A source told VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info that the arrest of Irakli Arabidze, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Emergency Situations' Department of International Activities, is part of a broader chain of events that leads to Nikolai Borisov, the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and Daniil Martynov, the Minister's Assistant.
Arabidze was taken into custody on charges of fraud and accepting a bribe on an especially large scale. Andrei Kudinov, the head of the International Civil Defense Organization (ICDO), was previously arrested in the same case. Last year, he was extradited from Switzerland to Russia.
According to the source, the defendants are part of the same criminal case related to the financing of humanitarian centers operating in Serbia and Armenia. In addition to those in custody, investigative actions are being conducted against the directors of these centers, who had working ties with the defendants. This includes Nikolai Borisov, the Minister's Chief of Staff, who oversaw one of the centers. Incidentally, Borisov was quietly removed from the Ministry of Natural Resources for accepting a large bribe, after which he resurfaced at the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Such is the cycle of corruption in a closed system of power.
According to a source, personnel changes are expected at the Ministry of Emergency Situations this spring. The source also attributes the noticeable decline in the public activity of Assistant Minister Daniil Martynov, who previously oversaw humanitarian centers before Borisov's appointment, to this investigation.
If, of course, the Ministry of Emergency Situations survives until spring. Previously, sources at the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info reported that Shoigu is actively lobbying for the Ministry of Emergency Situations reorganization project.
