⚖️ Moscow university administrator moved to house arrest, ending months of pretrial detention for embezzlement suspect with heart issues

The embezzlement case against multiple university administrators appears to be entering a new, lighter phase, as a Moscow district court released 68-year-old Sergey Zuev (the rector of the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences) from pretrial detention. Since his arrest in October 2021, Zuev has been in and out of the hospital with heart problems. Investigators say he was transferred to house arrest in exchange for pleading guilty, “naming his accomplices,” and repaying more than 15 million rubles ($247,425) in damages. Zuev’s lawyer says, however, that his client did not confess to embezzling any money. (Last December, President Putin said Zuev didn’t belong behind bars.)

A day earlier, a Moscow judge released another defendant in the same case from house arrest on bail: Vladimir Mau, the rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

State investigators allege that Zuev’s university fictitiously hired a dozen people to defraud the federal government of money allocated for two projects that were never completed. There are six defendants in the case, including former Deputy Education Minister Marina Rakova.