The media found out what had arrested the Deputy Director of the Hermitage
MOSCOW, 1 Jul — RIA Novosti. The arrest of the Deputy Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Novikov associated with fraud in the implementation of contracts for the restoration and adaptation of Reserve of Winter Palace with a total contract amount of 2.4 billion rubles, the newspaper “Kommersant” on Saturday.
Earlier it was reported that the Lefortovo court of Moscow Novikov was placed under house arrest for two months — until may 23. As stated by RIA Novosti, a source familiar with the situation, the arrest of Novikov to loud “thing restorers”, under which the detained former Deputy Minister of culture Grigory Pirumov, Director of investment policy Department of the Ministry of culture Boris Mazo, the head of the state restoration Centre Oleg Ivanov and the other defendants.
Hermitage Director Mikhail Piotrovsky said earlier, “Rossiiskaya Gazeta” that the arrest Novikova is associated with unscrupulous contractors, “the Hermitage buildings”
On Thursday, the Museum announced that is in contact with law enforcement agencies and provided all the necessary information on the two construction contracts.
“The reason for the criminal case of Mikhail Novikov, who was detained by the FSB and placed under house arrest Lefortovsky district court of Moscow, served as two of the state contract with a total value of 2.4 billion rubles for the restoration and adaptation for modern use of the building Reserve of Winter Palace — “laboratory and storage and administrative building”, — writes the edition.
According to the newspaper, this information they confirmed defender Alexey Novikov Gilinsky attorney office “Illusion and partners” which represents interests of the Museum. “Novikov is a suspect in a large fraud… in the implementation of contracts for Spare house”, — writes the edition with reference to Gilinsky. However, as pointed out by “Kommersant”, to comment on the case itself Gilinsky refused, having referred to a subscription about nondisclosure of materials of the investigation.
The defendants in the “case of restorers” is charged with the damage amounting to more than 100 million rubles. The consequence believes that money was stolen during the restoration of Novodevichy convent in Moscow Museum of cosmonautics in Kaluga, Ioanno-Predtechensky Cathedral, drama theatre in Pskov, Izborsk fortress and fortress in Kaliningrad.