Russian oppositionist hit by sanctions – Picture of the Day – Kommersant
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Oppositionist Mikhail Iosilevich, who served time for cooperation with the undesirable organization “Open Russia” recognized in Russia and threatening a witness, accused the Nizhny Novgorod Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation) of inaction in returning material evidence. Having emigrated to Israel, he demanded the return of the $146.7 thousand seized during the search in the apartment. The agency is ready to give back the dollars stored on the special account of Sberbank, but due to sanctions, unlimited currency transfers to other banks are prohibited, and the instructions of the Ministry of Finance do not allow the investigation to cash dollars. Mr. Iosilevich could open an account with Sberbank for an internal transfer, but he does not want to return to Russia.
The Soviet District Court of Nizhny Novgorod began to consider a civil lawsuit filed by businessman Mikhail Iosilevich against the regional department of the TFR. The plaintiff asks to declare illegal the agency’s inaction in returning $146.7 thousand to him, contrary to the court’s verdict in the criminal case. In May, Mikhail Iosilevich was found guilty of collaborating with the Open Russia organization, which is undesirable in the Russian Federation, and threatening to kill the witness for the prosecution, Yaroslav Grach. Being in Nizhny Novgorod the “viscaria” of the parody temple of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, in September 2020, the merchant provided the premises of his cafe “The Same Place” for training observers of the “Voice” movement (recognized as a foreign agent) on the eve of the elections to the city duma.
Investigation with the help of political experts tied “Voice” with “Open Russia” and qualified the provision of premises as an encroachment on the foundations of the constitutional order and destabilization of the socio-political situation in the region.
Mikhail Iosilevich pleaded not guilty and asked for an excuse. Before sentencing, he tried to fly to Israel, but was taken off the plane and arrested. The court appointed him a year and eight months in a colony-settlement.
Having been released in September (he served the entire term, including the time spent under arrest in a pre-trial detention center), the businessman emigrated. Shortly before his departure, he turned to the investigator of the ICR, asking him to execute the sentence in part and return $146.7 thousand and 390 thousand rubles during searches. Ruble savings were given to him, but Mikhail Iosilevich did not wait for the currency and decided to claim it through the court. At the meeting, lawyer Aleksey Matasov stated that the investigation had not notified his principal about the possibility of receiving money when he was in the colony. Having been released, Mikhail Iosilevich personally brought the details of his Citibank account to the regional investigative department for currency transfer. “However, the money has not yet been returned. We believe that the inaction of the investigative department violates the legal rights of the plaintiff,” said Mr. Matasov.
Yuri Kirilenko, inspector of the control and investigation department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, explained that the arrested money of Mikhail Iosilevich was placed on a special account in Sberbank, as required by the instructions of the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, according to the instructions, it is impossible to cash out the seized money: only cashless payments are possible when returned to the rightful owner or converted to state revenue by a court decision.
The inspector said that the Control and Investigation Department twice applied to Sberbank and sent a reply to Mikhail Iosilevich to the Nizhny Novgorod address stating that the transfer to the Citibank currency account he requested was impossible. “Sberbank is under sanctions and has no right to transfer foreign currency to other banks in principle,” Yuri Kirilenko emphasized, providing the court with Sberbank’s answers that unlimited transfers to other banks are temporarily possible only in Belarusian rubles and Kazakhstani tenge, and transactions in Chinese yuan require clarification.
Mikhail Iosilevich did not want to convert the currency, his lawyer said. The investigation suggested that the merchant who had served his sentence could open an account with Sberbank and receive foreign currency by transfer from a special account.
However, the lawyer said that Mr. Iosilevich does not plan to return to Russia and apply to Sberbank. As a result, the meeting was postponed until January 2023, and the plaintiff was offered to clarify the position: it is not yet clear to the court what exactly is the inaction of the investigation, which was trying to return the seized money to the merchant. The court instructed the Investigation Department to prove that the relevant notices had been sent to Mikhail Iosilevich. The opposition leader and his family live in Israel.
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