Top Liberal Russian Economist Charged With Embezzlement

A leading economic expert in Russia was arrested on embezzlement allegations on Thursday, June 30, 2022, as part of a high-profile case that some observers linked to purges targeting members of the country's liberal elite, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Photo Insert: Vladimir Mau is the rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and has been a key economic adviser to the Russian government since the early 1990s.

Investigators charged Vladimir Mau, rector of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, of embezzling funds from the prestigious institution for state workers. Mau denied the allegations.

In accordance with the investigators' request, Moscow's Tverskoi District Court placed Mau under house arrest during the continuing investigation, rejecting Mau's bail application.

Mau has been a key economic adviser to the Russian government since the early 1990s. President Vladimir Putin bestowed upon him high state honors in 2012 and 2017.

The allegations were made as part of a larger embezzlement investigation in which Marina Rakova, a former deputy education minister who worked alongside Mau, testified against him.

Rakova and Sergei Zuyev, rector of the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, a major non-state Russian university, were both accused of theft. Zuyev flatly rejected these accusations.

Critics of the Kremlin have characterized the arrests as part of a broader government assault on independent voices in the midst of Ukraine's armed activity. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, declined to comment on Mau's arrest.

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