is accused, the punishment is adequate. He will be able to pay the fine, he has enough property,” said Kirill Kabanov, a member of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

“This is a harsh sentence. Given his age and health, eight years in prison could be fatal for him,” said Eva Merkacheva, deputy chairman of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission.

“Terrible, unreasonable sentence. Weak work of the investigation, accusatory bias. Alas, many people today face such injustice,” ex-Finance Minister of Russia Alexei Kudrin expressed this opinion on his Twitter.

“The fact that they did not go on conditional with further release on parole, as we used to, shows that there is some element of the desire to restore order in the country,” said State Duma deputy from the Communist Party faction Yuri Afonin.

“A monstrously cruel [sentence], and with a boorish explanation that the guilt was proved by the testimony of Sechin, who did not deign to appear in court,” said the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, Lyudmila Alekseeva.

It should be noted that at the end of March, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that he still considers Alexei Ulyukaev his friend. At the same time, he noted that he maintains business relations with the head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin.

“I know that Alexey is really my friend, we worked a lot together, also in the Ministry of Finance, in the Central Bank, being a colleague in the Ministry of Economic Development,” Siluanov said in an interview with the Dozhd TV channel.

In November 2017, the Russian service of the BBC received copies of the interrogation protocols of Igor Sechin, which were conducted by the Investigative Committee in the case of Ulyukaev. According to them, the head of Rosneft was interrogated three times. First time in a company car on the morning of November 15, 2016. The second time he was interrogated was on January 17, 2017, when Sechin talked for two hours with the Colonel of the Investigative Committee in the Rosneft office on Sofiyskaya Embankment. The third interrogation took place on 31 May.

According to the BBC, during the first interrogation, Igor Sechin did not say how and when Ulyukaev demanded a bribe from him. He only noted what happened "in October-November 2016."

During the January interrogation, Sechin already stated that the extortion of a bribe took place on October 15, 2016 at a summit in Goa. According to him, “during the daytime in the hotel building during the conversation,” he began to discuss the privatization of Bashneft, and then “asked him to somehow thank him for the positive decision by paying the so-called bonus.” At the same time, by that time, the deal on the privatization of the Bashkir oil company by Rosneft had already been approved by the government.

Lawyer Darejan Kveidze: “Personally, my position in the appeal is based on the absence of Sechin’s testimony.”

The court pointed out to Kveidze that the testimony of Igor Sechin should be familiar to the defense from the materials of the criminal case.

The defense side asked for a break. According to the lawyers, they need time after the interrogation of Sechin in order to prepare for the debate. The court partially granted the petition, agreeing to give a break for only a few hours - until 14:30.

The court began deliberations. The defense side comes first.

Prosecutor Filippchuk asked to attach a request for the issuance of funds for the work of the investigation (including wiretapping) and the answer to it. The court granted his request.

The panel of judges determined: to consider the appeal without checking other evidence considered by the court of first instance.

Journalists run into the courtroom. All participants in the process are in it - judges, prosecutors, lawyers and Alexei Ulyukaev. Igor Sechin is no longer in the hall.

The interrogation of Igor Sechin has been going on for more than an hour and a half. The journalists are still in the corridor - many of them are sitting on the floor.

Alexei Ulyukaev was sentenced to eight years in a strict regime colony, but so far he is being held in a pre-trial detention center called "Kremlin Central", located in "Matrosskaya Tishina". This is a pre-trial detention center for especially important persons, and the conditions there are milder than in other places of detention: there are only 20 cells in it, in which there are toilet bowls and sinks familiar to everyone, hot and cold water.

As the correspondent of "Gazeta.ru" reports, today the former Deputy Minister of Economic Development Sergey Belyakov came to support Alexei Ulyukaev. He noted that earlier he could not appear in court because of the busy schedule. Belyakov is the first official who came to court in the case of Ulyukaev. Note that the ex-deputy minister of the Ministry of Economic Development did not wait for the resumption of the meeting and left.

