Analysts note that the practice of arresting governors in Russia is turning into a “sacred ritual.” Vyacheslav Gaizer, the head of Komi, was taken into custody this weekend. In addition to Gaiser, other regional officials were also arrested.
The Investigative Committee has already made a statement - the governor is suspected of fraud, as well as organizing a criminal community. In addition to the leaders of the republic, Alexander Zarubin and Valery Veselov, businessmen, may be held accountable. In total, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against 19 members of the criminal group.
How it was?
During the detention, the Komi governor was in Moscow, where he was planning to fly abroad on vacation. The operatives detained the official and took him to Komi, for his personal presence during the search in the office. The “catch” turned out to be very generous:
This is what the governor wanted to buy. Cost with standard equipment - from 14 million dollars:
Gaiser was arrested on Sunday and, according to the department, began actively cooperating with the investigation. Former Komi senator Yevgeny Samoilov was also arrested - the official fully admitted his guilt and began testifying against Gaiser.
It became known that the governor’s defense has already filed a petition to change the preventive measure in the form of detention into house arrest, which the official can serve in his wife’s apartment in Moscow. The Basmanny court rejected the petition - the head of the republic, being at large, can put pressure on the investigation or flee from justice. At the moment, Gaiser’s arrest period is until November 18, 2015.
What was stolen?
The organized criminal group has been operating since 2006, and the main purpose of its existence was the illegal seizure of state property.
The most striking episodes:
Members of the criminal group exchanged the assets of the poultry farm for shares of illiquid companies - as a result, the Komi budget lost about 900 million rubles.
Putin's reaction
The head of state's press secretary has already told the media that Vladimir Putin knows about Gaiser's detention. However, at the moment there is no decree on the appointment of an interim head of the region, however, according to him, it is planned to resolve the situation in the next few days.
It became known that the acting governor would be appointed “not from among the current elite of the republic.” Gaiser himself will be removed from his post due to “loss of confidence.” It is worth noting that United Russia suspended the membership of a high-ranking official in the party.
Bombshell effect
For politicians associated with Komi, the unexpected arrest of the governor came as a complete surprise. Gaiser has led the republic since early 2010 and was re-elected in 2014 with the support of 79% of voters.
This is not the first time
Let us recall that about six months ago, Alexander Khoroshavin, the governor of the Sakhalin region, was arrested in a similar manner. This official also had a solid “list of assets” - he held a high position for eight years and was personally nominated to the regional governor by the president. Now the ex-governor is under arrest, he has been charged with criminal charges involving damages of 5.6 million dollars and 15 million rubles.
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The Investigative Committee of Russia filed formal charges under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code (“Organization of a criminal community”) and 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud on an especially large scale”) to the head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer and his deputy Alexey Chernov. Only under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code they face a life sentence. The governor is arrested until November 18. In the near future, the investigation will go to court with a petition for the arrest of 13 more members of the group, including Chairman of the Komi State Council Igor Kovzel, Deputy Prime Minister of Komi Konstantin Romadanov, and ex-senator Evgeny Samoilov. According to investigators, the group was created for large-scale theft of state property. During the searches, jewelry and documents related to the theft of state assets were discovered.
On Saturday afternoon, the Investigative Committee of Russia announced the exposure of an organized criminal group in Komi, which was created back in 2006.
The FSB and the Investigative Committee suppressed the activities of a criminal community headed by the head of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer, his deputy Alexei Chernov, as well as Alexander Zarubin and Valery Veselov, said Vladimir Markin, official representative of the Investigative Committee. - The goal of the criminal community was to commit serious crimes aimed at taking state property by criminal means.
During the special operation, 19 leaders and members of the group were detained, among whom were the head of the region Vyacheslav Gaizer and his deputy Alexey Chernov, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic Igor Kovzel, Deputy Chairman of the Komi Government Konstantin Romadanov, former senator from Komi Evgeny Samoilov, Head of the Information Department of the Regional Administration Pavel Marushchak , as well as businessman Valery Veselov and other alleged members of the criminal community. Most officials, including Gaiser, were formally on vacation after the election campaign, so they were detained in other regions and resorts. Thus, Gaiser was detained at one of the capital’s airports, Kovzel in St. Petersburg, and Marushchak in Gelendzhik. As it turned out, the governor of Komi was planning to fly abroad.
As part of a large-scale special operation, 80 searches were carried out on the territory of the Komi Republic, in Moscow and St. Petersburg. About 60 kg of jewelry, 150 wristwatches worth from $30 thousand to $1 million, 50 stamps of various companies, documents on the legalization of stolen state assets worth more than 1 billion rubles were discovered and seized from the defendants in the case. Among the documents were tax certificates for the Cypriot company Greettonbay Trading Ltd, issued in 2013, as well as the company Afina Management Ltd., registered in the Seychelles in 2004. Investigators found documents related to negotiations on the purchase of Bombardier and Hawker aircraft.
