In the past two weeks, everyone has heard about the arrest of the former deputy chief. Rospotrebnadzor Oleg Mitvol.
On June 8, 2022, Mitvol was held at Vnukovo airport while boarding a plane to Turkey (some sources say the UAE). One thing is clear: Mitvol did not escape the country. It was either a family vacation or a private trip for a suspected embezzler of public funds.
What is the accusation about?
Following the arrest, a major media case began. The former high-ranking official was accused of embezzling 975 million rubles during the construction of the subway in Krasnoyarsk. The sum is quite large, but there is something else surprising. Mitvol himself did not appear to expect his arrest, and the whole situation caught him off guard. Why? We won't speculate, there are concrete facts. Firstly, despite the embezzlement, Mitvol continued to live a luxurious life: expensive cars, luxury apartments, frequent flights, and more. This means that a person who hasn't worked anywhere other than state bodies since the early 2000s led a typical oligarchic lifestyle. Another point is that Mitvol promptly admitted his guilt and proposed to reach a deal with the authorities. What does this indicate? There are two possibilities: Mitvol seeks to escape punishment by compensating the state for the damage and may receive a suspended sentence, or those who previously protected him have abandoned the former official, leaving him no room for maneuver. Everything seems to point to the second option. Mitvol's composure, unexpected arrest, detention, and extension of the arrest period all suggest that Mitvol has become expendable.
Who is Mr. Mitvol?
It's understandable that Oleg Mitvol was not a top official, not on the level of Chubais, but he still had significant influence on certain matters in the country. Mitvol also knew how to establish relationships with higher-ups, as shown by his biography.
He started his career at Rospotrebnadzor in 2004, served as deputy head of the department, and tackled environmental violations. We all know what this position means – lots of money. Mitvol must have had a very influential backer to secure his job from the department's launch.
It's amusing to read this now, but in 2007 Mitvol gave a detailed interview to Arguments and Facts. Here's a quote from it: "I’ve lost count of the number of times they tried to bribe me… When certain companies face fines in the billions of rubles, naturally, their first thought is to bribe Mitvol. But it didn't work! Finally, I started saying right off the bat, 'Let's start with a million euros.' And you know what? It worked. Obviously, it was effective. Companies that were harming Russia's ecology began handing over millions of euros to Mitvol.
However, even such harsh statements did not ruin the official’s career. In 2009, Oleg Mitvol became the prefect of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. Nothing new happened in the new position. Mitvol did absolutely absurd things that no one could understand. In total, he served as prefect for 5 years. All 5 years he was haunted by scandals, including corruption. In 2013, a search was carried out in his house in the case of deliberate embezzlement of funds during the bankruptcy of the Frunzenskoye Department of Road Facilities and Improvement. But then Mitvol was lucky, either he was able to solve the situation, or the charges were too weak. In general, the clouds dispersed over the official, and he continued to live in peace.
Long game
After his dismissal from the post of prefect, Mitvol disappeared. Nothing has been heard publicly about him for the last 8 years. Since 2018, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC Krasnoyarsk Trust for Engineering and Construction Surveys (Krasnoyarsk TISIZ). It was this episode in Mitvol’s career that became the last one to date. The essence of the criminal case is rather incomprehensible. The Krasnoyarsk metro, which has been under construction since the 1990s, has become fatal for Mitvol. According to the investigation, the Regional Transport Administration “from the Krasnoyarsk Territory and to carry out work on adjusting the design and estimate documentation with the Mitvol company back in 2019. Since then, the issue price has increased to almost 1 billion rubles. But the most interesting thing is that despite the fact that the work should be ready in December 2019, there has been no result to date. Officials simply signed additional agreements with Mitvol every few months, allegedly to extend the work. It sounds really strange, because it is already June 2022. In fact, for 3 years Mitvol has been driving the entire Krasnoyarsk Territory around his nose? Fantasy, but no. Such transactions take place exclusively under the control of the FSB, and all this looks like absolute nonsense.
Mitvol played his role in the performance, turned out to be waste material, so now he is in jail. But where are the landings of hundreds of people who oversee the construction of the Krasnoyarsk metro? They are not, why – guess for yourself. We are being sold the only culprit, but in fact everyone understands that although Mitvol is a corrupt official, he is not the only one guilty.
