The Moscow Kuzminsky Court on Saturday, August 20, chose a restraining measure in the form of house arrest against former freelance psychiatrist-narcologist head of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Bryun. The arrest will last until October 3, TASS reports.

The court granted the investigation’s petition, which suspects that the chairman of the Moscow Scientific and Practical Narcology Center of the Moscow Department of Health (DZM) and the chairman of the Russian Narcological League (RNL) Brun, as well as his deputy at the RNL Vladimir Fraud yakushev on an especially large scale.

At the same time, Brun pleaded not guilty and tried to contest the need for arrest. “I’m more interested in the fact that the investigation uncovered the truth, I don’t intend to hide or hide anything, I’m more interested in solving this case,” he said during the process. However, the investigator who spoke in court said the former chief narcologist of the Russian Federation could try to destroy the evidence in the case.

Brun’s assistant made a deal with the investigation

Unlike Brun, Yakushev concluded a pre-trial agreement with the investigation – the investigator announced this in court. The investigation also asked to send him under house arrest until October 3.

Bryun and Yakushev are accused of “stealing through controlled companies” at least 20 million rubles allocated by the DZM to the Scientific and Practical Center for Narcology in Moscow. According to investigators, the money was stolen by supplying drugs to the center at inflated prices. On August 18, the facility was searched and, following news of Brun’s arrest, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation announced the specialist’s dismissal and the abolition of his post “in process of completion”.

Brune may be linked to controversial medical examination rules for drivers

According to media reports, Brune could benefit from much-criticized innovations in the rules for the medical examination of drivers, which the Russian Federation tried to introduce in 2019. The new rules required drug and alcohol testing for anyone wishing to obtain a driver’s license. , causing the cost of medical examinations to increase nearly tenfold and making lines at drug dispensaries. Regional dispensaries had to purchase the necessary equipment to conduct tests from companies that Brun could be connected to.

After the emergence of queues and mass criticism, the new system was criticized by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Ministry of Health initially delayed innovations for a year and then extended the requirements only to drivers who were deprived of their driver’s license for driving while intoxicated or suspected of alcohol and drug addiction by doctors.

Previously, Russian police officers actually stopped the pursuit of a participant in the “rectors’ case”, RANEPA dean, Gazprom board member Vladimir Mau, who, along with former Russian Deputy Education Minister Marina Rakova and the dean of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences, Sergei Zuev, were accused of large-scale fraud. Mau’s house arrest was replaced by a written commitment not to leave, after which he returned to work at RANEPA, and Sergei Zuev was transferred from the pretrial detention center to house arrest, as he “admitted his guilt, paid the damages and testified against his accomplices.”