The Ministry of Internal Affairs has put businessman and philanthropist Boris Zimin on the federal wanted list under a criminal article. Mediazona drew attention to the card on the agency's website. Zimin himself, in a conversation with The Insider, said that the case was opened for political reasons, "regardless of what is formally indicated on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."
“My case is another sad and terrible evidence of the relegation of the law and the entire legal system to an instrument, to a weapon in the hands of the channels that seized power in the Russian Federation.”
When asked if Zimin plans to continue his opposition activities after the opening of the case, he replied:
“I don’t really understand the word ‘opposition’ and its derivatives, but if we are talking about the destruction of the current regime in the Russian Federation named after Putin, as well as undermining its military and police forces, then yes, of course.”
Updated: According to TASS with reference to the Tverskoy District Court, Zimin was accused of fraud committed by a group of persons or on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159) and was put on the international wanted list. Also, the law enforcement agencies told the agency that Zimin is accused of illegal alienation of BelkaCar common shares, as well as the arrested German investor of the company Ralph Novak. The Ministry of Internal Affairs insists on arrest in absentia. A court session on the choice of a measure of restraint is scheduled for January 11.
Judge Aleksey Krivoruchko, who in 2009 extended the arrest of Hermitage Capital lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, will make the decision. Also, this judge is known for repeatedly appointing arrests to oppositionists and supporters of Alexei Navalny.
Russian businessman and public figure Boris Zimin is the son of Dmitry Zimin (1933-2021), the founder of VimpelCom (Beeline). Dmitry Zimin left Russia after his Dynasty Foundation was included in the list of "foreign agents" and fined 300,000 rubles. "Dynasty" announced the termination of activities. In 2015 he returned to Russia.
In 2020, the Zimin family foundation paid for the transportation of Alexei Navalny from Omsk to Berlin. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Zimin has been a member of the Anti-War Committee of Russia, and the Zimin Foundation has been helping refugees from Ukraine and Russia, including scientists, students and journalists.