Gayzel, Kovzel and Chernov were taken to the Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee in Moscow, where after the first interrogation they were formally charged under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code (“Organization of a criminal community”) and 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud on an especially large scale”). There are no precedents when the governor was charged under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code, has not yet appeared in the legal practice of modern Russia.
On Sunday, the investigation filed a petition with the Basmanny District Court of Moscow for the arrest of Gaizer and Chernov. According to the investigator, the case against them was initiated on September 18. In court, Gaiser did not admit his guilt and asked to be released under house arrest.
“I am most interested in establishing the truth in the case and restoring a good name, I do not interfere with the investigation, therefore I ask that house arrest be imposed on me,” Gaiser explained in the Basmanny Court.
The court sided with the investigation and arrested Gaiser until November 18, 2015. The governor was sent from court to the capital's Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. A similar decision was made regarding Chernov, deputy chairman of the government of the republic Konstantin Ramodanov, and ex-senator from Komi Evgeniy Samoilov. Businessman Yuri Bondarenko has been placed under house arrest.
The rest of the detainees still remain in the status of suspects, but in the near future the Investigative Committee plans to bring formal charges against them and arrest them.
According to the Investigative Committee, the head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, and his accomplices created a group to steal state assets. The group worked in Komi, in other regions of Russia and abroad. The operational development of Vyacheslav Gaizer began back in 2011, and the reason for it was the non-repayment of a loan of more than 500 million rubles to Sberbank from OJSC Timber Industry Company Syktyvkar LDK. In the summer of 2011, the Syktyvkar branch of Sberbank of Russia asked Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to conduct an urgent audit of the financial situation of the debtor enterprise. According to the bank, the management of the enterprise did not intend to repay the loans and was engaged in scams.
Investigators uncovered illegal schemes in Komi for the alienation of shares in regional state-owned enterprises, schemes for illegal privatizations and deliberate bankruptcies. The criminal case mentions the Syktyvkar OJSC LPK Syktyvkar LDK, Syktyvkar Plywood Plant LLC, several housing and communal services enterprises, a reinforced concrete products plant, as well as agricultural enterprises and dairies.
Security forces regularly received signals from Komi. In the spring of 2013, auditors from the Federal Tariff Service arrived in the republic to inspect the local division of the agency. The reason for this was numerous complaints from the population of Komi about sharply increased housing and communal services tariffs. People wrote letters to President Vladimir Putin and went to protests. From 2004 to 2009, the Komi Tariff Service was headed by Konstantin Romadanov. During the audit, it turned out that the assets of some large energy companies in the republic became the property of Cypriot offshore companies. And at the end of 2011, according to his declaration, Romadanov earned almost 340 million rubles, becoming one of the richest officials in Russia according to Forbes magazine.
The scandals also mentioned the Fund for Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic, which bought hotels and large agricultural enterprises. These enterprises were managed by a specially created Agroholding LLC, among the founders of which were Cypriot offshore companies.
Let us remind you that this is the second governor to come under investigation over the past year. Previously, Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin was arrested and charged in criminal cases for receiving large kickbacks for projects on the construction of the Yuzhno-Sakhalinskaya CHPP-1 power unit and a bribe of 15 million rubles.
For the first time in the history of Russia, a governor was declared the leader of a criminal community. According to investigators, the organized crime group of the head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, included, among others, the vice-governor, the speaker of the State Council and a member of the Federation Council.
Didn't go on vacation
The Investigative Committee of Russia announced on Saturday afternoon that a criminal case was opened against 19 members of a criminal community, which, according to law enforcement officers, was led by Komi Governor Vyacheslav Gaizer, his deputy Alexei Chernov, former adviser to the head of Komi Alexander Zarubin and businessman Valery Veselov. .
Gaiser was in Moscow at that time, from where he was planning to fly abroad on vacation. He was detained and taken to Komi so that his office could be searched in his presence. Investigators found a safe with money, a collection of expensive watches (worth about $1 million), documents for several offshore companies and projects for the acquisition of Bombardier and Hawker aircraft.
Already on Sunday, Gaiser was arrested in Moscow. He is cooperating with the investigation, his lawyer said. Another person arrested, former senator from Komi Evgeny Samoilov, has already admitted guilt and is testifying against Gaiser, an investigator said on Sunday at a court hearing where the issue of arresting the suspects was considered.
Gang of officials
According to investigators, the criminal group has been operating since 2006. Its goal was to seize state property. A criminal case was initiated under the articles “Criminal Community” and “Fraud”.
