A Moscow judge has upheld the pre-trial detention of a 60-year-old businessman accused of state treason for paying taxes in Ukraine, the exiled outlet Mediazona reported Wednesday.
Oleg Varyukhin, a former pilot who ran a perfume business in Ukraine, was reportedly arrested in early May after flying into Moscow from Moldova to visit relatives.
Russian investigators allege that Varyukhin committed treason by paying mandatory taxes as an individual entrepreneur on his earnings into the Ukrainian state budget.
“Every worker in any country is obligated to pay taxes. They have no control over that,” defense attorney Yury Shel told Mediazona.
“[Varyukhin] had no say over how the government distributed those tax revenues, just like anyone in any other country,” Shel said.
Mediazona reported that Varyukhin was last issued a passport in Russia in 1981 and has never obtained Russian or Ukrainian passports after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Shel claimed Varyukhin had obtained a Ukrainian business license in 2014 and was planning to enter Russia on a temporary travel certificate issued by the Russian Embassy in Moldova.
Prior to his treason charge, Varyukhin was reportedly subjected to so-called repeated "carousel arrests" on charges of disorderly conduct between May and July.
He served four consecutive 15-day jail terms before being transferred to a pre-trial detention facility on July 22, according to Mediazona. Two of the court rulings identified Varyukhin as a Russian citizen, while the other two redacted his personal data.
On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court upheld Varyukhin’s pre-trial detention on state treason charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison in Russia.
The Moscow Times was unable to independently verify the details of the report.
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