IN BRIEF

Published: March 20, 2013 (Issue # 1751)

300 Million Stolen

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Investigative Committee of St. Petersburg has opened a criminal case into the theft of more than 300 million rubles ($9.8 million) from the bank account of striker Alexander Kerzhakov, who plays for FC Zenit and the Russian national football team, Interfax reported.

The money disappeared from the account he holds with Gazprombank.

Kerzhakov could have become a victim of fraudsters who he had met abroad, his lawyer Igor Reshetnikov said.

“In early 2011, when Kerzhakov was in the United Arab Emirates, he met a man from the Voronezh Oblast who proposed that he become a partner in the construction of a number of oil refineries. The man suggested that Kerzhakov contribute about 100 million rubles ($3.25 million). When Kerzhakov returned home he began to transfer the money,” Reshetnikov said.

However, following this, money continued to disappear from Kerzhakov’s account.

As a VIP client of the bank, Kerzhakov could simply give orders to his manager. Kerzhakov’s lawyer said they therefore had suspicions that it was the manager who had got involved with those to whom the money was being transferred. The manager signed the payment documents himself, and the money was transferred without the client’s knowledge. The signatures on all the papers for the transfer of about 300 million rubles were faked, Reshetnikov said.

Aqua Park Accident

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The city prosecutor’s office is looking into a case of near drowning in which a 3-year-old boy was found unconscious at the city’s Piterland aqua park last Thursday.

The prosecutor’s investigation concerns potential safety violations on the part of the aqua park’s administration. They are also checking the speed with which the venue’s pool lifeguards responded to the incident.

The boy was at the aqua park with his parents and a sibling, who all come from Yemen. The boy’s father is a post-graduate student of the St. Petersburg Pavlov Medical University. The parents raised the alarm when they noticed that the boy was missing from the aqua park’s play area, where they had left him for a few minutes. They called pool lifeguards, who found the child unconscious in an artificial wave pool.

The boy was taken urgently to a hospital and placed immediatly into intensive care.

G20 Airport Closure

ST. PETERSBURG (SPT) — The Pulkovo 1 airport terminal will be completely closed to regular and charter flights from Sept. 4-7 due to the G20 summit taking place in the city, Interfax reported.

The Pulkovo 2 terminal will continue to operate at reduced capacity but will serve only domestic flights. During the summit there will be “windows” when the airport will be open for incoming and outgoing flights.

Meanwhile, St. Petersburg governor Georgy Poltavchenko has given an order to increase the number of trains from the city on the most common routes during this period to try and compensate for the lack of flights.

The G20 summit is to take place in St. Petersburg from Sept. 3-5. At least 33 foreign delegations have confirmed their participation in the summit so far.