Former head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency detained on fraud charges

Alexander Neradko, the former head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya), has been detained and charged with large-scale fraud, RBC reported citing law enforcement sources. Investigators have asked Moscow's Khoroshevsky District Court to remand Neradko in custody; the court's press service confirmed the information to TASS. Details of the criminal case are not yet known.

Neradko had led Rosaviatsiya since 2009. He was dismissed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in September 2023. In recent years, the agency's activities repeatedly came under scrutiny from law enforcement. In 2022, several criminal cases were opened against agency employees. Maxim Pavlyuk, head of Rosaviatsiya's senior qualification commission, was arrested, and in December security forces conducted searches at the agency's central office and detained Alexander Matyushkin, an employee of the digital transformation department, on bribery charges.

Neradko himself received a reprimand from the government in May 2022 for "improper performance of his official duties." According to a source close to the Ministry of Transport, the reprimand was likely issued due to "systematic failure by the head of Rosaviatsiya" to carry out instructions from Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev.