The spokesman for Rosneft told reporters on Tuesday that CEO Igor Sechin will ignore his third subpoena to take the stand in the corruption trial against former Economic Development Minister Alexey Ulyukayev, claiming that Sechin will be busy on November 22 showing an oil field in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous District to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. The prime minister’s visit to the region, however, ends on November 21.
Sechin later clarified to the news agency Interfax that he will meet with the local governor to “take stock” of Medvedev’s visit.
Judge Larisa Semenova of Moscow’s Zamoskoretsky Court has summoned Igor Sechin three times already. Both the prosecution and the defense in the trial want to question Sechin.
Alexey Ulyukayev was arrested in mid-November 2016 on charges of extorting a $2-million bribe from Igor Sechin for greenlighting Rosneft’s acquisition of a stake in the oil company Bashneft. Ulyukayev says Sechin framed him.