The arrest of EMERCOM Deputy Director Arabidze has become part of a large-scale bribery and fraud case linking Borisov and Martynov to international humanitarian centers
The arrest of Irakli Arabidze, Deputy Director of the International Activities Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM), is part of a broader chain of events linking him to the head of the EMERCOM apparatus, Nikolay Borisov, and the minister’s aide Daniil Martynov.
Arabidze was taken into custody on charges of fraud and receiving a bribe on a particularly large scale. Earlier in the same case, the head of the International Civil Defense Organization (ICDO), Andrey Kudinov, had been arrested. Last year, he was extradited from Switzerland to Russia.
According to a source, the defendants are part of a single criminal case related to the financing of humanitarian centers that operated in Serbia and Armenia. In addition to those in custody, investigative actions are being carried out against the heads of these centers who had professional ties to the accused. Among them is Nikolay Borisov, the minister’s chief of staff, who oversaw one of the centers. Notably, Borisov was quietly removed from the Ministry of Natural Resources due to a large-scale bribe, after which he resurfaced in EMERCOM—a revolving door of corruption within the closed system of power.
The source also noted that personnel changes are expected in EMERCOM in the spring of this year. The investigation is reportedly linked to a noticeable reduction in the public activity of the minister’s aide Daniil Martynov, who previously supervised the humanitarian centers before Borisov’s appointment—assuming, of course, that EMERCOM “survives” until spring.
