A Top Official Secretly Escaped From Russia Via Belarus

• 30.04.2026, 16:54

This is the first such case.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Denis Butsaev, whom Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin sent to resign just a week ago, has fled Russia.

This is the first such case. Denis Butsayev left via Minsk immediately after the order to resign, on April 22. It happened amid sudden and mysterious deaths of Russian politicians, businessmen and just rich people, the Russian newspaper "Vedomosti" writes.

Before his appointment as deputy minister, Butsaev was general director of the Russian Environmental Operator (REO), the main organizational structure of the garbage reform under the Ecology national project.

On the eve of Butsaev's flight, reports began circulating on social networks that a fraud case (Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code) had been opened against the administrative director of the REO, Yuri Valdaev. Cases have also been brought against two other top managers of the company. The source of the edition says that the case mentions Butsayev himself. Earlier he was summoned for questioning to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. The case against Butsaev is connected with embezzlement of budget funds during the implementation of the garbage reform. It was he, being the head of the REO, who distributed subsidies among operators.

Denis Butsaev is a lawyer, a former member of the expert council under the head of the Federation Council, a top manager of the structure of Rosnano and a former head of the government of the Moscow region.