Photo: Mediazona
The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested commercial director Ksenia Sobchak Kirill Sukhanov until December 24 in a case of extortion on an especially large scale. The court has not yet determined the measure of restraint for the second person involved in the case, the former editor-in-chief of Tatler Arian Romanovsky.
The victim in the case of Sukhanov and Romanovsky is the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov. According to investigators, they extorted 11 million rubles from him for not publishing negative posts in the “Extinguish the Light” Telegram channel (which has not been updated since October 24). At the trial, it turned out that Chemezov personally wrote a statement against Sukhanov.
Sukhanov does not admit his guilt. According to TASS, he was detained while receiving a tranche of 800,000 rubles from Chemezov's representatives. This was reported to the court by the investigator. According to the case file, Sukhanov was detained at the Regent restaurant, which is located in the Arbat Hotel. Sukhanov said at the meeting that he was ready to publicly apologize to the head of Rostec and plead guilty to receiving 800 thousand rubles, while arguing that he did not extort 11 million rubles, RIA Novosti reports .
Earlier it became known that Ksenia Sobchak became a suspect in this case, this was reported to TASS by law enforcement agencies. “Sobchak is suspected under paragraph “b” of Part 3 of Art. 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extortion in order to obtain property on an especially large scale). The victim in the case is an official of Rostec,” the source said. TASS turned to Sobchak for a comment, she did not comment on it.
On October 26, a search was conducted in the country house of Ksenia Sobchak. Shortly after information about the search, RIA Novosti, citing a source, reported that Sobchak urgently left Russia. RIA Novosti, citing a “source who wished to remain anonymous,” reports that she was seen crossing the Vidzy checkpoint on the border of Belarus and Lithuania on foot. Mash writes that "Sobchak crossed the border between Belarus and Lithuania on foot even before the start of the investigation."
On October 25, Kirill Sukhanov, commercial director of Sobchak's media holding Caution Media, was detained on suspicion of extortion. Together with him, the former editor-in-chief of Tatler magazine Arian Romanovsky (Kuzmin) was detained. On October 26, they were charged with extortion on an especially large scale.