Moscow court orders arrest of former deputy natural resources minister in absentia. His lawyer says he ‘temporarily’ left Russia and is not evading investigators.

Source: Press Service of Moscow Courts

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest, in absentia, of Denis Butsayev, a former deputy minister of natural resources, on charges of large-scale fraud.

Any detention period will run from the moment he is extradited or apprehended in Russia.

The case centers on suspicion that Butsayev embezzled funds from the Russian Ecological Operator (REO), the state company overseeing the “garbage reform.” Three former REO senior managers — Yekaterina Stepkina, Maxim Shcherbakov, and Yury Valdayev — are also named as suspects in the case.

Butsayev is accused of fraud totaling 4.1 million rubles, according to a source cited by the Russian business daily Kommersant.

His lawyer told the court that Butsayev had temporarily left Russia and was not evading investigators, according to TASS, the Russian state news agency. “The fact that he is absent during the May holidays is not grounds for ordering pretrial detention,” the lawyer said.

Butsayev worked at REO from April to November 2019. He was then appointed first deputy governor of Russia’s Belgorod Region, and in November 2020 he returned to the post of REO general director, remaining there until his move to the Natural Resources Ministry in 2025. He resigned in mid-April 2026 and, almost immediately after, left Russia, traveling to Minsk and from there to Tbilisi. Journalist Farida Rustamova noted that Butsayev is likely the first senior official to leave Russia under threat of criminal prosecution since the wave of repression against the country’s elites began. On May 12, Russia’s Interior Ministry added Denis Butsayev to its wanted list.

At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.

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Moscow court orders arrest of former deputy natural resources minister in absentia. His lawyer says he ‘temporarily’ left Russia and is not evading investigators.

Garbage reform

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Moscow court orders arrest of former deputy natural resources minister in absentia. His lawyer says he ‘temporarily’ left Russia and is not evading investigators.

Garbage reform

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