According to Russia Today, Basmanny District Court approved the arrest of Ilya Ponomaryev, 39 - the only Russian lawmaker who voted against the annexation of Crimea – on Friday. The court also confirmed that an international search warrant had been issued for him.
According to Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Russian Investigative Committee, Ponomaryev's arrest warrant was approved in Parliament before it was handed to Basmanny District Court.
Investigators accuse Ponomaryov of aiding Alexei Beltyukov, former vice president of the state-funded Skolkovoinnovation center,of embezzling more than 22 million rubles (US$ 387,000) from the center between February 2011 and February 2012.
They say that Beltyukov hired Ponomaryov for US$750,000 in Skolkovo funds, without management approval, to conduct research project and lectures.
Furthermore, the Investigative Committee says that Beltyukov and Ponomaryov later signed another agreement lowering the cost of the research project to US$ 450,000, but also canceling the mandatory reports that were supposed to ensure that the foundation has control over the research project at every stage.
The remaining US$ 300,000 was allegedly paid to Ponomaryov for a series of lectures, each of which cost about US$ 30,000, investigators say. Furthermore, they say that what center reports describe as full lectures were actually short talks unrelated to the stated subject and lasting just 3-18 minutes.
In April, Parliament voted to deprive Ponomaryov of his diplomatic immunity. He currently resides in the United States, andtold Interfax that he does not plan to return to Russia because his case is politically motivated.
This view is also shared by Robert Amsterdam, a human rights lawyer and rule of law advocate, who also criticized the Basmanny District Court, saying that it is infamous for political persecutions of Putins opponents – including Alexey Navalny and his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.
