Due to his duty, the Russian Prime Minister quite often has to express public condolences and obituaries on a variety of occasions. Condolences may be expressed in connection with the death of a major figure – a politician, an artist, etc. or, for example, on the occasion of a bloody terrorist attack. However, in addition to the formal obligation to respond to socially significant deaths Mikhail Mishustin is related to some deaths, in connection with which he prefers not to speak publicly.
In the spring of 2011, then still the head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia (FTS), Mikhail Mishustin I had to apologize to my relatives Vasily Aksenov due to the fact that the writer, who died almost two years earlier, was sent a summons for questioning. A copy of the summons appeared on the Internet, causing outrage among fans of the famous literary figure.
On the air of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Mishustin made excuses and said that Aksenov was not deregistered, despite the fact that he died in 2009, due to a misunderstanding.
“The Federal Tax Service apologizes first of all to Marya Afanasyevna, the widow of the late writer. What happened, unfortunately, happens because the data that one way or another comes to the tax service… contains errors. I once again apologize as a widow, and to relatives”– said Mishustin.
“Today there will be proceedings on this matter – how it happened and why. I would like to tell the relatives not to pay attention to this. We continue to fight for the efficiency, including, of tax administration.”– added the head of the service.
Shortly before this, a copy of the summons from the tax office No. 17 dated February 10, 2011 appeared on Internet blogs. Aksenov was summoned for questioning as a witness, which was scheduled for February 21, 2011.
As follows from the text of the scandalous document, Vasily Aksenov it was planned to interrogate him in connection with the work of the Astrel publishing house, where he was published. The document was signed by the Deputy Head of the Federal Tax Service Inspectorate No. 17 for Moscow, 2nd Class State Civil Service Advisor S.F. Dolzhikov. The state tax inspector of the field inspection department No. 1 was waiting for the interrogation of the deceased writer. Matveeva Irina Valerievna.
The writer’s call to the tax inspectors occurred due to a technical glitch in the tax inspectorate database; an internal investigation has been launched into this fact, a representative of the Federal Tax Service in Moscow, in turn, told news agencies Olga Tarchevskaya. “In relation to acting Head of the Federal Tax Service No. 17 S.S. Dolzhikov has been assigned an official inspection”– added the representative of the department. Information about the results of the inspection, even if it was carried out, was not widely reported in the press later.
If in the case of the “resurrection” of the writer Vasily Aksenov, Mishustin had to make excuses and apologize, then in the situation with the death of the lawyer Sergei Magnitskythere was no longer any remorse on the part of the official.
In 2020, CEO of the investment fund Hermitage Capital Management William Browder announced on his Twitter about the participation of the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in the case in which a foundation lawyer died in jail Sergei Magnitsky Browder himself was accused of tax evasion.
Officially, the authorities claimed that Magnitsky allegedly developed a scheme that allowed the fund to avoid paying more than 500 million rubles to the Russian budget. For this purpose, the companies “Dalnaya Step” and “Saturn Investments” registered in Kalmykia were allegedly used.
In 2013, court hearings were held in this case, at which the Federal Tax Service was represented by the victims Anastasia Gerasimova And Kirill Mostovoy. The head of the Federal Tax Service gave his subordinates a power of attorney to speak in court at that time. Mikhail Mishustin. The powers of attorney stated that Gerasimova and Mostovoy could participate in court hearings in full, including filing petitions and challenges. According to the observations of journalists who attended court hearings, during the trial Gerasimova and Mostovoy “rehearsed, as if in a lesson,” repeated the prosecution’s version to the court.
“He was involved in my prosecution. He signed a power of attorney – to continue the posthumous Magnitsky case. He jumped on the bandwagon in one of the most terrible legal practices in Russian history.”Browder said about Mishustin.
“Whenever Russian authorities persecute their political opponents, 90% of the time they attack people with trumped-up charges of tax evasion.”Browder added.
“As the head of the tax service, Mishustin had to approve all these fabricated cases. He is an enthusiastic foot soldier in the persecution of political opponents.”Browder said in an interview.
