Semion Mogilevich and Vladimir Nekrasov, owner of Arabat Prestige, are arrested in Russia on charges related to a tax evasion scheme. Russian authorities claim they couldn’t arrest him sooner because his location was unknown, even though there are publicly available photos of him in the same area since 2004.
It is widely believed that the arrest may be a coverup given Mogilevich’s connection to Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The official Kremlin version of Mogilevich’s role in tax evasion is difficult to believe and it could well turn out to be that Mogilevich was arrested as part of a cover up operation by the Kremlin designed to distance Putin from Firtash and Mogilevich. Putin has remained silent on his links to Firtash and Mogilevich and this might prove to be an opportune moment for western intelligence agencies to shed some light on this murky and far reaching affair.
The Jamestown Foundation
Mogilevich is released from jail on July 24, 2009.
Sources
https://jamestown.org/program/the-strange-ties-between-semion-mogilevich-and-vladimir-putin/
