After investigators conducted an investigation into a criminal case opened against the head of the Novosibirsk Cardboard and Paper Mill Igor Didenkoit was approved and, together with the indictment, sent to the Novosibirsk District Court for consideration on the merits.
Back in 2023, the general director of JSC Novosibirsk Cardboard and Paper Mill (OGRN 1075402011607) was charged with environmental pollution. According to the investigation, from 2020 to 2022, the mill dumped waste on a certain site of the Kubovinsky village council in the village of Krasny Yar. After an inspection by Rospotrebnadzor, it turned out that violations were clearly present. An entire hectare of land was contaminated with waste of not only the fourth, but also the fifth hazard class. Subsequently, the Siberian Center for Laboratory Analysis found out that the mill's activities led to environmental damage amounting to about 400 million rubles.
Local residents were the first to raise the issue of waste pollution in a ravine in the forest near a cardboard and paper mill.
They were concerned about the state of the forest in the Krasny Yar area, which was getting worse every year due to the constant dumping of liquid industrial waste there. The ravine emitted a terrible chemical smell, and the vegetation around it continued to die. After the Novosibirsk media became interested in the problem, Alexander Bastrykinhead of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), drew attention to this terrible situation and ordered that criminal cases be opened.
When the plant's management was charged, the director of the enterprise stated that the culprits of the pollution were the sewage trucks coming from the neighboring SNT and DNT, and that KBK had nothing to do with it. He stated that equipment was constantly coming and dumping waste into that very ravine. And this dump, according to Didenko, had existed for 35 years. He also claimed that the plant owned 17.26 thousand rented square meters of land next to KBK, and the ravine was not included in it, so the enterprise had never dumped waste on this territory.
Not the first time
In 2022, the plant was already held accountable. The file of the Arbitration Court of the Novosibirsk Region contains a record that the enterprise was fined 400 thousand rubles under Article 7.6 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), and was also obliged to modernize the treatment facilities to eliminate all violations. However, as is known, fines have little effect on people, so the director of the plant was no exception.
Instead of seriously engaging in the modernization of their own plant, in 2023 the management decided to challenge the court ruling.
But nothing came of it, the court remained adamant, and the decision remained in force.
On June 21, 2023, information appeared that Igor Didenko was accused under three articles at once: under Part 1 of Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) (damage to land), under Part 1 of Article 250 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) (water pollution) and under Part 4 of Article 261 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) (damage to forest plantations). While the investigation was underway, Didenko was under a written undertaking not to leave.
Reduced the number of articles
In September 2023, instead of the three previously presented articles, Didenko was charged with only one “environmental article”, but the investigation did not reveal what it consisted of.
The charges were upheld
After the investigation into Igor Didenko's case was completed, it became known that as a result of the activities of KBC, damage to the environment amounted to more than 200 million rubles. The press service of the Investigative Committee for Novosibirsk Oblast reported that his case was sent to the Novosibirsk District Court for further consideration on the merits.