It is noteworthy that the former head of the Ministry of Economic Development Alexey Ulyukaev has been writing poetry since his student years. The first collection of his poems was published in 1978 in the journal of Moscow State University, another was published in 2002, and in 2013 the collection "Avitaminosis" was published. "Gazeta.Ru" publishes some lines.

Unstressed life, Not a vowel, agreeing to everything, Respond. Call yourself not a romance, so a fable, Just last.

Forever, forever... Raskin your brain, Where can we go from eternal longing, Like the Soviet space, huge? That's why it pinches the country like a string, That's why the poet howls at the moon, That hovered over the garden.

Meanwhile, bailiffs report that Sechin's request has been going on behind closed doors for a long time. According to them, they are guarding not the entrance to the hall where the head of Rosneft is located, but the office premises where documents are stored.

While we are all waiting for the end of the interrogation of Igor Sechin, let us recall his famous conversation with Alexei Ulyukaev at the Rosneft building on November 14, 2016.

Sechin: Oh, listen, are you without a jacket, huh? How do you even walk like that? Ulyukaev: A? Sechin: Exactly this. You need some kind of jacket. Ulyukaev: No need, no need.

Sechin: Yeah. Ulyukaev: Little basket. Sechin: Yes, take the basket. Ulyukaev: ... Sechin: Everyone is happy, thank you very much.

Note that the appeal in the case of Alexei Ulyukaev is being considered in the largest hall of the Moscow City Court. Large and beautiful: portraits of Montesquieu, Cicero and Plevaco hang on its walls.

Igor Sechin arrived at the building of the Moscow City Court. Journalists suggest that he was brought in through an emergency entrance.

Meanwhile, the hope of seeing Sechin is slowly dying among journalists. They have already started discussing the upcoming blocking of Telegram. There was a thud from the speakers in the hallway of the court. “The sound is being checked,” the spokeswoman explained. “Now there will most likely be a fire alarm,” suggested one of the press representatives.

In his last speech, Ulyukaev also apologized to the Russians for the fact that "too often he compromised, chose the easy way, career and well-being often preferred to uphold principles."

“Only when you yourself get into trouble, you begin to understand how hard people really live, what injustice they face. And when everything is in order, you shamefully turn away from human grief, ”said the ex-head of the Ministry of Economic Development.

Rosneft Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin, for unknown reasons, did not come to the trial in the case of former Minister of Economic Development Alexei Ulyukaev, the judge said at the beginning of the meeting. According to her, employees of the oil company refused to receive a summons for Sechin. It was also faxed, the judge added.

Sechin was summoned to testify in court on November 8. The court sent the subpoena to the address of Rosneft by registered mail through the Russian Post. On Monday, Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontyev said that Sechin had not received the summons. When asked whether Sechin would come to court, Leontiev did not answer.

The Russian Post told RNS that on Friday the summons was delivered to the post office at the place of delivery, but they did not specify where the summons is now.

The defense had no objection to continue the meeting at the current turnout, in connection with which Deputy Energy Minister Alexei Teksler was called to testify first. He explained what was part of his job responsibilities last year: as now, he was responsible for strategic issues, budget, finance and personnel. He was also chairman of the board of directors of Bashneft.

Photo gallery

According to Texler, on August 3, 2016, he gave a negative opinion on the possibility of participation of state-owned companies in the privatization of Bashneft. Based on the position of the Deputy Prime Minister (Arkady Dvorkovich. - Approx. Vedomosti), they prepared their opinion, Texler recalls. In court, he read out the response of the Ministry of Energy to the order to approve the transaction: “In accordance with the instructions of the president and government, the Ministry of Energy, within its competence, reports on the inappropriateness of a company directly or indirectly controlled by the state in the privatization of state-owned property.”

When asked by lawyers whether there was a personal interest in this, as the investigation claims, he replied: “There was not and could not be.” He would still cease to represent the state in the council after privatization, the deputy minister explains.

We did not participate in the decision of who should participate in the privatization, Texler added: non-participation in the privatization of state-owned companies is the position of the deputy prime minister in charge of the fuel and energy complex.

