Former director of the Russian Nuclear Regulatory Yury Vishnevsky is charged with grand larceny worth 46 million roubles ($1.6m), the court refused to dismiss the case.
According to the lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, Vishnevsky is charged with stealing property of another by the group of persons, using his official position, RIA-Novosti reported.
Vishnevsky worked as the director of the Nuclear Regulatory, or GAN, from November 1992 till June 2003. According to the official version he was fired due to his age, however, environmentalists believe it happened because of his negative attitude towards import of the foreign spent nuclear fuel to Russia. He was the only state official who openly criticised the spent fuel import project. The Russian Nuclear Power Ministry, or Minatom, tried to stop the activity of the GAN who was responsible for nuclear sites inspection.
On April 6, Tverskoy district court in Moscow refused to dismiss the case against Vishnevsky who is currently under city arrest. According to the charges, Vishnevsky did not transfer back to the budget $1.6m from the GANs subcontractor after he had left the GAN. On the other hand, lawyer Boris Kuznetsov said to the Rossisyskaya Gazeta, that Vishnevsky has the receipts of the transfer, which shows that all the money were sent back to the GANs account with the reference for further transfer to the state budget, but the state budget never received it.
