In December 2021, this investigator became a defendant in a criminal case related to Forbes list participant Olga Mirimskaya.
He was accused of receiving a bribe for investigating a criminal case involving the kidnapping of his daughter in favor of an entrepreneur and her return to her mother. The story turned out to be resonant, but until today Yuri Nosov refrained from communicating with media representatives. We are publishing his first interview, for the assistance in organizing which we thank the representatives of the defense.
Under the control of the ICR management
— Yuri Mikhailovich, why exactly did you begin to investigate the criminal case of Olga Mirimskaya?
— I was entrusted with the investigation of this criminal case by management at the end of August 2015. I never discussed or challenged the instructions of the leaders. After the case was taken away from me in March 2016, I was assigned to it twice more as part of investigative teams, and then in November 2016, management instructed me to complete it. I think this clearly demonstrates the quality of my work.
I will add that from the moment the criminal case was opened regarding the purchase and sale of Olga Mirimskaya’s young daughter, its investigation was placed under special control by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). In practice, this means that all procedural actions, both mine and those of other investigators, were carefully studied by the leadership of the State Investigative Directorate for the Moscow Region and the Central Office of the Investigative Committee. Regular meetings and hearings were held, and management gave instructions. The leadership of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) received information about everything that was happening on a constant basis.
With this level of control, it is impossible to conduct an investigation in someone’s private interests or in favor of someone else. Yes, and this is illegal. There was only one task – to fully, comprehensively and objectively establish the circumstances of the incident and give a proper criminal legal assessment. Various investigative versions were worked out in the case, and all participants in the events were given the opportunity to “speak out.”
— Do you remember how you met Olga Mirimskaya?
— Yes, this happened in August 2015, when she arrived at the investigative department in the city of Odintsovo. I remember well that she was in an anxious state, because the situation with the abduction of her daughter was really very difficult. It was immediately clear that Olga Mirimskaya was a strong, strong-willed woman who believed in justice. No matter how difficult it was, she had no doubt that she would be able to find her daughter and bring her back. And she turned out to be right.
“Behaved impudently”
— Do you know the lawyer? Vadim Bagaturiaspeaking in the media as your main opponent in connection with the investigation into the abduction of Mirimskaya’s daughter?
“I first saw him at the beginning of April 2016 in the premises of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) in the Moscow region, where the kidnapping of Mirimskaya’s daughter was being investigated during that period. I carried out procedural actions on behalf of the head of the investigation team. Bagaturia arrived to defend and provide legal assistance to the accused in the case.
He behaved, to put it mildly, impudently, trying to provoke me into a negative reaction. After a short time, the client refused his services due to the fact that neither she nor any of her relatives had entered into an agreement with him to protect her. And the main reason for refusal is distrust of the lawyer. This is recorded in her written appeal.
Subsequently, he did not intervene in the case as an official defense attorney, since legal grounds would arise for his recusal. But lawyer Bagaturia did not refuse to participate in the case and became the de facto defender of the citizen Smirnovawho had significant financial and administrative resources, was also brought to justice in this case.
Returning to your question, I note that lawyer Bagaturia personally made an unpleasant impression on me. There were situations in the investigative agencies where he previously worked. In 2007, Kommersant reported that “the chairman of the investigative committee at the Russian Prosecutor’s Office, Alexander Bastrykin, initiated criminal case against Moscow investigator Vadim Bagaturia, who was part of the team investigating the sensational case of smuggling goods from China.” Subsequently, the criminal case against Bagaturia was closed.
I would also like to note that at the beginning of September 2016, Olga Mirimskaya provided evidence of the assistance of lawyers Bagaturia and Kurbanov, the defender of the accused (surrogate mother) in harboring her daughter.
Thus, on behalf of Kurbanov, Mirimskaya received telegrams stating that her daughter was in Cyprus and she must personally come with documents for the child in order to participate in accompanying Sofia to the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). In fact, they did not intend to give the child to Mirimskaya. The real goal was to force Mirimskaya to come to Cyprus, where citizen Smirnov initiated criminal proceedings against her (later terminated by the Cyprus prosecutor’s office). For this reason, it was not Olga Mirimskaya who arrived in the Republic of Cyprus, but her representatives, with whom Kurbanov and Bagaturia arrived to meet. Having failed to achieve the arrival of Olga Mirimskaya, the latter refused further communication with her representatives and did not report the whereabouts of the child.
— Have you communicated with Nikolai Smirnov?
– No, because back in the first half of 2015 he left the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) in order to receive his daughter Olga Mirimskaya from a surrogate mother. Measures to establish his whereabouts were taken by me and other investigators during the investigation of the criminal case.