Texler noted that the Ministry of Energy could not confirm or refute the calculations of Rosneft: “ Rosneft» estimated the synergistic effect from privatization at 160 billion rubles. He rated the deal as good.

Ivan Bezmenov, Deputy Director of the Corporate Governance Department of the Ministry of Economic Development, was next called to testify. He was asked to recall whether meetings on privatization and the selection of an agent were held with the participation of Ulyukaev. According to Bezmenov, there was one working meeting, where a representative of VTB Capital, ministry employees, etc. were also present. During the meeting, they discussed the possibility of participation in the privatization of foreigners and state-owned companies. There was a common position on foreigners - not to allow, nothing was said about state-owned companies, Bezmenov noted.

The selection of agents for the deal was a two-stage process, and VTB Capital won. On June 15, he was approved as an agent. Bezmenov clarified that VTB Capital was supposed to select buyers. He also confirmed that he had seen Ulyukaev's statements in the media that " Rosneft» is the wrong buyer.

Bezmenov added that the issue of Rosneft's participation in the privatization of Bashneft was analyzed, as a result, it was decided that " Rosneft» may participate by law, but the government may establish restrictions by separate order. According to him, the economic rationale for the synergistic effect in the privatization of Rosneft was in Sechin's letter.

When asked what changes Ulyukaev made to the report on the transaction, Bezmenov said that the text was corrected in two places: about additional incentives for competition and about the synergistic effect. The witness does not know why the minister crossed out the paragraph that the imposition of restrictions on Rosneft would require additional analysis of the impact on the budget, but considers the paragraph important.

He did not rule out that the crossed out paragraphs influenced the conclusion about possible additional restrictions for Rosneft. Bezmenov recalled that at the initial stage there were many who wanted to take part in the privatization of Bashneft - about 10 applicants, but he did not know why they refused. He gave a negative answer to the question of whether anyone ordered the preparation of a document preventing Rosneft from participating in privatization. But the report on how to sell the shares was sent for further study, taking into account the new shareholder structure and current value, Bezmenov added.

The next witness is Sergey Volchenkov, adviser to the information technology department of the Ministry of Economic Development, who is in charge of the ministry's servers. He told how Ulyukaev's official correspondence was seized: they exported the user's data into a single file and copied Ulyukaev's correspondence from the beginning of his work in the ministry until his arrest. The information was copied to a flash drive, he said. Volchenkov did not look at the content of the correspondence; most likely, it has already been deleted from the server of the ministry.

After the interrogation of witnesses was completed, the judge of the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow decided to summon Sechin to court again. Ulyukaev's defense asked Sechin to send a second agenda at the meeting. The prosecution did not object. The next meeting will take place on November 15.

The prosecutor demanded to interrogate the head of Rosneft behind closed doors. "The state prosecution ensured the appearance of the witness in court," prosecutor Boris Neporozhny said. The judge granted this request.

Igor Sechin (Photo: Konstantin Zavrazhin / RIA Novosti)

The head of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, will testify in the case of the former Minister of Economic Development of Russia, Alexei Ulyukaev. The prosecutor demanded that Sechin be interrogated behind closed doors, the judge granted this demand, asking everyone to leave the courtroom. This is reported by the correspondent of RBC.

Igor Sechin on Thursday first appeared in court for this process. As the prosecutor explained, his interrogation should be closed "in order to preserve the commercial secret of the Rosneft company." “We are talking about buying a stake in the oil company Bashneft,” the prosecutor explained.

Alexei Ulyukaev and his defense opposed the interrogation of Igor Sechin behind closed doors. According to the former minister, there is no reason to interrogate the head of Rosneft at the appeal stage. Lawyers supported his position. “We interrogated the former minister of economic development. We interrogated his deputies. We interrogated the head of the Federal Property Management Agency. And none of them demanded that this be done behind closed doors,” said Timofey Gridnev, Ulyukaev’s lawyer.

During the consideration of the case, the court sent four subpoenas to Sechin, calling him as a witness, but the head of Rosneft did not appear in court. The verdict was based on General Oleg Feoktistov, the former deputy head of the FSB's own security department.

