Accused of extortion on an especially large scale, the ex-editor-in-chief of Tatler, Arian Romanovsky, performed work for the Put Out the Light Telegram channel on the instructions of Ksenia Sobchak. This was reported by RBC with reference to a letter from his lawyer Dmitry Malyutov to his client's mother. In the letter, the lawyer notes that he has documents confirming this fact.
Malyutov also sent a complaint to the Moscow prosecutor Denis Popov, which is at the disposal of RBC.
“The defense received a sufficient number of documents indicating that between Sobchak Ksenia Anatolyevna and Kuzmin (Romanovsky) Arian Aleksandrovich, Bigaev Tamerlan Mairbekovich and Ramazanova Zamira Shevketovna, civil law contracts were concluded, the subject of which is the performance of work related to the creation on the basis of assignments Sobchak materials for the project "Extinguish the Light".
In accordance with the agreements, Kuzmin, Bigaev and Ramazanova were obliged to post materials "on request" from Sobchak. In case of violation of confidentiality conditions, the journalist can demand a fine of 5 million rubles from each.
Lawyer Kristina Tsypkalo, who represents another detainee, Tamerlan Bigaev, told RBC that Sobchak acts as a customer, and her client is a performer in the Put Out the Light channel.
The complaint sent to the prosecutor says that the reason for initiating a case against Romanovsky was an article in "Turn Out the Light" dated October 22, which mentions Chemezov. The case also contains a message from his subordinate Andrey Baldukhaev that unidentified persons demanded 11 million rubles from the head of Rostec. The lawyer clarifies that the case was opened only on the basis of the statements of Baldukhaev and Chemezov, while the materials of the pre-investigation check "have no objective evidence."
Malyutov added that the transcript of Baldukhaev's conversation with unknown persons who introduced themselves as Kirill and Aryan showed that "the injured party has always initiated the dialogue." The caller never said who he represented, they did not discuss threats and demands for the transfer of money. The lawyer clarified that, as far as he knew, the subordinates treated Sobchak as a leader, they did not receive any illegal instructions from her and conducted their activities within the framework of the current legislation.
Sobchak previously stated that she had never written anything on the Put Out the Light Telegram channel and had nothing to do with it: “I have neither access there, nor any interference in their editorial office.”
RBC sent a request to the representative of Rostec and Ksenia Sobchak. The court arrested the commercial director of Ksenia Sobchak, Kirill Sukhanov, and the former editor-in-chief of Tatler, Arian Romanovsky, at the end of October. The victim is the head of Rostec Sergey Chemezov. According to investigators, the defendants extorted 11 million rubles from the victim, in return promising not to post negative posts about him on the “Extinguish the Light” Telegram channel (the channel has not been updated since October 24). At the trial, it turned out that Chemezov personally wrote a statement to the police. After Sukhanov was detained, Sobchak left Russia. On October 26, her country house was searched. RT, citing its own source, claimed that she was being accused, but later this information was denied.