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Russian ex-minister says Putin ally set him up in bribe case

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Moscow: Russia’s ex-economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev on Wednesday accused the head of state oil giant Rosneft, a powerful ally of President Vladimir Putin, of personally entrapping him as he is accused of taking a massive bribe.


Russia on Wednesday began the first full hearing in Ulyukayev’s bribery trial, the highest-profile criminal case against a top official in decades.


Ulyukayev was arrested in November while still a minister, allegedly caught red-handed after demanding a $2-million (1.7-million-euro) bribe in return for greenlighting state oil giant Rosneft’s acquisition of a stake in another oil company Bashneft.


The 61-year-old denies the charge of massive official bribe-taking, for which he could face up to 15 years in prison.


In court he angrily defended himself, saying he was seized in a sting operation organised by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, in “a provocation organised from on high on the basis of a false accusation.”


Ulyukayev said the security services set up the sting on the basis of “fabricated” accusations, “based solely on Sechin’s claims.”


He said he was lured to the Rosneft offices by Sechin. It was there that a case containing the bribe money was handed over. Ulyukayev was arrested as he tried to drive away with the money in the boot of his car.


Ulyukayev said he went to the meeting after “Sechin called me personally... and persuaded me to come to Rosneft.”


The prosecution concurs that Sechin set up the meeting and handed over the money, but said he did this in cooperation with the security forces after Ulyukayev demanded the money at a summit in India in return for approving the high-profile Bashneft deal.


Ulyukayev had originally opposed the sale of the stake in Bashneft to Rosneft but later endorsed it after Putin said it could help fill state coffers.


Rosneft’s spokesman Mikhail Leontyev told RIA Novosti state news agency: “The fact remains: Ulyukayev himself demanded unlawful reward for carrying out his official duties, he came to collect it himself and himself left the meeting place with the money. What else can you add.”


The prosecution has asked for Sechin to be summoned as a witness at the trial. A courtroom showdown between such senior figures would be highly unusual and it is unclear whether Sechin will attend in person.


Sechin, 56, formerly served as deputy prime minister and as Putin’s deputy chief of staff and adviser and is a close confidant of the Kremlin strongman.


Since taking charge of Rosneft in 2012, he has built it up into the world’s largest publicly traded oil company.


A fluent Portuguese speaker, he worked as a military interpreter in Mozambique and Angola and unconfirmed rumours swirl that he was a KGB spy.


He worked with Putin in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s and moved with him to Moscow to take up posts in the Kremlin.


He is seen as a key figure in the clan of powerful security figures known as the “siloviki.”


Wearing a striped blue polo shirt, Ulyukayev sat at a table in the packed courtroom in Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky district court. — AFP


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