In December 2017, the former head of the Ministry of Economic Development received a $2 million bribe from the head of Rosneft. The investigation claimed that Ulyukaev demanded this money in the form of a "bonus" for the successful completion of the transaction for the purchase of Bashneft shares by Rosneft. The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow sentenced the ex-minister to eight years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 130.4 million rubles. Ulyukaev is also prohibited from working in government positions for eight years after his release.

The ex-minister himself at the trial declared that he was innocent, and called the story of the bribe a "provocation." In his last speech, he is a “sham witness” who “dissolved just as the notorious synergistic effect for the budget from the acquisition of shares in Bashneft by Rosneft disappeared.”

Consideration of the appeal

On April 12, the Moscow City Court considers a complaint by the former minister's defense against the verdict. And the lawyers are asking to acquit Ulyukaev, as they consider the evidence agreed with by the court of first instance to be insufficient to pass such a harsh sentence, and the court’s approach is one-sided. The Prosecutor General's Office, for its part, calls the verdict "legal, justified, motivated," the judge said, announcing the case file.

Ulyukaev's lawyers, in a conversation with an RBC correspondent, noted that they would not present new arguments at the time of the appeal, since already known facts were sufficient. “For example, [Oleg] Feoktistov was never able to answer where and when an application was filed against [Aleksey] Ulyukaev and, most importantly, who and when warned him about responsibility for giving false testimony. Feoktistov said in court that he was almost verbally warned - by phone. And if he was not warned, this casts doubt on the reliability of the testimony, ”the defenders of the ex-minister emphasized in an interview with RBC. Testimony of Oleg Feoktistov to the state prosecution in early December 2017, when he demanded ten years in prison as a punishment for Ulyukaev.

The appeal against the verdict to the ex-minister is being heard by a trio of judges chaired by Olga Nedelina. At the beginning of the meeting, Aleksey Ulyukaev himself filed a petition, he asked to allow his wife Yulia Khryapina to participate in the trial as a public defender. The court rejected this petition, explaining this decision by the fact that Ulyukaev's wife is not a qualified lawyer and is not familiar with the materials of the criminal case.

Former Deputy Minister of Energy Sergei Belyakov came to support Alexei Ulyukaev at the trial, an RBC correspondent reports. Belyakov became the first official to openly support the former head of the Ministry of Economic Development in this process.

The court session is taking place in room No. 635 of the Moscow City Court's appeal building. In the same hall in April 2017, he was the former head of the anti-corruption department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Denis Sugrobov.​

Closed interrogation

During the consideration of the case, the Zamoskvoretsky Court sent four subpoenas to Sechin, calling him as a witness, but the head of Rosneft did not appear in court. As a result, the verdict was based on the testimony of FSB General Oleg Feoktistov, who oversaw the operational development of Ulyukaev and was present at the Rosneft office on November 14, 2016, on the day the marked money was handed over to the minister.

President Vladimir Putin had to comment on Sechin's absence during the traditional annual press conference in December 2017. The head of state did not see violations of the law in the actions of the head of the state-owned company, but noted that Sechin "could have come to court."

"What's so-and-so here? He could have repeated everything that he stated during the preliminary investigation and interrogations, ”Putin, noting that he“ saw the public reaction to this.

The appearance of the head of Rosneft at the appeal was not announced by either the representatives of the company or the parties to the process. During the consideration of the case, the representative of the state prosecution, Boris Neporozhny, asked the court to hear the testimony of the witness Sechin. He demanded that Sechin be interrogated behind closed doors, since during the interrogation the circumstances constituting, among other things, a commercial secret, as well as confidential documents on the privatization of Bashneft, would be investigated.

Alexei Ulyukaev and his defense opposed the interrogation of Igor Sechin behind closed doors. According to the former minister, there is no reason to interrogate the head of Rosneft at the appeal stage. Lawyers supported his position. “We interrogated the former minister of economic development. We interrogated his deputies. We interrogated the head of the Federal Property Management Agency. And none of them demanded that this be done behind closed doors,” said Timofey Gridnev, Ulyukaev’s lawyer. The judge granted the prosecution's demand and asked the journalists to leave the courtroom.

