The Russian Federation’s Investigation Committee (SKR) has extended until July 2012 the period of investigation into the case of former Transnistrian president’s son Oleg Smirnov and his wife Marina. Oleg is suspected of misappropriation of financial means from the Russian humanitarian assistance supplied to Transnistria in 2006-2009.
Kommersant, an influential Moscow newspaper, wrote on Wednesday with reference to an SKR source that the investigation timing has been prolonged after the Committee had received a new portion of evidence saying that Oleg Smirnov was involved in a major fraud thank to which the Smirnovs have come to possess huge assets and exquisite real estate in Russia and Ukraine.
The Investigation Committee has confirmed that Oleg Smirnov had really purchased several elite-class apartments in downtown Moscow and a mansion in Pavlovo, a prestigious cottage community near Moscow. Judging by revealed documents, Marina Smirnova has recently become the owner of a luxurious apartment (US$240 thousand) on the Black Sea shore in Odessa city (Ukraine).
According to Kommersant, former Transnistrian president Igor Smirnov owns a part of Intertelecom, a Ukrainian mobile telephony operator (CDMA standard) and the Star Taxi service in Odessa. The SKR is verifying the information that Marina Smirnova allegedly owns a mansion near Yalta (Crimea, Ukraine).
The information about Smirnovs’ Ukrainian assets and real estate has given the SKR grounds to believe that presently Oleg Smirnov and his wife are not on the Cyprus, as it was believes previously, but in Ukraine. A resolution on a quest for them has already been issued officially, and the Russian Ministry of the Interior has embarked on its fulfillment.