The criminal community was distinguished by the scale of its activities - the interregional and international nature of criminal actions, hierarchical structure, cohesion and close relationship between leaders and participants, strict subordination of lower-level participants to higher-level ones, a well-developed system of conspiracy and protection from law enforcement agencies, said Vladimir Markin, an official representative of the Investigative Committee.
“The criminal community can be compared to a large holding company: there are structural divisions, managers and subordinates, and its activities are necessarily aimed at making a profit,” lawyer Eduard Isetsky, who represents the interests of General Denis Sugrobov, tells RBC. But in practice, the defense attorney admits, the investigation often imputes this article (210 of the Criminal Code) in cases where there are no signs of an organized crime group. “This is done in order to aggravate the charge and obtain a warrant for arrest,” says Isetsky.
Lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov notes that in order to qualify the actions of the accused under this article, the investigation needs to prove that the group had a distribution of roles, a cash register and a clear structure.
According to an RBC source familiar with the investigation, the first episode of fraud that the defendants are charged with concerns the theft of 50% of the shares of the Avalon Hotel in the city of Syktyvkar. The second episode is the withdrawal of shares of OJSC Zelenetskaya Poultry Farm. According to the agency’s interlocutor, members of the criminal group exchanged its assets for shares of illiquid companies and subsequently underpaid more than 900 million rubles to the republic’s budget, which should have been paid as dividends.
RBC's interlocutor notes that the investigation materials contain other information about the theft of shares in profitable enterprises. He does not rule out that the amount of charges may subsequently be increased.
Persons involved in the case
Gaiser, 48, entered the civil service in the early 2000s from the banking sector. By 2006, when, according to investigators, an organized crime group was created, Gaiser, as a republican minister, was in charge of finances. He was nominated for the post of governor by then-President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010. In 2014, President Vladimir Putin appointed Gaiser as acting governor. In the elections he received 78.97% of the votes.
Three more defendants in the case of organized crime in 2002-2010, like Gaiser, worked in the team of the former head of the region, Vladimir Torlopov. At that time, the position of adviser to the governor was held by Alexander Zarubin. Gaiser’s arrested deputy, Alexey Chernov, was also an adviser to the former governor in 2002, and by 2006 he took the post of vice-governor. The deputy chairman of the republican government, Konstantin Romadanov, has headed the tariff service since 2004, and since 2009 he has taken the position of Torlopov’s deputy.
Their accomplice, Speaker of the State Council of the Republic Igor Kovzel, came to politics from commercial structures (since 2007 he headed the board of directors of Syktyvkar Industrial Plant LLC). In 2011, already under Gaiser, he was elected to the State Council and became its speaker.
Former senator from Komi Evgeny Samoilov, a native of St. Petersburg, was responsible for finance at the Leninets Holding Company OJSC at the beginning of 2002 and until 2005. In 2007, he was elected to the State Duma on the federal list of United Russia candidates and became a member of the Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes. Having served in the lower house for one convocation, in 2011 he moved to the Federation Council from the State Council of Komi.
Vyacheslav Gaizer
Son of a worker and a teacher
Vyacheslav Gaizer was born in 1966 in the city of Inta in Komi. His father was an expelled German and worked at a mining and processing plant, and his mother was a native of the republic and taught chemistry and biology at school. In 1985-1987, Gaiser served in the army, and in 1991 he graduated from the Moscow Economic and Statistical Institute with a degree in Automated Control Systems.
Banker
After studying, Gaiser first worked in the Syktyvkar branch of the Menatep bank (he interned in the head Moscow branch of this bank in his fifth year), then moved to Komibank. In 1996, Gaiser took the post of deputy chairman and then chairman of the board of the Komi Social Bank. In 1999, he graduated from the Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics with a degree in Finance and Credit.
Civil servant
In 2002, Gaiser was appointed First Deputy Minister of Finance of the Komi Republic, in 2003 he became Minister of Finance, and in 2004 - Deputy Head of the Republic. In 2010, the State Council of Komi, on the recommendation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, approved Gaiser as head of the republic. In 2014, his term of office expired, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed him acting. heads of Komi. After this, elections were held in the republic, in which Gaiser received 78.97% of the votes. Thus, he again became the head of the region. Political scientist Alexander Kynev, in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper, noted that under Gaizer, a “pronounced authoritarian regime without checks and balances” was formed in Komi.
At Leninets he rose to the post of deputy general director. The company was headed by Anatoly Turchak, the father of the current governor of the Pskov region, Andrei Turchak. “Samoilov and Turchak Jr. know each other well,” says RBC’s interlocutor, close to the leadership of one of the northwestern regions of Russia. He doesn’t know whether the cases against Gaizer are related to the security guards of one of the enterprises associated with Leninets, accused of an attempt on the life of journalist Oleg Kashin, but he assumes that this is the only way to explain the TFR’s statement about the “interregional nature” of the criminal group from Komi.
