Former Crimean culture minister sentenced to 10 years in prison for a bribe of 25 million rubles

Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow sentenced to 10 years in prison bVera (Arina) Novoselskaya, former “Minister of Culture” of the Crimea, for a bribe of 25 million rubles (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code). The sentence will be served in a penal colony.

In addition, the former official was fined 128 million rubles and banned from working in the civil service in the field of education for 15 years after her dismissal. In addition, she was deprived of the title of Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation.

According to investigators, Novoselskaya received a bribe in 2018 from Meander LLC for patronage over the construction of the Crimean State Children’s Theater Arts Center. At the same time, the contract for the construction of the facility has not yet been concluded.

Novoselskaya pleaded not guilty. According to the former minister, she borrowed $ 300,000 for her friend Orlova, who wanted to buy an apartment in the center of Moscow. However, as the investigation showed, Orlova was a subordinate of Novoselskaya. She really bought an apartment with the money received, but then transferred it to the ownership of the boss.

Novoselskaya served as the Minister of Culture of Crimea from 2014 to 2021. She gained notoriety after obscene expletives during a meeting with the head of the region Sergei Aksyonov in March 2021. Subsequently, Novoselskaya explained the use of “strong expressions” with a failure of technology. In the autumn of the same year, the official was arrested in a corruption case and dismissed “due to loss of trust”.

In 2019, the Center for Children’s Theatrical Art was to be established, for which more than 930 million rubles were allocated. However, the works were frozen. Aksenov said that “the contractor had problems with money”, as a result of which Meander was removed from the project.

In 2021, the approximate cost of the center appreciated Already 1.3 billion rubles. It was planned to resume construction in the summer of the same year, however, after the correction, the design documentation was not approved by Glavgosexpertiz. WITHthe building has not yet been completed.