Against the backdrop of a decrease in the interest of the Kremlin curators in the governor corps, the influence of the security forces on the solution of personnel issues in the regions has grown. Before the special military operation, they were only one of the interested parties. Today, when all the attention of federal politicians is focused on the events in Ukraine, their position is becoming decisive.
The voluntary resignation on March 29 of Omsk Governor Alexander Burkov came as a surprise only to his team. Opponents of the head of the region from local financial and industrial groups and law enforcement agencies were preparing for it in advance. The conflict between the parties has not stopped since 2017. At times it was hidden, but sometimes the situation escalated in earnest.
Against the former Minister of Health of the Omsk region, Irina Soldatova, a case was opened for abuse of power. In April 2021, documents were seized in the administration of Omsk in the case of spending a transfer in the amount of 1 billion rubles for a major overhaul. In January 2022, searches were carried out in the Department of Property Relations of the City Hall as part of a criminal case on abuse of power. Hundreds of less significant orders were sent to the governor’s team. Some of its representatives were forced to spend the entire working day giving evidence and explanations to investigators.
The most serious problem for Alexander Burkov was the investigation of the theft of JSC LK “Grain of Siberia”. The logistics company was established at the initiative of the regional government in 2019 with the aim of organizing the supply of grain through the Irtysh, Ob, Gulf of Ob, the port of Sabetta and the Northern Sea Route to Asian countries.
But already in December 2019, Alexander Chetverikov, a member of the board of directors of the enterprise, resigned “due to irresolvable differences with Governor Burkov” and left Omsk. After Chetverikov was put on the federal wanted list, he published a post in which he stated the following:
“… The second follows from the proposal received from the governor, who demanded a format of work that was incompatible with my ideas and extorted 200 million rubles from me, of which I had to give 100 million to the trustee of the head of the region, and invest another 100 million in Burkov “SibirAgroInvest”.
Alexander Burkov reacted to the accusations with restraint. In an interview with the Octagon, he explained:
“In order to draw attention to himself and build a line of defense, Chetverikov is trying to politicize the situation, create for himself the image of a person allegedly persecuted by the authorities. Quite an expected move. But note that Chetverikov does not come directly to law enforcement agencies and does not testify. He broadcasts from abroad, where justice cannot yet reach him.
On March 1, 2023, Alexander Chetverikov handed over an open letter to the media, in which he revealed new details of the origin of the criminal case “Grains of Siberia” and the role of Alexander Burkov in it. The text was accompanied by screenshots of correspondence with the head of the region. According to Oktagon sources, from that moment on, the Omsk governor had several serious conversations with the security forces. Less than a month later, he wrote a letter of voluntary resignation, although a few days before that, Burkov’s team was preparing for his re-election for a second term.
Conflicts between security forces and governors are actively developing in other regions as well. One of them is the Leningrad region. In January 2022, Oktagon wrote that the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed “under a magnifying glass” to study all complaints against the investigative department of the Vsevolozhsky district, which delayed the decision on the presence or absence of grounds for initiating a criminal case on the development of land located in Vsevolozhsky Yukkovsky forest area.
In January 2023, Oleg Zinchenko, former First Deputy Chairman of the Control Committee of the Governor of the Leningrad Region, was sent into custody. The media, citing the data of the investigation, wrote that from September 2014 to March 2015, he helped businessmen get land in the Vsevolozhsk district.
A couple of weeks later, Sergei Shalygin, deputy chairman of the construction committee for the Leningrad Region, was sent to a pre-trial detention center. The former deputy chairman of the regional government, Mikhail Moskvin, was arrested next. He is suspected of taking a bribe from the ex-head of the Directorate for the Integrated Development of the Territories of the Leningrad Region, Daniil Fedichev. Fedichev himself was also detained.
Entrepreneurs from other regions are associated with business in the Vsevolozhsk district.
As Oktagon previously reported, one of the developers on these lands is Sevzapstroyinvest LLC, the beneficiary of which is Vitaly Kochetkov, a reputable Sverdlovsk businessman.
The Vsevolozhsk region also became famous for the criminal case on the illegal alienation of the lands of the Ministry of Defense, where tank exercises were held. In 2010-2012, the administration of Rosreestr for the Leningrad Region was headed by the current mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov.
In November 2011, in an interview with a correspondent for the Prigorod portal, Orlov said that the department under his leadership was cooperating with the Ministry of Defense on the issue of transferring “unnecessary” military lands located in the Vsevolozhsk region to the state.
“We are actively cooperating with the Ministry of Defense. There are many questions, but we try to solve them. It became easier to interact when the department of property relations was created in the ministry,” Alexei Orlov explained.
Until September 2011, the department of property relations of the Ministry of Defense was headed by Yevgenia Vasilyeva, who was subsequently convicted of fraud in the sale of the ministry’s assets.
According to Oktagon sources, the decision on the expediency of the resignation of Governor Alexander Drozdenko against the backdrop of arrests in his team has been postponed to the summer of 2023. What it will be depends on the political situation.
The head of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz also came under attack from the security forces. Yesterday, TASS reported on the arrest of two deputy heads of the region at once – Elena Egorova and Tatyana Kuleshova. Criminal cases were initiated against them under the article on accepting a bribe on an especially large scale. The investigation is carried out by the central office of the Russian Investigative Committee. Also, information appeared in the media about the detention of the third deputy governor Nikolai Symonenko, which was subsequently not confirmed.
The officials were taken into custody amid the construction of a defense line on the border with Ukraine in the Bryansk region, which should stop potential attacks by armed saboteurs and larger forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The project is being implemented on budgetary funds. Bogomaz, who promotes it, has been under special attention of law enforcement agencies since this week.
This is an incomplete list of the regions that fell under the influence of the security forces. As the special operation in Ukraine develops and the fight against corruption intensifies, their number will only increase.