Russian minister imprisoned for oil-related bribery released

The very best rating Russian official to go to jail in practically twenty years was launched Thursday after serving greater than half of an eight-year sentence for a bribery conviction.

Former Financial Growth Minister Alexei Ulyukayev filed a petition for early launch after serving greater than 5 years. A court docket within the Tver area, some 140 kilometers northwest of Moscow, granted him parole final month.

He walked free Thursday, and Russian state tv confirmed pictures of what it stated was a convoy of vehicles taking him away from the Tver jail.

Ulyukayev was detained in 2016 on the headquarters of Russia’s largest oil producer, state-owned Rosneft. Prosecutors stated he accepted a $2 million bribe from Rosneft’s influential chief govt, Igor Sechin, for giving the corporate the inexperienced mild to denationalise one other oil agency.

The circumstances of the case sparked hypothesis that Ulyukayev was caught in a Kremlin energy play involving Sechin, a longtime affiliate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ulyukaev was arrested as he was leaving the Rosneft constructing with a bag full of money that Sechin had given him as a part of a purported sting operation by Russia’s predominant intelligence company. Ulyukayev advised the court docket that he thought the bag contained a bottle of wine and a basket of sausages.

Shortly after the arrest, Ulyukaev was dismissed from his submit. He maintained his innocence all through the trial and insisted Sechin had set him up.