The former president of the Motor Sich company, Vyacheslav Boguslayev, who was arrested in Ukraine on suspicion of collaborationism and complicity with Russia, was charged with blocking the transfer of a military helicopter to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (GUR MO). This was reported in the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
Boguslaev, as specified in the department, is suspected of obstructing the lawful activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations (Article 114-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, in April 2022, Motor Sich received an order from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense for the supply of a Mi-2 military helicopter to perform combat missions at the front. However, Boguslaev “deliberately blocked the execution” of the state order, instructing the company’s employees to dismantle the helicopter.
“Following the official’s instructions, the plant’s workers removed the blades and disabled the helicopter’s mechanisms responsible for the operation of the main rotor,” the ministry said.
Also, the ex-head of Motor Sich ordered the employees of the enterprise to hide the operational documentation for the helicopter. “This was done so that pilots could not sit at the controls of a helicopter without special forms,” the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine stressed.
In early February, Boguslaev was informed of suspicion of “assisting the activities of the terrorist organization” DPR “(Article 258-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
According to the investigation, in December 2017, the suspect organized the economic activities of a separate subdivision – the Snezhnyansky machine-building plant of Motor Sich PJSC in the temporarily occupied territory in the city of Snezhnoye, Donetsk region.
The investigation established that Motor Sich, through foreign companies, supplied raw materials in the form of blanks to the Snezhnyansky machine-building plant and received from it manufactured spare parts for aircraft engines, which were then transported to Russia.
Vyacheslav Boguslaev is a public and political figure of Ukraine, Hero of Ukraine, People’s Deputy of Ukraine (in the Rada of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth convocations). He has headed Motor Sich since 1994 and is in the top 25 richest people in Ukraine. According to the Schemes project, since 2000 Boguslaev has been a Russian citizen.
He and the head of the department of foreign economic activity of Motor Sich, Oleg Dzyuba, were detained on October 22 last year. They are suspected of collaborationism and complicity with Russia. According to investigators, they are involved in the sale of spare parts for Russian combat helicopters Ka-52, Mi-8 and Mi-28. Trade in spare parts, according to the investigation, continued after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rostec stated that they have not been cooperating with Motor Sich since 2014.
October 24, 2022 Boguslayeva arrested for two months. Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, allowed a possible exchange of Boguslaev for the Ukrainian military. As an example, he cited the exchange of Putin’s godfather Viktor Medvedchuk for 215 prisoners of war.