The senator and former manager of the president proves the absence of criminal ties
Senator Vladimir Kozhin is seeking the removal from the network of publications damaging his honor, dignity and business reputation in court. Among other things, the politician proves that his family has no ties with the infamous businessman, CEO of the Atompromresursy group, Andrei Cherkasenko, who became a defendant in a criminal case of a particularly large-scale fraud last fall and was put on the international wanted list. Earlier, publications appeared in the media about Cherkasenko’s possible ties with Alexei Anikin, deputy head of Rostekhnadzor’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities Safety Regulation Department, who was placed under house arrest by a court decision in September as part of an investigation into a bribe-taking case. The businessman was also credited with the implementation of dubious projects together with representatives of the Kozhin family. In particular, it was about the transfer to Cherkasenko-affiliated firms of elite real estate owned by the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation (UDP), which in 2000-2014. led by Vladimir Kozhin. His resignation was preceded by a number of high-profile corruption scandals and criminal cases. It was reported, in particular, that the head of the Department himself received almost 8 hectares of land on the Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway, having paid only 162 thousand rubles for them, with an actual cost of about 50 million dollars. Kozhin’s subordinates from the UDP have repeatedly come to the attention of the security forces. In particular, the criminal case connected with the sale of the complex of buildings of the Kvant-N enterprise, the cost of which was underestimated by 1 billion rubles, has become widely known. Then, among the convicts were the ex-director of the UDP-controlled Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Center for Financial and Legal Support” Nikolai Skrypnikov and his deputy Alexander Vedin. Kozhin himself was a witness in the case, although the defendants stated that all transactions for the alienation of federal property in favor of third parties were carried out exclusively with his knowledge. During the period of Kozhin’s leadership, there was also the theft of 1.2 billion rubles allocated for the construction of the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, for which a number of businessmen and FSO employees were convicted.
The reputation of Senator Kozhin was again taken up by the court
Former head of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation (UDP), current senator Vladimir Kozhin (represents Moscow in the Federation Council) at the end of last year took care of the “cleanliness of the uniform” and decided through the court “Clean up” the Internet from negative information about your loved one.
Speaking about the “apogee of slander” in relation to “public officials”, the lawyer got a little excited: today one can rather talk about the apogee of criminal cases, in which officials of various calibers become defendants. To be convinced of this, it is enough to read the news for the past year by typing in the search engine the words “corruption”, “detention”, “arrest”, etc. Moreover, the press and telegram channels often report on large-scale manifestations of corruption in a particular department even before the visit of the security forces. But maybe the lawyer Dubrovskaya, due to professional employment, simply has no time to follow publications in the media?
Speaking about Senator Kozhin, it is worth recalling: back in 2010, heading the Administration of the head of state, he sued the editors of Novaya Gazeta, hoping recover from the publication 1 million rubles: how much the official appreciated the scolded “honor, dignity and business reputation.” The publication that was the subject of the proceedings dealt with 800 million, allocated on the allegedly already built road, the finished foundation and walls for one of the government-run Sochi sanatoriums, inherited by firms associated with the leadership of the UDP.
It was reported that at that time the source for the journalistic investigation was revelations CEO of the company “Moskonversprom” Valeria Morozova: according to the businessman, for several years he paid “kickbacks” to a high-ranking employee of the UDP, amounting to 12% of the 1.5 billion contract for the reconstruction of the Primorsky building of the Sochi sanatorium.
It was about the deputy head of the capital construction department of the UDP Vladimir Leshchevskywho in August 2010 became a defendant in a criminal case on taking bribes for a total of 180 million rubles. But in May 2012, the investigation against him was discontinued due to lack of corpus delicti. By information portal “FLB”, This was preceded by a mysterious incident with the disappearance of evidence – video recordings, which recorded the moment Leshchevsky received a bribe. Morozov, who acted as a bribe giver, in turn, accused in tax evasion by more than 130 million rubles; he fled to London, where he requested political asylum and declared the fabricated nature of the criminal prosecution.
