Million-rouble thefts in "Chechenfilm" to be investigated after complaint from Minister of Culture - RBC

A criminal case has been instituted against chiefs and employees of the film studio "Chechenfilm" after a complaint filed by Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Minister of Culture, the RBC reports today.

In late May 2018, the criminal case was instituted under Part 4 of Article 159 (fraud) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation after Vladimir Medinsky, Russian Minister of Culture, had filed a complaint to the General Prosecutor's Office. The complaint was filed against film producers who got financial support from the state, but never returned the money, the RBC was informed by sources from the film industry and from the central administration of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA).

According to the materials of the criminal case, in 2011, the Ministry of Culture concluded with the "Chechenfilm" a state contract to shoot the film "Toska" (Misery) based on the story written by Anton Chekhov and transferred to the film studio 21.9 million roubles for that purpose. In 2014, the court ordered the "Chechenfilm" to pay the principal amount and 1.4 million roubles of interest, but in the same year, the film studio was liquidated. The RBC reported that the film, for which the funds had been transferred, was never shot and the money was never returned.

The Ministry of Culture did not respond to a request, and Ramzan Kadyrov's spokesman Alvi Karimov refused to comment on the initiation of the criminal proceedings against employees of the "Chechenfilm", the RBC reports.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 30, 2018 at 12:51 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.