Moscow court orders arrest of Russian-Israeli businessman

By Investor Empires On Aug 29, 2024

Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Russian-Israeli Oleg Kiselev, who between 2008 and 2019 was vice president of Rusnano, a Russian state-owned nanotechnology company.

Kiselev, who is not in Russia, faces charges of “embezzlement of particularly large sums of money,” which prompted Russia to issue an international arrest warrant for him through Interpol. According to State Duma member Alexander Khinshtein, Kiselev and several former senior Rusnano executives are accused of embezzling a total of 1.676 billion rubles between 2012 and 2015, through a Cypriot fund and the Moscow-based Peresvet Bank. But as with other cases involving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime, there are many questions surrounding this case.

The investigation into Kiselev began after Rusnano’s head, Anatoly Chubais, who was close to Putin, fled Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kiselev was his deputy. When Chubais fled, the regime launched a wide-ranging investigation into him and former top Rusnano executives, accusing them of embezzlement. In addition to Kiselev, an arrest warrant has also been issued for the former CEO of Rusnano’s subsidiary Rusnano Capital, Irina Rappaport.

Another question on this issue arises from statements by President Putin himself. In September 2023, Putin called Chubais “Moshe Israelievich” at an economic forum, accusing him of corruption at Rusnano. “Why is Anatoly Borisovich (Chubais’s full Russian name is Anatoly Borisovich Chubais) hiding there?” Putin asked about Chubais’ move to Israel. “I was shown a photo where it is no longer Anatoly Borisovich, but Moshe Israelievich.”

Kiselev (71), who has been active for many years in the Russian Jewish Congress, held a number of senior positions in Russia, and not just at Rusnano. He was chairman of Alfa Bank and Impex Bank and later moved to the mining and metals giant Metalloinvest as chairman and then to the investment bank Renaissance Capital as chairman. He was a donor to Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal and the Jewish campus organization Hillel.

This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on August 29, 2024.