The name of Kozhin himself did not appear in anti-corruption revelations, but in addition to the UDP, his head also filed a lawsuit against Novaya Gazeta. The court, however, ordered the editorial pay not a million 100 thousand rubles, estimating the amount of moral damage caused to the official. Then the media drew attention to one important circumstance: Kozhin did not dispute the very fact of bribery in the Directorate headed by him.
Officials-swindlers from the UDP
Kozhin was removed from the post of head of the Administrative Department in May 2014, after which he was appointed to the post of assistant to the head of state for military-technical cooperation. In the press, the resignation was associated, among other things, with a number of corruption scandals that occurred in the department. In particular, reported about the transaction, as a result of which Kozhin became the owner of a land plot of 7.7 hectares in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region, on Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway.
By data media, Kozhin got the plot in 2009 for just 162.1 thousand rubleswhile the cost of 1 hectare of land in the nearby village of Gorki-10 at that time was estimated at about $7 million. That is, in fact, the official had to pay for the acquisition of the order $50 million at the rate, but received the object for a purely nominal fee. On the web, you can see by letter Deputy Head of the Technical Department of the State Property of the Moscow Region E.V. Medvedeva, addressed to the higher management, which refers to the violations of the current legislation that took place during the transfer of the federal facility to private ownership. However, the relevant order nevertheless, it was signed in the State Property Technical Specification near Moscow.
So, without interrupting his main activity, Mr. Kozhin out of the blue, and only as a result of one deal with state property, he became a dollar millionaire. AT publications publications “PASMI”(recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) described a detailed scheme for transferring the UDP to the ownership of the company “Garant-Club” per 18 million rubles more than 20 hectares of forest land on the banks of the Moskva River, all in the same Odintsovo district, with a cadastral value of the site of 737 million and a market price reaching 2 billion. As figured out journalists, the firm “Garant-Club” was affiliated with the deputy chairman “Gazprombank” Ilya Eliseev and his Foundation for non-commercial regional projects “DAR”.
The media have repeatedly written about corruption schemes with real estate in the UDP, only Vladimir Kozhin, who was in charge of the department, all the time remained aloof from the machinations of his employees. So, in May 2013 it became known about detention vice president Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Center for Financial and Legal Support” UDP Oleg Samotintwo of his subordinates and the CEO of a private commercial firm suspected of extorting a businessman 10 million rubles for signing a lease agreement for office space on Varvarka Street in the center of Moscow.
The circumstances of the detention caused bewilderment: soon all the defendants in the case were at large, which gave Samotin the opportunity to hide from the investigation for several months to the second detention and arrest. Reported on the large-scale inspections that followed shortly, which revealed schemes for the illegal alienation of state-owned elite land plots in the Moscow region and the Krasnodar Territory, which caused damage in 1.7 billion rubles. Doubtful documents were allegedly signed by the head of the UDP Kozhin, which influenced the president’s decision to resign the offending official.
Kozhin is a witness, subordinates are accused
One can only be surprised at how cleverly the future senator remained on the sidelines, while his subordinates became defendants in high-profile investigations and went to the dock. Moreover, Kozhin even had a chance to visit testimonial status, as, for example, during the investigation of the scheme with the sale of the complex of buildings OJSC Kvant-Nthe value of which turned out to be deliberately underestimated by 1 billion rubles.
On charges of particularly large-scale fraud, they appeared before the court and in 2018 were recognized guilty ex-director Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Center for Financial and Legal Support” (CFPO) UDP Nikolai Skrypnikovhis former deputy Alexander Vedinex-general director of Kvant-N Andrey GrishinCEO Strictum LLC Anna Myagkova and CEO OOO “Temperance” Stanislav Korenkov. In addition, the former assistant to the head of the Federal Property Management Agency was involved in the scams Alexander Nistratovwho managed hide from investigation and possibly located in the United States.
The convicts themselves declaredthat transactions for the alienation in favor of third parties of federally owned assets were carried out with the knowledge of Vladimir Kozhin and the former head of the Federal Property Management Agency Yuri Petrov. Moreover, how wrote Kommersant, it was Kozhin who, in 2011, applied to the Federal Property Management Agency with the initiative to transfer Kvant-N under the control of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise TsFPO, which was done as soon as possible. But both Kozhin and Petrov were witnesses in the case.
