Interesting news: Searches are being conducted at the homes of Rostelecom president Alexander Provotorov and company shareholder Konstantin Malofeev as part of a criminal investigation into the theft of more than $200 million from VTB Bank. According to Kommersant, Mr. Malofeev has been taken into custody, and Mr. Provotorov may be detained this evening. http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2071289 Well, if by some miracle someone has finally decided to look into all the VTB loans that were issued for kickbacks and then looted, that’s excellent news. I wholeheartedly welcome it. But let’s make sure searches are carried out and arrests made for all the villains involved. The issue of the Malofeev loans is described in considerable detail in our foundation’s report on VTB. English text. Russian translation. Start reading from page 20. The stolen loan was issued in such a way that there is not the slightest doubt that VTB’s own people were active participants in the theft scheme. It’s no coincidence that even Justice Arnold of the High Court in London, who was considering this transaction, wrote in his ruling in November 2011: "On the evidence currently available, it is unclear in what form—if any—proper due diligence was carried out by VTB Moscow or VTB to verify the representations". And a month before the first tranche of the loan was transferred to Russagroprom’s accounts (for subsequent theft), VTB Bank’s credit committee approved the transaction, stating that Russagroprom fell into the highest "Quality Category 1" thanks to the "good financial condition of this borrower". When the money disappeared, it SUDDENLY emerged that Russagroprom was just a shell deal-making company. This deal would never have been approved if the bank had carried out standard verification procedures instead of wanting this exact outcome from the start. A classic hallmark of VTB’s "effective managers" (a sarcastic Russian term for supposedly efficient executives), just like in the "drilling rigs case": deals worth hundreds of millions with companies that have nothing. So yes, I would very much like to see searches and detentions not only of those who received the loans for subsequent embezzlement, paying their 20% kickbacks for the privilege, but also—first and foremost—of Russia’s highest-paid state manager, the direct head of the unique and astonishing financial structure known as "VTB Bank", Monsieur Kostin. He’s the one on the left in the photo.
On the right is another crook—an even bigger one.