Ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova demands the release of “funeral deputy” Sergei Natarov
For 18 months, ex-deputy of the State Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party and vice-speaker of the legislative assembly of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Sergei Natarov has been in jail. He is accused of fraud in the procurement of the northern delivery. At the same time, Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, believes that a number of serious violations were committed as part of the investigation of the criminal case, and for cases of this kind, a milder preventive measure is quite enough.
The security forces who arrested Sergei Natarov, vice-speaker of the Krasnoyarsk Legislative Assembly, in turn believe that, being under house arrest, he can put pressure on the course of the investigation.
The case of Sergei Natarov, to whom the investigation imputes eight episodes of crimes under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Assignment and embezzlement on an especially large scale” was taken to court, while the former people’s choice did not admit his guilt.
We are talking about the purchase of coal for the needs of boiler houses in the polar Igarka. It is worth noting that the son of Sergei Natarov, Anton, is also under investigation. He allegedly “laundered” funds through the media outlets Dela.ru and Newslab controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party. At the same time, a measure of restraint in the form of house arrest was chosen for Anton, which, then, was completely replaced with a written undertaking not to leave. According to investigators, money was transferred to companies under fictitious contracts, apparently for posting materials about the activities of dubious firms, but in fact there were no publications. In total, 12 people are involved in the “Natarov case”, and only the ex-deputy of the State Duma is in a pre-trial detention center, the rest have been chosen a preventive measure not related to detention. Interestingly, both in the case of Anton Natarov on money laundering through the media and in the case of his father, Sergei, on the theft of coal supplies to Igarka, Denis Bundyuk, a former accountant of the regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party, is being tried. And the amount of damage in these cases, according to the investigation, can reach 100 million rubles. This may indicate that some part of the stolen funds was intended for the party fund. However, Krasnoyarsk leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party deny this fact, arguing that this entire criminal case is political and custom-made, and is aimed at discrediting the party. Be that as it may, the criminal case inflicted another severe blow to the image of the local branch of the Liberal Democratic Party.
The son of Sergei Natarov – Anton, among other things, from 2017 to 2019, served as an adviser to the ex-governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexander Uss in preparation for the Winter Universiade and the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the city of Yeniseisk. It is worth noting that both of these events were marked by high-profile scandals and the initiation of a number of criminal cases related to the “split” of funds allocated from the federal and regional budgets for preparation for these events.
At the same time, a number of media outlets spread the assertion that none of the 12 defendants in the investigation pleaded guilty. But this is not entirely true: there is information, according to the website of the Prima TV channel, that the LDPR accountant Bundyuk confessed to everything, and is actively cooperating with the investigation.
From the information leaked to the media, it is known that the group currently under investigation in the “Natarov case” supplied the Igarsk company Energoprom and its subsidiaries with fuel of inadequate quality at an inflated price. Now, by the way, the company is going through bankruptcy proceedings.
But the reason why Sergei Natarov is still in custody may lie elsewhere: the Krasnoyarsk ex-deputy of the State Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party has close ties with the funeral services in Krasnoyarsk.
It is no secret to anyone that before his arrest, he actively lobbied for the interests of the local “funeral tycoon” Vadim Abdulin, who, according to some reports, controls about 70 percent of the funeral services market in the city of Krasnoyarsk. It is worth noting that Krasnoyarsk is one of the few million-plus cities that still does not have its own columbarium.
The issue of its construction has been solved for more than ten years – while the city is experiencing an acute shortage of places for burials.
At the same time, all initiatives from certain entrepreneurs were invariably “extinguished” by the city authorities. Again, evil tongues claim that the reason for this was the fear of Natarov and Abdulin to lose income. But just over a year ago, the issue moved from the “dead point” – a decision was made to build a “municipal crematorium”. Surprisingly, this coincided with the detention and arrest of Sergei Natarov.
Only now Abdulin, who until then fiercely resisted the construction of the crematorium, decided to build it himself, assuring that otherwise the “Varangians” would manage the ritual institution, and in this case, Siberians would not expect anything good:
“As long as we have a crematorium in Krasnoyarsk, which is municipal in quotation marks, but in fact not municipal, and this crematorium will be managed from Moscow, nothing good will happen,” the businessman believes.
Perhaps Natarov’s “sitting” is actually connected with the fact that he did not try to intervene in the “ritual redistribution” that is planned in Krasnoyarsk in connection with the decision to build a city columbarium? This version cannot be ruled out either – and in this case, there will be a lot of questions about whether Tatyana Moskalkova, the commissioner for human rights, will be able to defend the rights of her ward. hzikhidtidekrt depend.