No less high-profile was the criminal case of embezzlement 1.2 billion rubles allocated in 2011 for the construction of the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. Among his defendants turned out to be the CEO of the holding “Forum” Dmitry Mikhalchenkoformer director FSUE Ateks FSO RF Andrey Kaminovex-head of the Engineering and Technical Support Service of the FSO Lieutenant General of the Reserve Igor Vasiliev and others. All the defendants were found guilty of the crimes they were accused of. Businessman Mikhalchenko, as the organizer of the criminal community, the court sentenced to 20 years in a strict regime colony with a fine of 1 million rubles.
In general, the percentage of corrupt officials in the environment of Mr. Kozhin, when he was the head of the Department, went off scale. In 2019, a criminal case was opened against his longtime deputy Ivan Malyushin. As established consequently, the latter illegally signed an additional agreement to the lease agreement for a federally owned land plot concluded in June 2013 between the manager and the company “Stroygroupservice”as a result of which the budget received less 96 million rubles. Soon, at the request of the investigator, the investigation was terminated due to an amnesty timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
But the former official did not get away with multimillion-dollar fraud: in December last year it became known that the Supreme Court of Russia listened to the arguments of the Prosecutor General’s Office and recognized illegal amnesty for Malyushin. Moreover, the supervisory authority insist on the reclassification of the actions of the accused to a more serious article. Thus, with a high degree of probability, a guilty verdict against ex-deputy Kozhin will still be handed down.
Senator disowns businessman Cherkasenko?
In July last year, the media reported that Igor Kozhin – the full namesake of the son of Senator Vladimir Kozhin – became the main owner of the retailer “Stopexpress”who manages a network of more than 120 stores located at gas stations “Gazpromneft”. The cost of the transaction experts of “Kommersant” appreciated in 2.1 billion rubles. The prospects of the business were noted: at the end of 2021, the chain’s revenue increased 2.6 times to 4 billion rublesprofit grew by almost 30% – to 134.2 million.
At one time, Kozhin Jr. and his father were credited with connections with the infamous CEO of the investment and industrial group “Atompromresursy” Andrey Cherkasenko. In September last year, Cherkasenko became a defendant in a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud, was arrested in absentia and declared international wanted. The details of the investigation were not reported, but it was clarified that the damage from the actions of the businessman is about 100 million rubles.
declaring zero revenue and profit, Atompromresursy Group was presented as “one of the leading private companies in the nuclear industry, founded in 1995 as the legal successor of Glavsnab of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of Russia”, whose priority areas of activity are providing nuclear fuel cycle enterprises with inventory resources, providing engineering services, including R&D, development of design documentation and manufacturing equipment.
Cherkasenko, in turn, tied up from the Deputy Head of the Department for Safety Regulation of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities Rostekhnadzor Alexey Anikinagain in September 2022 detainees and placed under house arrest as part of a bribery investigation. Voiced on the network versionaccording to which, through the structures of Cherkasenko (in particular, the bankrupt company “Promsredmash”) could withdraw hundreds of millions of rubles received under a contract with “Rosatom”and Anikin, who allegedly later turned out to be in the development of the security forces, contributed to their certification.
In this context, attention publications about joint “projects” Cherkasenko with the family of Senator Kozhin. In particular, about the transfer to the companies controlled by the businessman of elite real estate in Petrovo-Dalnaya, near Moscow, previously owned by Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Rublyovo-Uspensky health-improving complex” UDP.
The question is, why would Vladimir Kozhin start in court prove lack of any connections with the wanted Cherkasenko? Is the senator afraid that publications in the media will not only draw the attention of the security forces to the “schemes” with the participation of officials from Rosatom and Rostekhnadzor, but will also allow them to take a fresh look at the “cases of bygone days” when he served as head of the presidential administration? After all, as you know, the best way to protect is an attack.