MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2022) Kirill Sukhanov, commercial director of Russian tv personality Ksenia Sobchak, was committed to custody on Wednesday pending trial in an extortion case.
Judge Anatoly Belyakov of Moscow's Tver district court ruled that Sukhanov be arrested until at least December 24 on charges of soliciting 11 million rubles ($180,000) from Sergei Chemezov, chief executive of Russian defense giant Rostec.
Sukhanov is suspected of having blackmailed Chemezov, threatening to publish disparaging information about the former KGB officer on social media.
Sukhanov told the court he was ready to admit to receiving 800,000 rubles from the Rostec boss and apologize to him. He is facing up to 15 years in prison and a one million ruble fine if found guilty.
Sukhanov's lawyer, Svetlana Lipatova said his defense team would appeal the ruling. The lawyers insisted on house arrest or a four million ruble bail.
Later in the day, Moscow's Tver district court ruled that the former editor-in-chief of Tatler magazine, Arian Romanovsky (Kuzmin), will also remain under arrest until December 24 on the same charge as Sukhanov. Romanovsky was one of the administrators of a popular gossip Telegram channel.
Romanovsky said in court that he has been "doing journalism all his life and considered it normal to make a birthday post, but there is nothing wrong with that, people often go to birthday parties." He did not specify whose birthday he was talking about, but was likely referring to a post about a birthday party of a Russian billionaire attended by the Rostec chief executive. Romanovsky also denied having any financial relations with involved persons and asked the court not to send him to jail, since he is the only one who is helping his mother financially.
In early October, the Russian Interior Ministry confirmed the arrest on charges of extortion of owners of a Telegram channel network that published fakes about businessmen and high-ranking officials and demanded money for the slanderous materials to be taken down. An informed source told Sputnik that the current detentions are a "continuation of that big story."
Sobchak, a media personality turned dissident journalist, is said to have left Russia after a raid at her home. A source told Sputnik on condition of anonymity that the 40-year-old crossed into Lithuania from Belarus on foot. RT reported, citing a source, that the journalist is a suspect in an extortion case. However, it is still unclear whether she is involved in the same case as Sukhanov and Romanovsky.
