Midtown Blogger/Manhattan Valley Follies: Moscow Times- Duma Approves Arrest of Opposition Deputy

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Moscow Times- Duma Approves Arrest of Opposition Deputy

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Russian Duma Approves Arrest of Opposition Deputy

The Moscow Times
Oct. 16 2015 19:54
Last edited 19:55

Sergei Porter / VedomostiIlya Ponomarev

The Russian State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, voted Friday to agree to the arrest in absentia of Just Russia deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, charged with complicity in the embezzlement of $750,000 from the Skolkovo Foundation, Interfax news agency reported.

Only three of the 420 parliament members present at the session voted against the opposition State Duma deputy's arrest, Interfax reported Friday.

Just days before the Duma session, Ponomaryov's lawyer Maria Bast announced that her client had fully paid his debt to the Skolkovo Foundation, Interfax reported. The Just Russia deputy had repeatedly dismissed the embezzlement allegations as politically motivated.

Ponomaryov was stripped of parliamentary immunity by the Duma in April, and was charged with embezzlement in June 2015.

The Basmanny district court of Moscow authorized his arrest in absentia on July 17, and the politician was consequently put on the international wanted list.

According to the Investigative Committee, the Skolkovo Foundation, a state-funded scientific and technological foundation, had paid him $750,000 for several contracted lectures, including one regarding the commercialization of new technologies. Prosecution claims that he delivered only brief comments, failing to carry out the services for which he was paid.

This investigation has been ongoing since 2013. Another high-ranking suspect in the case is the foundation's former vice president Alexei Beltyukov. He was arrested in absentia in July.

Both Ponomaryov and Beltyukov are currently in the United States, according to news reports.

Ponomaryov was the only member of Russian parliament who voted against the annexation of Crimea last year. While in the United States, he has been campaigning for an extension of Washington's sanctions, imposed over Moscow's role in the Ukrainian conflict.

He played a prominent role in the anti-Kremlin demonstrations that swept through Moscow in 2011-12.