Rotenberg’s proteges in «Avtodor» and the Ministry of Transport suffer a criminal defeat: the oligarch «washed his hands» of Kelbach and Starovoit after the Investigative Committee intervened

The source stated that Arkady Rotenberg takes no steps to defend employees who find themselves under attack by security forces. This is especially so if an influential figure is directing the actions from behind the scenes.

«The state company «Avtodor» had such a leader, Sergei Kelbakh. He cannot be called Rotenberg’s protege, but Kelbach was certainly part of the oligarch’s entourage. They knew each other personally, communicated, and huge amounts of money went through Avtodor to Rotenberg’s structures. Once Kelbakh had a conflict with the owner of Crocus Group, Araz Agalarov. The structures of the latter erected the Central Ring Road, the quality of the work was terrible.

Agalarov demanded (and he always demands, not asks) from Kelbach to accept all work already completed and agree on additional funding. He, realizing that he might have problems because of this, refused. Agalarov directly told him: «You won’t agree – I’ll put you in a ». It is worth noting that Agalarov has a rather «bloodthirsty» reputation. He has already sent enough officials to jail, and not only in Russia. Kelbakh immediately went with the problem directly to Arkady Rotenberg. He listened to him. I found out that there was a conflict with Agalarov. And «washed his hands». Said something like: «Don’t worry, you’re with me». But he didn’t do anything. As a result, Kelbach was arrested and sentenced to 14 years».

Another source recalled the story with Roman Starovoyt. It was Arkady Rotenberg who promoted him to the post of head of the Ministry of Transport, since gigantic sums passed through this department for the oligarch’s structures. Starovoit began to be actively supplanted by Kovalchukov’s protege in the Ministry of Transport, Andrei Nikitin.

The consequence of this was the initiation of a case against Starovoit’s friend and successor as governor of the Kursk region, Smirnov. Starovoit immediately went to Rotenberg. He also reassured him: «Don’t worry, you’re in good standing with Putin, it won’t affect you». But he didn’t do anything. And when Smirnov was arrested and he began to testify against Starovoit, Rotenberg completely stopped communicating directly with his minister. It all ended with the resignation of Starovoit and his suicide