You're reading: The Economist: Russia’s new purges rattle the elite

A private jet carrying a Russian former minister and billionaire lands in a VIP Moscow airport from Italy where he resides in a plush villa. Lured to Moscow for the birthday party of a former colleague and friend, he gets into a limousine, but is quickly apprehended by the FSB, Russia’s secret police. They take him to jail, and charge him with stealing millions of dollars from Russian taxpayers. This was the story spread by Russian news agencies and social media on March 26th as Mikhail Abyzov, a minister until last year, was taken into custody and charged with embezzlement.

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