Visitors to the court did not have the opportunity to see Sechin and ask him questions: he was led into the courtroom through a separate entrance for prosecutors, where he got from the neighboring building of the Moscow City Court through an overpass. After the interrogation, he also left the building in a detour.

“No one put pressure on him, he came to court as soon as the opportunity arose. He is a law-abiding citizen,” Rosneft spokesman Mikhail Leontiev explained Sechin’s appearance in court to RIA Novosti.

What Sechin said

Later, Sechin himself commented on the appearance in court, explaining it for the results of the fight against corruption in the country. “For me, this was a matter of principle, because I wanted my testimony to be taken into account by the court. I am the main witness, and for me it was a matter of honor, ”he told Rossiya 24. He explained his failure to appear in the court of first instance by a serious work schedule and noted that he came "as soon as the opportunity arose."

“Today’s trial was held behind closed doors due to a number of circumstances, so I can’t talk about the details, but in general I can say that during the court session I confirmed my position that Ulyukaev demanded an illegal reward, he himself indicated its amount, he came for him and left himself,” Sechin said.

Sechin's testimony is "constructed" and "inaccurate", but they give reason to send, Ulyukaev's defender Timofey Gridnev said in his speech in the debate. Thus, the verdict of the Zamoskvoretsky Court was based on the testimony of FSB General Oleg Feoktistov and Sechin's statement to the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov. It claimed that the demand for a bribe was made in the lobby of a hotel in Goa while playing billiards, but now Sechin said that it was made after playing on the stairs, when the minister and the head of Rosneft were going to another event. In addition, it followed from the verdict that it was Ulyukaev who called Sechin, although the recording of their conversations indicated otherwise.

“Today we have lost a huge part of the evidence referred to by the court of first instance,” Gridnev said. According to him, the very idea that Ulyukaev could demand a bribe in a crowd of people and in the presence of the presidential protocol service is absurd, and the available videos show that they left the summit event separately.

Sechin's testimony, on the contrary, is in excellent agreement with other evidence in the case, prosecutors Boris Neporozhny and Pavel Filipchuk said.

In his last speech at the meeting on April 12, Ulyukaev said that during the trial, not a single piece of evidence was presented that he had ever demanded a bribe from the head of Rosneft. “On the contrary, there was a lot of evidence of my innocence. The entire verdict is based on one circumstantial evidence, built on the principle of "". Or rather, “one man said, as another man said, that the third man demanded a bribe from him,” Ulyukaev said.

Listened to criticism

The reason for Sechin's arrival at the trial could be the fear that the sentence would be canceled, says Yevgeny Korchago, a member of the council for interaction with civil society institutions under the chairman of the Federation Council. “He is the main witness for the prosecution, and no one except him saw how Ulyukaev demanded money from him. Therefore, his appearance in the appeal can be regarded as giving the verdict of the first instance legitimacy, which reduces the likelihood of its subsequent cancellation, ”Korchago is sure.

Another version of the unexpected arrival of Sechin in court is put forward by the ex-Prosecutor General of Russia, Yuri Skuratov. “Sechin’s appearance in court was not connected with fears that the sentence would not stand, we know that our judges are very understanding, especially since public opinion was prepared in advance,” he says. According to Skuratov, the arrival of the head of Rosneft is associated with a threat to personal authority due to the numerous criticisms that were made against him. “It is impossible for one of the applicants to demonstrate contempt of court,” the former prosecutor general believes.

Sechin's unexpected decision may be due either to the personal recommendation of President Vladimir Putin, or the result of a struggle for the distribution of seats in the highest echelons of power after the inauguration of the head of state, political consultant Dmitry Fetisov is sure. “The President publicly criticized Sechin for not participating in such a high-profile trial. Sechin, as a systemic person, is not interested in his influence falling. In the context of the imminent resignation of the government, Sechin is signaling that he wants to maintain his influence and possibly get some new high position, Fetisov added. And that is why I could pay attention to criticism and go to trial, ”concluded the expert.