Page 50 - bne_newspaper_February_02_2018

50 I Eastern Europe bne February 2018
Alexei Ulyukayev
Former Russian economy minister jailed for eight years for bribery
bne IntelliNews
Russia's former minister of eco- nomic development and onetime central banker Alexei Ulyukayev has been sentenced to eight years of strict regime incarceration for receiving a $2mn bribe from the head of Rosneft oil giant Igor Sechin. The court also banned Ulyukayev from serving as a state official for eight years even after he will have served out his sentence.
Following the announcement, Ulyu- kayev was escorted from the courtroom. "The sentence is clear," the former minis- ter told the judge.
The conviction of the minister appears to confirm that the power of the infa- mous siloviki group in the Kremlin, with its close ties to the security services, remains largely unchecked and is able to bend the judicial system to settle busi- ness scores.
www.bne.eu
Ulyukayev was handed the money in cash personally by Sechin, who has been called the "Oil Tsar", Russia's "Darth Vader", and "the scariest man on Earth".
The prosecution argued that Ulyukayev demanded the bribe to greenlight the acquisition of regional oil gem Bashneft
The case was based on the testimony of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB) gener- al Oleg Feoktistov, who headed Rosneft's security service. The testimony was given by Feoktistov at a closed court hearing back in September and the judge claimed that she has "no grounds to doubt the testimony of FSB operatives that partici-
“The conviction of the minister appears to confirm that the power of the infamous siloviki group”
by Rosneft, although the minister pub- licly opposed Bashneft's privatisation by a state-controlled company.
The defence argued that Ulyukayev was set up by Sechin and Rosneft's security services, and received the money with- out knowing what he was handed.
pated in the detention of Ulyukayev."
Sechin himself refused to appear in court on four occasions. Many observers argued that the case had been manu- factured by Sechin in response to the ministry's initial opposition to Rosneft buying Bashneft.