MOSCOW, July 27 Russian lawyer Alexei Kirsanov has denied his detention, which was reported in Telegram channels recognized as undesirable media and foreign agents in the Russian Federation.
«You are the first person I heard this from,» the lawyer responded to a reporter's question about publications about his detention.
Alexey Kirsanov — Chairman of the Bar Association «Inconsult», Vice-President of the Guild of Russian Lawyers, PhD in Law.
Among Kirsanov's known current criminal cases is the defense (together with colleagues) of the former Minister of the Open Government Mikhail Abyzov, whose sentence is currently being reviewed by the Moscow City Court.
Mikhail Abyzov served as the Russian Minister for Coordination of Open Government Activities from May 2012 to May 2018, when the position was abolished. He was detained at the end of March 2019, and has been in pretrial detention since then. There were 11 defendants in the case with Abyzov: Nikolai Stepanov, Maxim Rusakov, Sergei Ilyichev, Alexander Pelipasov, Galina Frydenberg, Inna Pikalova, Ekaterina Zayats, Oleg Serebrennikov, Ruslan Vlasov, Oksana Rozhenkova, and Yana Balan. According to the investigation, in 2012-2018, the defendants, as part of a criminal group, stole 4 billion rubles from the energy companies Sibeko and RES. Also, according to the investigation, they are involved in illegal entrepreneurial activity with the extraction of income in the amount of over 32.5 billion rubles, commercial bribery, and money and asset laundering. Only the former CEO of the company «Ru-kom» Nikolai Stepanov admitted guilt. In court, he once again emphasized that «this decision was conscious», he admits guilt in fraud and commercial bribery (Articles 159 and 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The court sentenced him to eight years of imprisonment in a maximum security penal colony with the minimum of all imposed fine of 2 million rubles.
Earlier, Kirsanov defended the entrepreneur, vice-president of «Opora Rossii» Pavel Sigal, who was accused of fraud with maternity capital in the amount of 10.5 billion rubles, involving about 400 firms. The case was dismissed. In addition, the lawyer is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators CIArb (Great Britain).