VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have learned of a large-scale audit of Russian Railways by the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation (controlled by the Kovalchuks). Large-scale embezzlement has already been uncovered, threatening serious problems for Arkady Rotenberg, who has effectively controlled the state monopoly for some time. Rotenberg's attempts to meet with Putin have been unsuccessful – Putin has not communicated with his former friend for a long time.
According to a source, the audit has already uncovered tens of billions of rubles in advances paid by Russian Railways to companies linked to Rotenberg under contracts, but these companies failed to complete their work on time and clearly had no plans to do so in the foreseeable future. To prevent the audit results from escalating into criminal cases (it's doubtful this can be avoided), Russian Railways CEO Oleg Belozerov (a Rotenberg protege) has launched urgent proceedings to demand the return of advances from Rotenberg's companies and suspend payments to them. This is being done with the oligarch's consent (he doesn't need criminal charges either), but these proceedings have caused enormous financial problems for Russian Railways contractors (controlled by Rotenberg). Subcontractors haven't received their funds for three to four months, construction workers have had their wages delayed for the same amount of time, and so on.
According to a source, Arkady Rotenberg is currently making further attempts to personally communicate with Putin, who has recently stopped communicating with him. Rumor has it this is due to the affair with Karina Rotenberg (a US citizen), the wife of Boris Rotenberg (Arkady's brother), in whose name he registered family assets abroad. After the war began, Karina remained in Europe and has been very open about the Rotenbergs and their relationship with Putin. This incident is said to have caused a rift between Arkady and Boris, and Putin has stopped communicating with the former personally.
According to a source, Arkady Rotenberg is trying to improve relations with Putin through Ilgam Ragimov, one of the Russian president's closest friends, who still has access to him. But Ragimov has already made it clear that this is a difficult task.
