A source for the VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info has revealed the serious behind-the-scenes tensions currently simmering over the house arrest of VEB deputy chairman Artem Dovlatov. Trying to get out of the case or at least avoid a prison sentence, Dovlatov has enlisted the help of his longtime friend, General Georgy Burtsev. Meanwhile, Dovlatov's boss, VEB head Igor Shuvalov, is requesting that the conditions of his deputy's house arrest be significantly relaxed when the appeal against the measure of restraint against him is considered.
According to the source, Dovlatov is now actively trying to leverage the help of his longtime friend, Georgy Burtsev, the former first deputy chief of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Siberian Federal District and assistant to the presidential envoy to the Central Federal District. The ultimate goal is to quiet the criminal case. The general also has a personal interest in saving VEB's deputy chairman. His son, also named Georgy Burtsev, works in Dovlatov's unit and is VEB RF's director of Far East and Arctic affairs. Rumor has it that Burtsev was instrumental in Dovlatov's placement under house arrest, despite all the circumstances. Someone (guess who) warned him of the possible arrest, and he meticulously prepared for it.
He promptly fired his beloved, model-like secretary, Ekaterina Loginova. He himself planned to leave for distant lands in May, from which it's unclear whether he would return.
According to a source, Igor Shuvalov is currently lobbying to ensure that Dovlatov is allowed to use his work laptop while under house arrest, approve documents, and respond to employees on VEB's corporate messenger. The Dovlatov situation has dealt a severe blow to Igor Shuvalov and is being used by his opponents as yet another catalyst to accelerate the end of the technocrat Shuvalov's tenure as head of VEB.RF. Under his leadership, the state corporation was mired in embezzlement and scandal. Shuvalov has headed VEB.RF since 2018, taking over Dovlatov from Sergei Gorkov, who left for Rosgeologia. However, the state system is structured such that the head of VEB.RF maintained a balance of interests, unwilling to enter into conflict with Dovlatov's unofficial handler, Yuri Trutnev, the Plenipotentiary Representative to the Far Eastern Federal District.
Therefore, Dovlatov remained at VEB, despite his extensive ties to the state. The source says the internal control service repeatedly reported to Shuvalov about embezzlement at VEB.RF projects in the Far East overseen by Dovlatov—the Lavny Port, the Russky Island Water Park, and others. But he chose to ignore it.
According to a VChK-OGPU source, this is far from Shuvalov's only problem. Clouds are now gathering over another deputy chairman, Daniil Algulyan, who oversees industry and the controversial Kavkaz.RF, and Nikolai Tsekhomsky, VEB's first deputy chairman and a former Sberbank employee.
