Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umerov testified at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) on November 25.
This information was confirmed to Babel by the NSDC press service.
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council was summoned as a witness in a case of "interference in the activities of a statesman". Presumably, this is the so-called “Mindich case”.
"The conversation was constructive. Rustem Umerov answered all the investigationʼs questions within the framework of procedural legislation," NSDC noted.
Umerov and the "Mindich recordings"
On November 11, the SAPO prosecutor stated that Tymur Mindich, who is considered the organizer of the scheme, tried to put pressure on Umerov when he was Minister of Defense.
Umerov himself called this statement “baseless” and claimed that as Minister of Defense he regularly met with manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and weapons, including Mindich. At the meetings, they discussed the issue of bulletproof vests under a contract that was later terminated “due to the products not meeting the requirements”.
Against the backdrop of this case, rumors began to spread on social networks that Umerov, who left on a business trip abroad on November 11, was refusing to return. The Center for Countering Disinformation denied these rumors at the time, and Babelʼs sources in the Presidentʼs Office said that Umerovʼs business trip would last until November 19 inclusive. On November 20, he returned to Ukraine.
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