In St. Petersburg, the subject of an embezzlement case is city council deputy and propagandist Oleksandr Malkevich, who managed the media component of the occupation of the Kherson region.
Russian media report this.
He is suspected of embezzling more than 35 million rubles during the media promotion of the «Saint Petersburg» TV channel.
The investigation petitioned to restrict certain actions for Oleksandr Malkevich. Four other people are also involved in the criminal case. As the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Svetlana Petrenko, stated, the grounds for prosecution were Malkevich’s work as general director of the «Saint Petersburg» TV channel (JSC «City Television and Radio Broadcasting Agency»), which he held in 2021–2023.
According to investigators, in 2020–2021 the agency signed contracts for informational support with an unnamed private fund. The contract amount was 37.2 million rubles. Ultimately, the agreed work was not performed, and a representative of the fund provided the client with fictitious acts claiming the work had been fully completed.
The agency’s leadership knew the documents were forged. Despite this, it paid the full amount for the work. Subsequently the fund withdrew these funds from its account and cashed them out through trusted intermediaries.
Malkevich himself told the media that he is a witness in the case, not an accused. He did not disclose further details, citing a non-disclosure agreement.
Oleksandr Malkevich is called a close associate of the founder of the PMC «Wagner», Yevgeny Prigozhin. With his involvement, propaganda Telegram channels were launched in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Malkevich himself denies his involvement in the operation of these media.
Recall, on the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region the propagandist appeared in September 2022. He was involved in recruiting people for the occupation media and promoting pro-Russian narratives.
At that time it also became known that Oleksandr Malkevich headed the journalism department at the occupied Kherson State University. The propagandist also contributed to a «media school» in which the occupiers trained personnel for their media.