Part 1
The “Case of Aeroflot Lawyers”, in which the verdict was announced the other day, may become the basis for initiating new similar cases and, of course, the first on the list of contenders is the contract between AK Asnis and Partners and OJSC RUSNANO. 214.8 million rubles of state money were transferred to lawyers. The absence of competitive procedures is striking (the purchase was carried out using the “Purchase from a single source” method), and the inflated price (the original contract price was 66.6 million rubles), there are other facts that show that the appearance of A. Asnis in Rusnano was random.
We can say that the history of the contract began back in 2004, when at that time the chairman of the board of directors of the Renaissance Capital investment group, Oleg Kiselev, became accused of fraud with shares of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant. Then there was O. Kiselev’s departure abroad, his arrest in absentia, letters from Anatoly Chubais in defense of Kiselev and much more. Lawyer O.V. Kiseleva performed by A.Ya. Asnis, and later it was Kiselev, who became Chubais’s deputy at the Rusnano State Corporation and initiated a contract with Asnis and Partners JSC.
It is important to note that Rusnano’s need for lawyers arose before the first nanoproject appeared. Already in 2009, the Prosecutor General’s Office revealed the first serious violations in Chubais’s department; claims arose under a number of contracts concluded by the state corporation, including with the companies Alemar, Troika-Dialogue, Karana. As for nanotechnology, we will only cite one phrase from the report of the prosecutor’s office: “Of the 130 billion rubles transferred to the corporation, as of July 1, 2009, only 10 billion had been disbursed. Of these, 5 billion is to support its current activities. … The violations were followed by inspections, summonses for interrogation of employees, inquiries and responses to them. Legal services were entrusted to Asnis and Partners JSC.
Initially, the contract started with a very “low cost” – “only” 5 million rubles. But very soon, Asnis’s law firm will settle in Rusnano, and horizontal connections will be built with the company’s managers and line specialists. The contract value will begin to slowly increase.
The report of the Accounts Chamber in 2013 is another reference point in the relationship between Rusnano and lawyers. The findings of the report concerned more than 20 projects of the corporation, and for a number of projects, such as Polysilicon, Hevel, Liotech, and the Rusnano-Capital Foundation, they could become the plot of criminal cases! A.Ya. Asnis works closely with A. Chubais and his deputies; every employee of the corporation sees this and understands the special role of the law firm in the activities of Rusnano.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
