19:54, 20 April 2015

Second criminal case against Mikhail Savva stems from case against Director of "Levados" Centre

Mikhail Savva. Photo: Valentina Mischenko / Yugopolis

A new criminal case instituted against Mikhail Savva for fraud originates from the case against the information training centre "Levados", which was originally opened against Elena Shablo, its Director. This was reported to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent by Marina Dubrovina, an advocate of Professor Mikhail Savva.

On April 2, 2014, Mikhail Savva, the Professor of the Kuban State University (KubSU) and the Director of the grant programmes of the Southern Regional Resource Centre, was sentenced to three years of imprisonment on charges of embezzlement of budget funds allocated as a grant by the administration of the Krasnodar Territory and of receiving remuneration for fictitious classes at the KubSU.

At present, Mikhail Savva is abroad, and he reported about that on February 19. According to him, his departure from Russia was motivated by his fear of being involved in criminal prosecution under a new case, and his questioning as a witness in the case against Elena Shablo, the Director of the "Levados" Centre. Mikhail Savva was questioned on December 25, 2014. Even then, the Professor suggested that investigators were preparing to file a new charge against him.

Mikhail Savva believes the investigators create a fact of repeated offence to institute a new criminal case. According to the Professor, he was involved in the case as a witness.

"Tomorrow, the State Duma is to announce an amnesty. And Elena Shablo will be pardoned, since she takes care of her minor child. And the case against her will be closed. So, they hurried up to open a criminal case against me," Mikhail Savva has said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Source: CK correspondent