A veteran of the Alfa group did not rule out the melting of stolen coins in St. Petersburg

The collectible gold coins of the Pobedonostets series stolen from the bank could have been intended for melting or export abroad. This opinion was voiced by Andrey Popov, a veteran of the Alpha antiterrorism group, in an interview with Izvestia on June 24.

"The scheme probably looked like this: the coins were originally intended for sale to citizens through branches of this bank, or through other banks. According to these documents, I think, the export of these coins — 160 kg — was registered," he said.

As the expert noted, the head of the bank's security service, as well as possibly employees of the branches where the coins were allegedly sent, will be involved in the investigation to testify.

Popov said that the stolen coins could later be melted down into gold, after which they could be sold to jewelry factories or made into ingots. The attackers may have been helped by accomplices to distribute the stolen goods. At the same time, the organizers of the scheme pocketed most of the money.

Two employees of the bank in St. Petersburg a day earlier took out of storage almost 9 thousand gold coins of the Pobedonostets series, the value of which amounted to more than 2 billion rubles. According to investigators, on the evening of June 20, the head of Andreev's office and customer relations manager Irina Poryvaeva stole coins in denominations of 50, 100 and 200 rubles for a total amount of over 2 billion rubles. It is specified that Poryvaeva was detained the next day. She has been charged with theft on an especially large scale committed by a group of individuals.