RBC's interlocutor, close to the Kremlin, claims that the cases are in no way connected.
Putin is aware
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin is aware of the governor’s detention. According to him, there is no decree on the appointment of an acting head of the region yet, but, apparently, one can expect that “one of these days the situation will somehow be resolved.”
Two RBC interlocutors close to the leadership of the Kremlin administration say that the acting head of the region will be a person “outside the current Komi elite.” Gaiser can be fired with the wording “due to loss of confidence.” The same thing happened this year in Sakhalin - after the arrest of Alexander Khoroshavin, the head of the Amur region Oleg Kozhemyako was transferred to the region. True, he waited for the appointment for several weeks - before this, the duties of head of the region were performed by one of Khoroshavin’s deputies. Now there won’t be such a long wait, RBC’s interlocutor assures.
United Russia has already announced the suspension of Gaizer’s membership in the party. Now he is a member of the Supreme Council of United Russia.
A year ago, when Gaiser’s first term in office expired, Putin entrusted him with the duties of head of the region. Naturally, all the pros and cons were weighed then, recalls one of the federal officials involved in the decision to reassign Gaiser. “Of course, we received complaints about him, but mostly from offended people. They said that he was connected with bandits, but did not present any evidence. In general, Gaiser then seemed like such a strong “middle peasant”. Such people usually quickly go through all the formal procedures for reassignment,” says the official.
Back in September of this year, Gaizer headed the United Russia list in the elections to the legislative assembly. The party received 26 of 30 seats in the State Council. “Moreover, Gaiser calmly conducted the campaign, led his people there, and no one tried to interfere with him,” says an interlocutor close to United Russia.
Business Impact
The region traditionally has a strong position of large companies - Rosneft, LUKOIL, Severstal, Renova are represented there. One of the suspects, Alexander Zarubin, was the general director of Renova, but then left the company and began to actively engage in business in the region on his own, say three RBC interlocutors close to the Kremlin and confirmed by an interlocutor in the region. According to the latter, Zarubin became a “local oligarch” with a claim to control the region.
According to interlocutors, it was the large companies opposing Zarubin in 2009 that played a role in the resignation of the previous governor, Vladimir Torlopov. However, he managed to participate in the selection of the new governor, Gaiser. Recently, many large companies have been dissatisfied with the activities of Gaiser and Zarubin, according to RBC’s interlocutors.
Local authorities have had problems with law enforcement for a long time, says an interlocutor close to the Kremlin. The mayors of Vorkuta, Pechora, Ukhta and Syktyvkar were arrested. “When we got to Gaiser, there was simply no one to protect him,” says the interlocutor.
According to political scientist Konstantin Kalachev, the second arrest of the governor of an economically successful region in a year is a signal to the leaders of other resource areas that, in conditions of economic instability, the fight against corruption will focus specifically on the territories entrusted to them. The expert explained that the scant information about the Gaiser case does not yet allow us to draw more accurate conclusions and judge who is the main beneficiary in the criminal prosecution of the Komi leadership.
The choice of the Komi leadership as a target for the attack was unexpected for the political elite - both local and federal, says political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov. There were no visible political reasons for intervention: there were noticeably fewer complaints about controllability in Komi than in Sakhalin. Apparently, the FSB and the Investigative Committee, becoming more active in this way, are creating their own system of checks and balances, the expert suggests.
The FSB and the Investigative Committee stopped the activities of a criminal community headed by the head of the Komi Republic. This was announced by the official representative of the RF Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin.
“The FSB of Russia and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation suppressed the activities headed by the head of the Komi Republic Vyacheslav Gaizer, his deputy Alexei Chernov, as well as Alexander Zarubin and Valery Veselov,” he said.
According to Markin, on September 18, the Department for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against 19 leaders and members of a criminal community who committed crimes under Articles 210 (“Criminal Community”) and 159 (“Fraud”) between 2006 and 2015 ") of the Criminal Code.
“The purpose of the activities of the criminal community headed by Zarubin, Gaiser, Chernov and Veselov was to commit serious crimes aimed at taking state property by criminal means,” Markin said.
He noted that “the criminal community was distinguished by the scale of its activities, expressed in the interregional and international nature of the criminal actions of its participants, the hierarchical structure of the criminal organization, the cohesion and close relationship of the leaders and participants of the criminal community, the strict subordination of lower-level participants to their superiors, a well-developed system of conspiracy and protection from law enforcement".
