Vladimir Evtushenkov talks about deal with investigators, he becomes witness in case of fraud of Bashneft’s shares

Yesterday, within the criminal case about the sale of theBashkir fuel and energy enterprises to AFK Systema by the son of ex-president of Bashkirtostan, Ural Rakhimov in 2009, the company’s owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov visited the Investigation Committee of Russia. Sources of the Kommersant say it was more a conversation than an interrogation. But the businessman admits an attempt of "forcible takeover" of Bashneft, where the enterprises are consolidated. The Kommersant’s sources also find a change of shareholders a possible scenario, remembering the interest of Rosneft in the company, although the version of political conflict within Bashkortostan is still relevant.

Information about the interrogation of AFK Sistema’s owner Vladimir Yevtushenkov appeared yesterday afternoon. The Investigation Committee declined to comment on the issue. The Kommersant’s sources say that the businessman came to the Committee’s building in the Technichesky lane yesterday morning, where he was questioned by the investigator Alexei Veseliev, who recently was a senior officer of the Investigation Committee’s department of statistics. Veseliev’s questions concerned the conditions of the transaction in 2009, when the son of the former president of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov Ural first transferred all six Bashkir fuel and energy enterprises - Bashneft, Ufaneftekhim, Novoil, Ufaorgsintez, he Ufa refinery and Bashkirnefteprodukt – to some charitable organisations companies, and then sold them to AFK Sistema’s structures for $2.5 billion.