The CEO Of "Patriot" Park Was Detained In Moscow

This happened after the arrest of two of his deputies.

Igor Vasilyev , CEO of the "Patriot" amusement park , was detained in Moscow—this occurred after the arrest of two of his deputies. According to "Fontanka", Vasilyev is suspected of accepting a bribe: the case file mentions a sum of approximately 80 million rubles. A source close to the investigation told the publication that the director was questioned on October 5, and a pretrial detention measure is expected to be imposed on him on October 6.

Vasilyev’s detention was preceded by the arrest of two of his deputies. Both were taken into custody on October 2: one is suspected of accepting a bribe, and the other of fraud. According to investigators, they received approximately 100 million rubles from businesspeople, helping entrepreneurs win contracts and ensure their fulfillment existed only on paper.

The Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed Vasilyev’s detention. In response to a request from RBC, the ministry stated that it is working closely with military investigative authorities and providing maximum cooperation with the investigation. “Zero tolerance for any manifestations of corruption by officials of the military department’s administrative bodies and organizations is an unconditional priority for the Ministry of Defense,” the ministry said.

Vasilyev has headed the Ministry of Defense’s Federal State Autonomous Institution “Central Park ‘Patriot’” since March 2026. Prior to that, he served as governor of the Kirov Region, head of Rosreestr, deputy head of Rosstat, and a senator representing the executive branch of the Komi Republic.

Earlier, as part of criminal cases related to the park, the deputy general director Vitaly Melimuk was detained. In April, he was arrested on charges of accepting a bribe of 18 million rubles from the CEO of the company “Hermes,” which provided services to the park under contracts totaling more than 1.4 billion rubles. According to investigators, the money was intended as a bribe for facilitating the conclusion of contracts and ensuring “unimpeded work on them.”

Another Patriot executive—the park’s former director Vyacheslav Akhmedov—was sentenced in 2025 to five years in a penal colony in a case involving the embezzlement of more than 25 million rubles. As the court established, he acted in collusion with former Deputy Minister of Defense General Pavel Popov and former Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense’s Main Directorate for Innovative Development, Major General Vladimir Shesterov. In July 2025, Shesterov was sentenced to six years in a penal colony.

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