Prosecutors don’t want to lock up the official who stole 3 billion rubles

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to give a suspended sentence to Evgeniya Vasilyeva, a former high-ranking Defense Ministry official who now stands accused of real estate fraud that cost the government roughly 3 billion rubles (about $60 million) in damages.

In addition to the 8-years suspended sentence, prosecutors also want Vasilyeva fined 1 million rubles (about $20,000) and stripped of her state Order of Honor, and have asked the court to support several civil suits against Vasilyeva and her accomplices in the amount of 1 billion rubles (about $20 million).

• The case against Vasilyeva ended the career of former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, whom Vasilyeva is thought to have deceived. An investigation into Serdyukov’s involvement in the real estate scheme was halted when President Putin granted him amnesty in March 2014.
• In July 2013, Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of misappropriating about 16 million rubles (less than 1 percent of the damages Vasilyeva is thought to have caused). After a public backlash both inside Russia and abroad, Navalny’s sentence was converted to a suspended term.