The decision to put Boris Rukin, a resident of Voronezh, on the federal wanted list was issued illegally. This was confirmed by the Leninsky District Court, relying on the decision of the head of the investigative unit for the investigation of crimes and organized criminal activity of the SU UMVD of Russia for Voronezh Denisov Yu.I. However, it is still too early to say that justice has triumphed: the question remains how Mikhail Khatuntsev managed to make him a defendant in a criminal case, without having any reason to do so.
“They didn’t even apologize to me,” Boris Rukin told the Notebook Voronezh publication.
This story initially looked like a dispute between a lender and a negligent debtor. In April 2021, Rukin gave a local individual entrepreneur, the head of a peasant farm (KFH), Mikhail Khatuntsev, 35 million rubles, which he promised to return with interest by May 31 of the same year. They issued everything as it should be: with a receipt, signature and even the seal of Khatuntsev.
However, at the appointed time, he did not see either his 35 million, but interest for the use of funds. Khatuntsev did not get in touch, and Rukin went to court.
However, in court, Khatuntsev suddenly declared that he owed no money to anyone, that the receipt was falsified (later an examination would prove the authenticity of his signature on the debt document) and also decided to seek protection from law enforcement officers.
On the basis of Khatuntsev’s statement, a criminal case was initiated under part 3 of article 30 of part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted fraud). On December 30, 2022, by decision of the senior investigator of the Department of Internal Affairs of the SC for the ROPD of the SU UMVD of Russia for the city of Voronezh, Major of Justice E.A. Kosareva Rukin suddenly became a defendant in a criminal case and was put on the federal wanted list.
According to Rukin, this circumstance was decisive for the Voronezh Regional Court, which on appeal upheld the refusal of the Central District Court to satisfy the claim for unreturned funds. “They say that the plaintiff is the defendant in a criminal case, which means there is nothing to talk about,” Rukin’s opinion is quoted by Notebook Voronezh.
But both the criminal case and the wanted list were illegal. This was recognized by the head of the investigative department, Colonel of Justice Denisov, who on March 31, 2023 canceled the decision of the investigator Kosareva as “unreasonable”.
Rukin was simply notified of this in court. Without apologies and explanations, how could this happen at all, that a person, for no reason at all, was suddenly turned from an accuser in a civil procedure into an accused under a criminal article, and only on the basis of the words of the defendant in a lawsuit already pending by the court, that is, an objectively interested person.
But Rukin does not stop fighting for justice. Back in the summer of 2022, he turned to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to initiate a criminal case against Vladimir Pytyev, a representative of the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the region. According to him, it was Pytyev who introduced him to Khatuntsev. According to Rukin, Pytyev, being in a trusting relationship with both, suggested that Khatuntsev take a large sum from Rukin. Apparently, it could be his idea that if Rukin starts making demands for the return of 35 million rubles, then it will be possible to initiate a criminal case against him, thereby forcing him to abandon all claims. Moreover, according to Boris Rukin, the policeman allegedly demanded a financial reward from him for finding a “profitable client” for the businessman in the face of farmer Khatuntsev. According to Rukin, the services were estimated at 50,000 to 100,000 rubles, and this money was transferred to Pytyev, which was confirmed by an eyewitness during the investigation.
“Pytiev is sure that he is untouchable,” Boris Rukin told the Notebook Voronezh publication.
The SO Investigative Committee of the ICR of the Russian Federation for the Central District of Voronezh, where he turned first of all according to the territorial jurisdiction, was in no hurry to accept his complaint about the illegal actions of the policeman Pytyev.
And this is far from the only moment in Boris Rukin’s judicial ordeals that raises questions from the businessman.
The decision to put him on the federal wanted list was made by a representative of the city investigation of Voronezh. Those. a deliberately illegal decision, issued only on the basis of an application by an interested person, was adopted by a fairly high-ranking authority. It is difficult to doubt the professional competence of its employees. Which involuntarily raises the question: what could have had such an effect on the investigating authorities that their representative made an obviously unreasonable decision?
The refusal to put the entrepreneur on the wanted list was largely made possible thanks to the intervention of the Prosecutor General’s Office: local law enforcement officers almost ignored the gross mistakes on the part of their colleagues. Not to mention the fact that the Voronezh investigators were virtually inactive for many months.
The criminal case of attempted fraud, in which Boris Rukin was a witness, suddenly stalled. At the same time, the activity of the investigating authorities suddenly dropped after an eyewitness was found to transfer remuneration to Vladimir Pytyev for mediating assistance in concluding a deal. And the policeman himself did not express a desire to testify using a polygraph (better known as a lie detector).
All the circumstances of the case indicated that Pytyev should become a defendant in the criminal case. Especially given the fact that in 2012 he was dismissed from the post of police chief of Novovoronezh in connection with the commission of a corruption crime by his subordinates.
However, the scandal turned out to be an increase for Pytyev: he took the post of deputy head of the criminal investigation department of the Voronezh region. Which further casts doubt on the prospects for the appearance of a high-ranking policeman among the accused and, moreover, in the dock.
Boris Rukin intends to seek prosecution of both Vladimir Pytyev and Mikhail Khatuntsev. Whether he succeeds, time will tell. However, the very fact that in such a short time the businessman was “reclassified” from a witness to an accused and even put on the federal wanted list involuntarily calls into question the chances of obtaining justice at the local level. The “miracles of law enforcement” performed by law enforcement officers working “on the ground” indirectly indicate that before the case goes beyond the jurisdiction of the regional law enforcement agencies, it will be difficult for an entrepreneur to count on the favor of Themis.