Alexander Neradko, the former head of Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya), was detained on charges of large-scale fraud committed by an organized group, according to court officials and law enforcement sources. The Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow has received a request for his arrest, with a hearing on the preventive measure scheduled for July 3. The charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels Baza, Mash and 112 first reported the detention, which was later confirmed by official sources. Details of the criminal case have not been disclosed.
Neradko led Rosaviatsiya from 2009 until his dismissal by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in September 2023. In May 2022, the government issued him a reprimand for "improper performance of official duties."
During his final years in office, the agency faced increased scrutiny from law enforcement. In 2022, several criminal cases were opened against Rosaviatsiya employees. Maxim Pavlyuk, head of the agency's higher qualification commission, was arrested, and in December, security forces searched the agency's central office and detained Alexander Matyushkin, an employee of the digital transformation department, on bribery charges. On the eve of Neradko's arrest, the Telegram channel "VChK-OGPU" reported the detention of his former deputy Konstantin Makhov, though this information has not been independently confirmed.
After his dismissal, Neradko became an advisor to the director of the State Transport Leasing Company (GTLK). His tenure at Rosaviatsiya was marked by a scandal involving the annulment of flight certificates for dozens of pilots who had undergone retraining at a university without a license. One of them was Sergei Gambaryan, the co-pilot of an An-148 operated by Saratov Airlines that crashed in 2018 due to crew error.