The head of the Mashuk Center has been arrested.

Anton Serikov, a native of Rostov-on-Don and head of the Mashuk Center, has been arrested in connection with an embezzlement case.

Anton Serikov, general director of the Mashuk Center and deputy head of the Znanie Society, has been sent to a pretrial detention facility, TASS reported, citing court records.

The Lefortovo Court of Moscow granted the investigators' request. Serikov is charged with embezzlement on an especially large scale (Part 4, Article 160 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Serikov is being held in the Lefortovo pretrial detention center and has not yet appealed his arrest, according to RBC.

Anton Serikov was born in August 1980 in Rostov-on-Don. He graduated from Rostov State University in 2002. In 2005, he defended his PhD dissertation in sociology and later completed his doctorate. He also completed additional training at MGIMO, the Skolkovo School of Management, and the Graduate School of Public Administration of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. He began his career at the Southern Federal University (SFedU), where, from 2005, he worked as a lecturer, laboratory head, dean, and deputy director for research and expert activity.

He later worked in the presidential administration, then became deputy general director of the ANO "Russia - Land of Opportunity." In 2022, he was appointed head of the Mashuk Educational Center, and then became deputy general director for educational activities at the Znanie Society.

The Mashuk Knowledge Center, headed by Serikov, positions itself as a national platform for training educational and managerial personnel in the fields of education, youth policy, and educational work. It began operations in 2022, the publication says.