Tverskoy District Court of Moscowin absentiaarrested the former general director of Lenfilm and the owner federal media holding 1MI Fedor Shcherbakov, the press service of the capital's courts reported.
The persecution of Shcherbakov became known in February, when he was added to the wanted list. The reason was not disclosed at the time. At the same time, representatives of Lenfilm announced Shcherbakov’s departure from the film studio.
As clarified in court today, the media businessman is accused of extortion (clause “b”, part 3 of article 163 of the Criminal Code). The Ura.ru publication claimed that Anton Safonov, a PR man and Shcherbakov’s business partner, had previously been detained on charges of extorting Rostec top managers.
Ura.ru, citing uninvited sources, linked Shcherbakov with a telegram channels “Media Russia is not Moscow” (more than 3.3 million subscribers), “Nebrekhnya” (101 thousand subscribers) and “Provisional Government” (47 thousand subscribers).
Shcherbakov worked as a press secretary until 2008 and assistant to government member Dmitry Kozak, and in 2010 he became deputy governor of the Volgograd region for information policy.