A former deputy minister in Russia is being investigated on suspicion of forging documents to secure a three-bedroom apartment in Moscow, the country’s Federal Investigative Committee said.
Pavel Baryshev, the deputy minister of natural resources, is accused of “fraud on a particularly large scale,” the investigative committee said in a statement. Telegram post on Thursday.
Investigators said Baryshev, 65, forged documents about his housing rights from 2017 to 2019.
Using those documents, he “stole” a three-bedroom apartment in the Moscow area worth about 20 million rubles, or $223,000, investigators said.
The committee did not say whether Baryshev was detained, but the possible charge against him carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The allegations cover the years after Baryshev was made deputy minister for civil defense in 2017. He held the position until 2021, when Russian leader Vladimir Putin He was fired.
After his dismissal, Baryshev was made Deputy Minister of Natural Resources in March 2023 but was subsequently removed from the position along with the Russian government on June 19, 2024. Citing his retirement.
His criminal case also comes as Russia recently announced investigations and arrests against him Some former high level officials On charges of fraud, bribery and other forms of corruption.
Many of them are believed to have worked under the Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoiguwho was previously Defense Minister from 2012 to early 2024 and Civil Defense Minister from 1991 to 2012.
Shoigu was replaced in May as defense minister during the Ukraine war, as he was largely blamed by the Russian public for perceived failures and losses.
The Russian government has neither publicly indicted Shoigu nor acknowledged any common link between him and the officials he was accused of.
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