The head of Komi, Vyacheslav Gaizer, detained in the case of organizing a criminal community, could face up to 25 years in prison, said lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky.
“The article of the Criminal Code on a criminal community provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 12 years to life. Life imprisonment is threatened if the accused occupied the highest position in the criminal hierarchy. However, here it is. It is clear that this part does not suit him,” Agranovsky said.
According to the lawyer, Gaiser may be charged with creating a criminal community using his official position; this crime is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. In addition, Gaiser may be charged with fraud, so if the court finds him guilty of both crimes, he could face up to 25 years in prison.
Meanwhile, a source in the republican prosecutor's office said that the initiation of a criminal case against Gaiser was preceded by a number of corruption criminal cases, which were initiated on the basis of inspections by the regional prosecutor's office and the FSB.
“The initiation of this criminal case was preceded and facilitated by an investigation by law enforcement agencies of the republic and the referral to court of a number of corruption criminal cases, the basis for the initiation of which were materials from the prosecutor’s office of the Komi Republic and the FSB Directorate,” the source said.
As examples, he cited criminal cases against former leaders of a number of Komi municipalities.
Earlier it was reported that a criminal case has been opened against the head of the Komi Republic, Vyacheslav Gaizer, and his deputy for criminal association and fraud; they will soon be transferred to Moscow.
Yesterday Vyacheslav Gaizer was taken to Syktyvkar. The governor took part in investigative activities - he was present during the search of his own office. Investigators seized a safe containing money, a watch collection and projects to acquire Bombardier and Hawker aircraft.
Also during the search, documents were found for offshore companies in Cyprus and the Seychelles.
Vladislav Trifonov, Yuri Barsukov
On Sunday, the Basmanny Court of Moscow, which worked until late in the evening, authorized the arrests of one and a half dozen defendants in a criminal case about an organized crime community (OCC) and fraud with state property in Komi, the main defendant in which is the head of the region, Vyacheslav Gaizer. According to investigators, for several years in the republic, budget funds were invested in promising enterprises, primarily in the agricultural and energy industries, which were then sold to companies affiliated with officials. After this, according to security officials, the enterprises’ funds were transferred to offshore companies under the guise of paid dividends.
Vyacheslav Gaizer and most of his accomplices were detained last Saturday. The governor himself was captured in Moscow, at Domodedovo airport, from where he was planning to fly abroad on vacation. Speaker of the Komi State Council Igor Kovzel was detained in St. Petersburg, most of the other suspects were detained in Komi.
[: Another person involved in the case, deputy chairman of the Komi government Konstantin Romadanov, was detained while fishing - he was brought to court in camouflage clothing. - Insert K.ru]
Over the weekend, employees of the Investigative Committee and the FSB, which is providing operational support to the case, conducted searches at the places of residence and work of the defendants, including in the government of the republic. In total, as reported by the Investigative Committee, more than 80 searches were carried out in Komi, St. Petersburg and Moscow, “more than 50 seals and stamps of legal entities involved in the implementation of offshore schemes, financial documents on the legalization of stolen assets totaling more than 1 billion were seized rub.". Among the documents were tax certificates for the Cyprus company Greettonbay Trading Ltd and Afina Management Ltd., registered in the Seychelles. Investigators also found documents related to negotiations on the purchase of Bombardier and Hawker aircraft. The investigative department separately noted that detectives seized more than 60 kg of jewelry and 150 watches worth from $30 thousand to $1 million, and the watch worth $1 million allegedly belonged to Vyacheslav Gaizer.
All these activities were carried out within the framework of a criminal case initiated by the Department for Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee against 19 people under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Creation of a criminal community and participation in it”) and Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy”).
The importance that law enforcement officers attach to this investigation is evidenced by the fact that on Sunday the Investigative Committee applied to the Basmanny Court of Moscow with requests for the arrest of 15 defendants in the case and the house arrest of another, although the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation allowed this to be done a day later. By this time, the suspects had already been transferred from Komi. Even before the trial, official charges were brought against Vyacheslav Gaizer and his deputy Alexei Chernov. The investigation considers them, as well as the director of the Syktyvkar sawmill and wood processing plant Valery Veselov and the former deputy chairman of the board of the Renova Group of Companies Alexander Zarubin, to be the leaders of the organized criminal group. Let us note that the latter, according to some sources, is now abroad, so no procedural actions have yet been taken against him. As Andrei Shtorkh, a representative of the Renova Group of Companies, explained to Kommersant yesterday, Alexander Zarubin has not had anything to do with the group since 2009. From 2003 to 2005, Alexander Zarubin was the general director of Renova CJSC; after the restructuring of this company into the Renova Group of Companies, he headed the ANO Institute for Corporate Development, while holding the position of deputy chairman of the board of the Renova Group of Companies and being its minority shareholder.
