Former CEO of company pledged to deliver "Chubays tablet" to students receives 6 billion rubles in award.
Check out this low-down on the latest scoop about the former Plastic Logic CEO, Boris Galkin!
The final curtain falls on Boris Galkin.Say goodbye to Galkin, ex-CEO of Plastic Logic, as he faces reduced charges of embezzlement. New York, New York, here comes a whopping 6 billion rubles in damages - originally, he was accused of swindling a staggering 13 billion rubles. The news comes via TASS.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane.Remember Rosnano, the innovative bunch? They set up Plastic Logic LLC to execute a groundbreaking project, including manufacturing some high-tech flexible tablets for schoolkids. Our site previously reported back in 2010, when Rosnano's CEO Anatoly Chubais first announced this project.
The plan? Plastic Logic would team up with an Irish company to produce flexible displays in Zelenograd. In two years, Rosnano invested a hefty 7.1 billion rubles in Plastic Logic, grabbing a massive chunk (43.84%) of its shares. Later, the Federal Antimonopoly Service gave their blessing, allowing Rosnano to own 100% of Plastic Logic LLC.
When Chubais showed the future toy to Vladimir Putin (then Prime Minister), he boasted that this flexible tablet would replace the entire set of school textbooks for all subjects. However, by 2015, the Accounts Chamber found that absolutely no progress was made. The promised tech was never purchased, and the Zelenograd factory remained, well, just a factory.
Fast forward to 2023.Rosnano won a lawsuit against Plastic Logic for a measly 700,000 rubles, hoping to crash the company. That didn't happen; instead, it shut its doors. Post that, top managers connected to the project were slapped with sanctions in 2024. Galkin, arrested during the summer, was among them, charged with stealing a shocking 13 billion rubles. His case is now closed.
Other conspirators, including Chubais, were nabbed later. In April 2025, property valued at 5.6 billion rubles was seized from eight of these baddies. The list also includes Rosnano's top brains like Yuri Udaltsov, Oleg Kiselyov, Boris Podolsky, German Pikhoya, Dmitry Pimkin, Vladimir Avetisyan, and Nikolai Tychinin.
To add insult to injury.Boris Podolsky, former deputy chairman of the board and executive director of the Management Company "Rosnano," was shipped off to a pre-trial detention center. Meanwhile, other respondents are on the lam, including Chubais.
But here's where things get interesting - Boris Galkin has denied all those dirty allegations. His defense claims that Galkin had no say in the funding decisions for the "Chubais tablet." He was in charge from August 2012 until the summer of 2016, leaving the whole project to be 99% owned by Rusnano by 2015. Those crucial calls about funding allocation were made by Rusnano's management.
Quick question about Anatoly Chubais.You might wonder about Chubais, who led Rusnano from 2008 to 2020. Well, after officially skipping town at the end of March 2022, analysts discovered some significant financial fiascoes threatening Rusnano's bankruptcy. Even the State Duma started an audit of Rusnano's activities due to alleged damages totaling over 100 billion rubles.
Till 2023-2024, Rusnano struggled to shrug off its debt to banks, constantly reminding their shareholder (the Russian government) of its terrible financial shape. Finally, in July 2024, Rusnano managed to pay off 80% of its debt and even reported a profit of 3.9 billion rubles for the first half of 2024!
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Sources:- [TASS, 2025] - "Russian court cuts damages in Plastic Logic embezzlement case"- [Our Website, 2010] - "Prospects for the innovation project"- [RBC, 2025] - "Boris Podolsky got into pre-trial detention"
I'm not sure if Boris Galkin shared his thoughts on the reduction in embezzlement charges from 13 to 6 billion rubles, but general-news and crime-and-justice outlets such as TASS have reported on the development. As the former CEO of Plastic Logic, Galkin was involved in a project with Rosnano, who initially invested nearly 7.1 billion rubles in Plastic Logic and later seized control of the company. The investment was meant to produce high-tech flexible tablets, but the project faced significant setbacks, and Plastic Logic ultimately shut its doors, leaving Rosnano to face allegations of damages totaling over 100 billion rubles. Boris Podolsky, a former deputy chairman of the board and executive director of the Management Company "Rosnano," was one of the respondents in the case and was sent to a pre-trial detention center, while others, like Anatoly Chubais, are still at large. If you want to stay updated on this ongoing story, consider subscribing to our Zen Zen.News email newsletter, joining us on Telegram, or catching up with us on VK.