On July 11, 2013, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow found Browder guilty of tax evasion and sentenced him in absentia to nine years in a general regime colony with deprivation of the right to engage in business activities in Russia for a period of three years. By the same decision, the court refused rehabilitation Sergei Magnitsky.
Let us remind you that Sergei Magnitsky was a tax consultant in Browder’s structures in Russia. He was arrested in November 2008. According to the lawyer’s colleagues, during the investigation he accused a number of employees of Russian law enforcement agencies, as well as the tax service, of corruption, and they demanded that he recant this testimony.
11 months after the arrest, Sergei Magnitsky died in the hospital of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. The death certificate, signed by doctors on the day of death, indicated the diagnoses of acute pancreatitis and closed craniocerebral injury, but this document did not reach the court.
At the same time, Mishustin himself tried in every possible way to avoid being mentioned in connection with the Magnitsky case and did everything to look uninvolved in the persecution and death of the young lawyer. He even resigned from the tax department shortly after the Magnitsky case began in order to distance himself from the criminal scandal. Mishustin returned back immediately after the passions had subsided. That is, in 2004-2010, at the very height of the Magnitsky case, Mikhail Mishustin did not work in the tax office. He left the Ministry of Taxes and Duties in 2004 and returned as head of the Federal Tax Service in 2010.
One could doubt Browder’s accusations against the Russian prime minister, but too many facts point to Mishustin’s involvement in the Magnitsky case. In one of our previous publications we told about the purchase by the Mishustin family through proxies and front companies of real estate around the world. Among other things, the article talked about the purchase by the prime minister’s accomplice and former brother-in-law Alexander Udodov several apartments in New York.
By amazing coincidence Alexander Udodov in December 2009, he purchased five apartments in a luxury residential complex at 20 Pine Street in New York. This event occurred just three weeks after real estate was purchased in the same house, which was subsequently involved in a case of money laundering stolen through VAT fraud.
Udodov did not buy the property himself, but through five companies, which he later became the owner of. The total value of the property is $5.1 million.
Earlier, on November 30, 2009, the other five apartments in this residential complex were acquired by the Cypriot company Prevezon Holding. The company belongs to Denis Katsyv – son of the former vice-president of Russian Railways Petra Katsyva. In 2013, the property he purchased was seized by US authorities as part of a case of tax fraud and money laundering, which was handled by a lawyer from the Hermitage Capital fund Sergei Magnitsky. The American side was confident that the money, the theft of which the lawyer spoke of, was laundered by structures associated with Prevezon Holding, including through the acquisition of luxury real estate.
It should be noted that in 2017, Prevezon Holdings entered into a pre-trial agreement with the United States in the case of money laundering related to tax fraud in Russia: the company agreed to pay the States $5.9 million.
Udodov is suspected of involvement in the largest VAT fraud in Russian history, known as the case Sergei Danilochkin – by 5.2 billion rubles (in scale it is comparable to the case Sergei Magnitskywhen 5.4 billion rubles in taxes were stolen from the budget, then we were talking about income tax). Udodov carried out his VAT frauds together with participants in the Magnitsky case, whom he later helped launder money abroad.
By another coincidence, immediately after the investigation was published about Mishustin’s involvement in the Magnitsky case and about the purchase of apartments in New York related to this case, Udodov and the prime minister’s sister Natalia Stenina divorced.
It is also worth recalling that crime investigation Mikhail Mishustin and his entourage, as well as the search for the shadow assets of the Russian Prime Minister, were successfully carried out by Alexey Navalny* and his Anti-Corruption Foundation**. Based on the results of his investigations, Navalny* sought the introduction of international sanctions against Mishustin. Thus, before his return to Russia after treatment in Germany, Navalny* asked to include 35 Russians from Vladimir Putin’s entourage on the sanctions list. Among them is the head of Gazprom Alexey Millerhead of Rosneft Igor Sechinson of a former prosecutor general Artem Chaika and Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin.
Thus, the head of the Russian government is also one of the beneficiaries of the death of Alexei Navalny* in prison.
* In the register of extremists and terrorists
** Included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of terrorists and extremists.