However, according to Andrei Shtorkh, by 2009, Alexander Zarubin resigned from the shareholders of the Group of Companies and ceased to hold any positions in the structure of the group.
In addition to them, the OPS, according to the investigation, includes the speaker of the republican State Council Igor Kovzel, deputy chairman of the government Konstantin Romadanov, ex-senator from Komi Evgeny Samoilov, head of the information department of the regional administration Pavel Marushchak, head of the Fund for Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic Igor Kudinov, as well as businessmen and lawyers whom the Investigative Committee called “financial technologists” - Vasily Molyarov, Dmitry Moskvin, Anton Faershtein, Natalya Motorina, Mikhail Khruzin, Yuri Bondarenko, as well as certain Goldman and Libenzon.
So far, the Investigative Committee has not specified the essence of the acts incriminated against the members of the alleged organized crime group. The official representative of the department, Vladimir Markin, limited himself to reporting that the OPS was created in 2006 for the purpose of fraudulent theft of state property in the republic. Vyacheslav Gaizer, according to him, is charged with organizing an organized crime group and two counts of fraud. The lawyers, who were immediately required to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the investigation materials, do not go into details either. In particular, the governor’s lawyer Oleg Lisaev noted that the indictment against his client refers to two transactions. “Transactions between legal entities are indicated,” the lawyer explained. “He, as the head of the republic, has no relation to them due to his official position.” The defender added that these transactions were checked by various regulatory authorities, including the Accounts Chamber, and no violations were found.
Meanwhile, according to Kommersant’s sources, the alleged criminal episodes are in one way or another connected with the Fund for Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic, headed by Igor Kudinov since 2010. According to law enforcement officers, it was this fund, founded by the regional property management agency in 2007, that managed companies and enterprises owned by the republic. Through him, funds were invested in these structures for development, including technical re-equipment. After some time, the fund, together with the Cypriot Nevest Investment Ltd. established the management company "Agroholding", to which a number of enterprises were transferred, in particular the Zelenetsk poultry farm, Syktyvkar dairy plant and Syktyvkarkhleb. Soon, the management company, together with another offshore company, Greettonbay Trading Ltd, created a subsidiary, Metlizing, headed by Anton Faershtein, a defendant in the case. After this, Agroholding left the founders of Metleasing, and the Cypriot company remained the sole owner of agricultural assets. At the same time, according to preliminary estimates by law enforcement officers, more than 2 billion rubles were allocated from the budget for the reconstruction of the Zelenetsk poultry farm alone. According to law enforcement agencies, some companies in other industries were also transferred from state ownership using the same scheme. At the same time, the companies’ funds, under the guise of dividends, were also transferred to offshore companies, controlled, according to the investigation, by Vyacheslav Gaiser himself, as well as Alexander Zarubin.
[Izvestia.ru, 09.20.2015, “The Governor of Komi was charged with a life sentence”: The operational development of Vyacheslav Gaizer began back in 2011, and the reason for it was the non-repayment of a loan to Sberbank of more than 500 million rubles from OJSC Timber Company Syktyvkar LDK " In the summer of 2011, the Syktyvkar branch of Sberbank of Russia asked Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika to conduct an urgent audit of the financial situation of the debtor enterprise. According to the bank, the management of the enterprise did not intend to repay the loans and was engaged in scams.
Investigators uncovered illegal schemes in Komi for the alienation of shares in regional state-owned enterprises, schemes for illegal privatizations and deliberate bankruptcies. The criminal case mentions the Syktyvkar OJSC LPK Syktyvkar LDK, Syktyvkar Plywood Plant LLC, several housing and communal services enterprises, a reinforced concrete products plant, as well as agricultural enterprises and dairies.
Security forces regularly received signals from Komi. In the spring of 2013, auditors from the Federal Tariff Service arrived in the republic to inspect the local division of the agency. The reason for this was numerous complaints from the population of Komi about sharply increased housing and communal services tariffs. People wrote letters to President Vladimir Putin and went to protests. From 2004 to 2009, the Komi Tariff Service was headed by Konstantin Romadanov. During the audit, it turned out that the assets of some large energy companies in the republic became the property of Cypriot offshore companies. And at the end of 2011, according to his declaration, Romadanov earned almost 340 million rubles, becoming one of the richest officials in Russia according to Forbes magazine.
