The former deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, Yuri Isaev, has been put on the federal wanted list and charged in absentia with embezzlement of 4.3 billion rubles, Izvestia and other Russian publications reported on August 4-5, 2026. According to them, after leaving the Central Bank in 2022, Isaev left Russia and lives in Cyprus.

The charges relate to the period when Isaev headed the state corporation Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). According to investigators, he joined the organized group in the summer of 2020 at the suggestion of his first deputy Andrei Melnikov, and the participants in the scheme transferred the assets of debtors of the bankrupt Mezhtopenergobank to structures associated, according to investigators, with themselves, at prices significantly lower than market prices. Then the same assets were leased out or used at the usual commercial rates. The investigation estimates the damage at 4.3 billion rubles, and the DIA itself is recognized as the injured party.

This includes the Novosibirsk Aquamir water park. Its owner, VDT Stroy LLC, took out a loan secured by the facility from Mezhtopenergobank in 2013, but did not repay the debt — the debt exceeded 2.1 billion rubles. After the revocation of the bank’s license in 2017, the asset came under the management of the DIA, and in 2020 the agency leased the water park. The scheme, according to the investigation, included more than 50 fictitious sublease agreements.

What does the federal wanted list mean and what will happen next?

Isaev was charged with fraud on an especially large scale — the article assumes up to ten years in prison. The source cited by the Russian media claims that in the near future the investigation will apply for his arrest in absentia. This is a procedural condition for declaring a person on the international wanted list: without a court decision on a measure of restraint in absentia, an Interpol request is not processed.

The Cypriot authorities did not confirm Isaev’s presence.

There has been no official confirmation from the Cypriot authorities that Isaev is in Cyprus. All information about his whereabouts comes exclusively from Russian publications, some of which rely on an anonymous source. The charges themselves are the position of the Russian investigative authorities, and they were not considered by the court.

Who was Isaev before the criminal case?

Isaev headed the Deposit Insurance Agency for more than ten years. In January 2022, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Bank of Russia, in the same year he joined the government commission for foreign investment control, and in August he unexpectedly left the position. According to The Moscow Times, in 2002-2004 he worked as Deputy Minister of Economic Development, later he was an adviser to the first deputy director of the FSB.

Other former DIA top managers are also involved in the case.

Isaev is not the only person involved: Andrei Melnikov, the former first deputy head of the agency, and other top managers of the organization are also listed in the case. Cases concerning some of them are considered separately.

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