Robert Amsterdam

He was arrested last Friday, but no one really knew why. Today it's reported that Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak is suspected of embezzling $43 million in state funds. A statement from the Prosecutor General's Office (who can totally trust for reliable information), says that the official was involved in "an organized group to embezzle budget funds under the pretext of covering expenses for Sodexim" and that "The investigation possesses evidence that if Storchak had been left a free man, he could escape the investigation and the trial, engage in criminal activities, threaten witnesses... and destroy evidence."

Sodexim was apparently involved in organizing a Russian medical equipment exhibition in Baghdad five years ago, and there is speculation that this investigation somehow involves Russian-Iraqi debt deals.

Several have come out in defense of Storchak, including Andrey Kostin of VTB: "I know him as a very professional person and I very much hope it will be fair treatment. I still hope that there is some kind of probably misunderstanding. I mean his role in whatever crime that happened is probably not one that can be considered because he is one of the leading professionals in the field of external debt."

Watch this space for more news...