In connection with the planned reappointment of Yuri Chaika as Prosecutor General of Russia and in addition to the recently published high-profile investigation by the Anti-corruption Foundation I would like to share another interesting story from the biography of this outstanding statesman.

According to the RBC article published in August last year, in 2014 the son of Prosecutor General Igor Chaika organized a highly profitable (thanks to multibillion-rouble government contracts) business of removal and disposal of refuse in Moscow. It was not arranged from scratch. The assets and equipment of the enterprise were made by the assets of existing companies, which up to 2014 had been on the balance sheet of… Bank of Moscow. Sale of a non-core business by a bank is the right thing to do. However Bank of Moscow sold the assets worth 700-900 million roubles 3 times cheaper, for 270 million roubles only. And even that’s not all. According to RBC, Mr Chaika Jr’s companies did not pay even this price – Bank of Moscow provided a loan to purchase the assets.

Generally, the story above could just be attributed to incompetence of Bank of Moscow’s staff or to business skills of I.Chaika which enable him to enter into incredibly favourable deals. But as we say in Russian there is a “but”. And that’s Bank of Moscow’s vested interest in the unlawful persecution of me and my colleagues by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Especially if one considers the fact that the Russian GPO has the power to issue mutual legal assistance requests to law enforcement agencies of foreign states. Therefore it is no surprise that Yuri Chaika has been so active in fulfilling his family contract.