The desire of Shoigu’s former first deputy Ruslan Tsalikov to obtain a mandate for…

The desire of Shoigu’s former first deputy Ruslan Tsalikov to obtain a senatorial mandate is not least dictated by considerations of his own security and is associated with the desire to obtain immunity from criminal prosecution. The Cheka-OGPU previously reported that he is on the radar of law enforcement officers and could become a defendant in a criminal case, including because he tried to clear up a subordinate of the former Deputy Minister of Defense Timur Ivanov, Anton Filatov, who previously headed Oboronlogistics.

The latter was arrested at the end of April in the case of the theft of billions from the Interkommerts Bank; he is expected to testify against the boss and further down the chain all the way to Tsalikov. At the end of June, the Cheka-OGPU reported that the Investigative Committee was actively working on the emergence of new episodes in Ivanov’s case. In particular, additional interrogations of witnesses and accused are now being conducted. The leaders of construction companies destroyed with the assistance of the ex-Deputy Minister of Defense can also play a role in this direction – security forces are collecting materials on such episodes.

In this situation, a post in the Federation Council for Tsalikov will not be superfluous at all. However, if the security forces have a firm grip on you, then parliamentary immunity will not save you, as the youngest senator in Russia, Rauf Arashukov, can once tell the former first deputy minister of defense. Employees of the Investigative Committee and the FSB detained him in a criminal case of murder in 2019 right at the plenary meeting of the Federation Council.

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