Russia Arrests Former Aeroflot CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov on Corruption Charges

The former CEO of Russia’s state-owned airline Aeroflot has been arrested and faces corruption charges, Russian media reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter. A judge from Moscow’s Tver District Court ordered Mikhail Poluboyarinov to be placed in pre-trial detention on charges of abuse of power, according to the exiled news outlet Mediazonaю The exact details of the allegations against him remain unclear. Poluboyarinov headed Aeroflot from November 2020 to March 2022, stepping down from the airline shortly after the European Union sanctioned him. In 2023, he joined the state corporation Rostec, according to the news outlet RBC. Before his tenure at Aeroflot and Rostec, Poluboyarinov held prominent roles at Vnesheconombank, the State Transport Leasing Company and the state development corporation VEB.RF. A senior business executive told the newspaper Vedomosti that the criminal probe may stem from Poluboyarinov ’s work at VEB.RF between 2009 and 2019. Another source familiar with the case said that the specific incident under law enforcement scrutiny took place in 2016, but did not provide further details. Artem Dovlatov, a deputy chairman of VEB.RF and board member of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation, was arrested in May, Vedomosti wrote. He was placed under house arrest on charges of abuse of power related to a 2016 bank reorganization.