Mikhail Poluboyarinov, the former chief executive of Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot, was arrested in Moscow on 19 June on charges of abuse of office, according to Russian media reports citing law enforcement sources. The Tverskoy District Court ordered his pre-trial detention under Part 3 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of ten years. The arrest was confirmed by multiple outlets, including the business daily Vedomosti and the Interfax news agency, but the specific allegations have not been made public.

Russian business media, citing sources familiar with the investigation, suggest the case stems from Poluboyarinov’s tenure at the state development corporation VEB.RF between 2009 and 2019, rather than his time at Aeroflot. One source told Vedomosti that the episode under scrutiny occurred in 2016, a period when VEB.RF was involved in costly reorganisations of troubled banks. The arrest follows the May house arrest of Artem Dovlatov, a current deputy chairman of VEB.RF, on identical charges. Dovlatov’s case is reportedly linked to decisions he made during the bailout of Svyaz-Bank, on which the Central Bank spent 212 billion roubles via VEB between 2009 and 2014. Poluboyarinov chaired Svyaz-Bank’s board at the time.

The detention of a senior figure who moved between Aeroflot and the state-owned Rostec conglomerate — where he has held a top financial post since 2023 — signals an intensifying scrutiny of past management practices at state financial institutions. Rostec’s press service declined to comment on the arrest, telling the independent outlet Mediazona only that Poluboyarinov works in one of its subsidiaries. Viewed from European capitals, the case is unlikely to be directly connected to the EU sanctions that prompted Poluboyarinov’s departure from Aeroflot in March 2022; rather, it appears to be a domestic law enforcement action focused on the pre-2020 period.

Poluboyarinov first worked at Aeroflot from 2000 to 2009 as deputy general director for economics, then moved to VEB.RF, where he rose to deputy chairman and headed the infrastructure department. He returned to Aeroflot as CEO in November 2020, only to resign after the EU imposed personal sanctions on him following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, he joined Rostec as an adviser to its head, Sergei Chemezov, with responsibility for financial oversight across the group. The investigation remains opaque: his procedural status has not been disclosed, and no official statement has been issued by the Investigative Committee or the court. Further investigative actions are expected, with the possibility of formal charges being filed in the coming weeks.