The scandals also mentioned the Fund for Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic, which bought hotels and large agricultural enterprises. - Insert K.ru]
Gaiser and Romadanov were the first to be arrested yesterday by the Basmanny Court, then the petitions were considered one after another until late in the evening. Justifying the need to place Vyacheslav Gaizer and other high-ranking officials in a pre-trial detention center, representatives of the Investigative Committee said that those involved in the case not only have extensive connections in government and law enforcement agencies, but also have large financial resources, and therefore have the ability to put pressure on witnesses, destroy evidence in the case, or otherwise interfere with the investigation. The defendants, in turn, argued that a preventive measure not related to detention in a pre-trial detention center is sufficient for them (since the operational activities in the case are carried out by security officers, most of the defendants will be in Lefortovo). In particular, Vyacheslav Gaizer and his lawyer Oleg Lisaev pointed out that the official suffers from a large number of ailments - from pancreatitis to conjunctivitis - and in a pre-trial detention center cannot count on the necessary medical care. They proposed placing the head of the region under house arrest in his wife’s apartment in Strogino. The politician also pointed out that, although he does not admit guilt, he does not refuse to testify in the case. But the court was not convinced by all these arguments.
In turn, the ex-senator from Komi, now an adviser to the general director of the St. Petersburg company Peak LLC, Evgeny Samoilov, who had already given confessional testimony in the case, including against other defendants, argued that “he could have cooperated with the investigation more effectively in the conditions house arrest." His lawyer Maxim Shepelev added that “a preventive measure in the form of house arrest or recognizance not to leave would be more suitable.” “My client has no criminal record, is married, has a young daughter and a permanent job,” he gave his arguments. But even in this case, the court agreed with the arguments of the investigator who insisted on arrest.
As a result, all the ICR’s requests for arrests were granted, as well as the request to place another defendant, businessman Yuri Bondarenko, under house arrest, who apparently decided to cooperate with the investigation from the very beginning.
“Evidence was found regarding Gaiser’s “corruption dealings” Original of this material[...] In total, 19 people were detained as part of the criminal case against Gaiser.
“Another couple of hundred people in the republic are wondering in horror whether he is next,” says an informed interlocutor in Syktyvkar. - Our bosses often fly to the capitals and seas on weekends; it is not surprising that almost all of them were hired in other regions, and not at home. And here they had a reason to go for a walk - the elections were successfully held, so why stay at home?”
On September 13, elections to the regional legislative assembly were held in Komi. Gaizer headed the list of United Russia, which received 58% of the votes at the end of the campaign.
48-year-old Vyacheslav Gaizer is a member of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party. Since 2003, he was the region’s minister of finance, and in 2010 he became the head of the republic. Just last year, Gaiser was successfully re-elected to the gubernatorial post, gaining 78.97% of the vote.
In June, the Kremlin-close Civil Society Development Foundation (FORGO) presented a new issue on the effectiveness of governors. In it, Gaiser entered the top five most effective regional heads, rising two positions in the ranking at once.
A source close to the Kremlin, on the contrary, characterizes Gaiser as “a quiet middle peasant, not noticed either in failures that would be discussed publicly or in special successes”: “He tried to keep a low profile. In terms of efficiency, I would put him in thirtieth place in the ranking of governors.” The source notes that, judging by the depressive appearance of the regional capital, the city of Syktyvkar, “it is difficult to say that Gaiser effectively used the financial resources available in the republic’s budget”: “And the resources there were quite good.”
The secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Sergei Neverov, has already publicly announced that, according to the party charter, membership in the party is automatically suspended in the event of a criminal case, and the head of the ForGGO, Konstantin Kostin, made a statement that no ratings will stop the government in the fight against corruption.
“In fact, we have a serious fight against corruption: the mayor of Vorkuta has been convicted, the mayor of Pechora is in prison, the mayor of Ukhta, the mayor of Syktyvkar is awaiting a verdict, and how many district mayors have been imprisoned - so this is not all out of nowhere,” says an informed interlocutor in law enforcement authorities of the Komi Republic. - What makes a good gang different is that everything in it is clearly organized and appropriate precautions are taken. We had a famous Vorkuta gang, everyone knew about it for 20 years, but they couldn’t get close to them, there was nothing to grab onto. As soon as evidence appeared, arrests began immediately. It’s the same here with the governor - yes, they knew, yes, they talked and wrote, but there was no proof. And now it exists, so we are taking action.”
The Kremlin’s internal political bloc had no information about Gaiser’s corruption dealings, in turn, a source familiar with the situation claims: “He received complaints from officials removed from positions who said that Gaiser was an ineffective leader, a random person in the governor’s post. But these complaints did not provide any facts. And there was not a word at all about what he is accused of now. Otherwise, these materials would immediately be handed over to law enforcement agencies,” assures Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor.
According to political scientist Nikolai Mironov, two main groups of elites existed in Komi all this time. The first was consolidated around Gaiser. Among the influential people who were part of this group are Deputy Governor Chernov and businessman Zarubin, who are now arrested. This group consolidated all the local elites, and in the financial field its interests were located in the energy and mining industries.
At the federal level, the group was in close contact with the head of the Renova group of companies, Viktor Vekselberg, since the detained businessman Alexander Zarubin was once one of the top managers of the company. [...]
At the regional level, Mironov continues, Gaiser’s group controlled branches of the United Russia party, regional authorities and the authorities of the city of Syktyvkar, and the group also had good relations with regional security forces.
The second group unites numerous disparate republican elites. What it has in common is that it reflects the interests of big business interested in promoting their own political positions.
Mironov says that the go-ahead for such large-scale actions by security forces is given by the president as an arbiter in elite conflicts.
“Now the balance of elite alignments in the region will change, there will be a redistribution of influence and resources. However, there is reason to believe that this history is not regional, but rather federal.
It reflects the struggle of federal clans and may be a continuation of other stories that took place around the figure of Vekselberg, for example the Skolkovo case. Hence the urgent detention in Moscow, so that interrogations would be conducted not by local, but by Moscow law enforcement officers. This is also the suddenness of the arrest and searches, which will allow us to collect more necessary information - and not only on Gaiser and his people,” argues Mironov.
According to him, at the same time, this case, of course, will be used to create a propaganda effect - to show that the authorities are fighting corruption. “Similar “communities” exist in other regions, but if the clan situation is stable and there is support, then this does not come to the surface,” says the political scientist.
“A clip is a clip, but adequacy is adequacy. Bronzed. “I’ve lost my instincts and my sense of proportion,” political scientist Konstantin Kalachev characterizes Gaiser. - High places in gubernatorial ratings do not protect you from the attention of the Investigative Committee. No one is untouchable." According to Kalachev, even after the arrest of Sakhalin Governor Alexander Khoroshavin, it was clear that the fight against corruption would also affect others.
The parallels with the Khoroshavin case really emerge. As after the arrest of the head of Sakhalin, in the case of Gaiser, investigators quickly seized a safe with money and a collection of expensive watches in the office of the head of the republic. At the same time, he said that “the cost of just one pair of watches is about a million dollars.” [...]
Another detail is also curious. Former senator from Komi Yevgeny Samoilov, detained in the Gaiser case, held various leadership positions in the Leninets defense holding, owned by the family of the governor of the Pskov region, Andrei Turchak. The manager of the St. Petersburg Leninets plant, Alexander Gorbunov, is associated with the case of an attack on journalist Oleg Kashin.
Journalist from Komi Sergei Sorokin wrote a lot about the activities of the team of Gaiser and Zarubin in the local media. According to him, the existence of a criminal group in Komi, closely associated with regional elites, has been known for the past 15 years, but the attack on it by the federals came as a surprise to everyone.
“The huge criminal group “Ifa-Kozlov” operated in the republic, similar to the “Kushchevskys” in the Kuban. They completely controlled trade and large enterprises in Vorkuta, engaged in contract killings throughout the country, and committed murders. Previously, several dozen people were arrested in this case, says Sorokin in an interview with Gazeta.Ru. “According to my information, the republic’s leadership was aware of the gang’s existence.”
Sorokin says that there is no direct evidence of the connection of the bandits with the leadership of the republic, but they allegedly could be connected with the regional elite in “election matters.” According to Sorokin, problems were added to the investigation at the regional level by the fact that the heads of local law enforcement agencies were closely connected with the republican authorities.
“Zarubin was for some time in Komi the chief adviser to the former governor Torlopov. He did a lot for his coming to power, as well as for Gaiser's coming to power. Gaiser and his deputy Chernov are Zarubin’s people, he brought them, and this can be said for sure,” says Sorokin. [...]
[Lenta.ru, 09.19.2015, “Criminal Gaiser”: Businessman Alexander Zarubin, who once headed Komisotsbank - from where, by the way, Gaiser himself at one time moved to the republican Ministry of Finance - was […] an adviser to the previous head of the republic. Zarubin was already the hero of the federal agenda as the husband of singer Lolita Milyavskaya (vice-governor Chernov was his witness at his wedding), with whom he lived for five years.
In conjunction with him is Valery Veselov, a major businessman by republican standards, whom regional media call one of the leaders of the Ivanhoe organized crime group, citing data from operational developments of the nineties and zeros. The billion-dollar loan issued by the local Sberbank to Zarubin under the guarantee of Vyacheslav Gaizer and not returned on time will quite possibly become one of the episodes of a big deal. As well as the bankruptcy of timber producers from the Syktyvkar LDK, where, on the eve of the start of the procedure, more than one hundred million rubles came from the Investment Project Support Fund of the Komi Republic, and in fact - from the regional treasury. - Insert K.ru]