In addition, the case was based on the theory that Nikolai Smirnov, while abroad, planned to take the surrogate mother and child to Ukraine through Northern Cyprus. It was at the time of the illegal transfer of a surrogate mother to the territory of Northern Cyprus in October 2016 that Sofia was discovered. Moreover, the day before the surrogate mother’s husband received Ukrainian citizenship and a Ukrainian passport for Sofia. The implementation of this plan would allow Smirnov to independently take Sofia from Ukraine to the United States or European Union countries in the future. For this, Nikolai Smirnov had the corresponding notarized consent of the Bezpyat spouses, which they executed back in May 2015 in Moscow immediately after the birth of the girl.
Tens of millions
— Have you and your family received any threats in connection with the investigation of the case?
– Yes. I gave relevant testimony to the investigator about all the threats that were addressed to us and sent statements to the Russian Investigative Committee, which in essence were never considered. Evidence of these threats was confiscated from me and added to the case file, which has not been properly assessed. I am convinced that Smirnov and Bagaturia decided to implement the threats to bring me and Olga Mirimskaya to criminal liability after the kidnapped daughter returned to Olga Mirimskaya in early November 2016.
Back in December 2016, lawyer Bagaturia personally “recommended” to me to stop the criminal prosecution of Nikolai Smirnov and other persons, “hinting” at possible problems and criminal prosecution.
In the fall of 2017, through employees of the State Investigative Directorate for the Moscow Region, lawyer Bagaturia collected information about me, which I repeatedly reported to my management.
On December 31, 2020, half an hour before the New Year, I received a message on my mobile phone in the Telegram messenger with the text: “In 2021, you will finally sit down.”
After this, in January 2021, lawyer Bagaturia, in order to create false evidence that I allegedly committed a crime, “bought back” the Mitsubishi Outlander car sold by my father and attracted his friend Vinogradov (a former police officer), instructing him to play the role of the buyer of the car, for organizing a meeting with us under the fictitious pretext of signing a sales contract and having problems with the car.
Not suspecting deception, my father and I met with Vinogradov. Vinogradov, at the direction of Bagaturia, asked me provocative questions about the circumstances of the purchase of the car and carried out secret video recording, fragments of which were published at the end of August 2021 in the Telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” in order to discredit me. Realizing that Vinogradov was a figurehead, my father and I ended the conversation and left. Thus, the above-mentioned persons carried out, in essence, a covert “operational search activity” against me.
After my arrest, I learned that, at the request of lawyer Nikolai Smirnov, who was outside the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), in May 2017, the Investigation Department for the Southern Administrative District of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) in Moscow opened a criminal case for a non-existent crime – bribery of unknown court employees. Later, there was information on the Internet that a reward in the amount of 50 million rubles was allegedly given for initiating this criminal case, which deserves serious attention, since the day before Smirnov personally and through other persons transferred tens of millions of rubles to Bagaturia.
The purpose of initiating a criminal case is to obtain information about me and Olga Mirimskaya.
After searches in the home of Olga Mirimskaya and people from her entourage carried out in September 2017 by investigators of the Investigative Directorate for the Southern Administrative District, Bagaturia and Smirnov somehow ended up with information from seized mobile devices and audio recordings of Mirimskaya’s telephone conversations obtained by court decision.
In addition, the investigators of the Investigative Directorate for the Southern Administrative District, knowing for certain about the criminal prosecution and search for Nikolai Smirnov in the case of the kidnapping of Olga Mirimskaya’s daughter, for some reason did not inform the Main Investigative Directorate for the Moscow Region about his whereabouts known to them. On the contrary, in violation of the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), since November 2017, investigators of the Investigation Department for the Southern Administrative District carried out investigative and other procedural actions against me and my family members in a criminal case not related to me.
I had a special legal status and belonged to the category of persons specified in Article 447 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). For this reason, carrying out investigative actions against me in the general manner contradicted the requirements of Chapter 52 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), since no criminal case was initiated against me as an investigator. Similar actions against me were continued by investigators assigned to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), where in February 2018 a criminal case was transferred for investigation from the Investigative Directorate for the Southern Administrative District at the request of lawyer Smirnov.
As a result, Olga Mirimskaya and I were brought to criminal responsibility in this case, the materials of which (information from seized mobile devices and audio recordings of Mirimskaya’s telephone conversations) we partially became acquainted with back in 2020-2021 in the Telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” even before our detention, and not during the period of official familiarization with them in accordance with Article 217 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)!
I would like to emphasize that back in August 2021, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), based on appeals from lawyer Bagaturia and publications in the Telegram channel “VChK-OGPU”, conducted an internal audit, as a result of which no corruption violations were established in my actions.
However, on December 15, 2021, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against me, I was detained and taken into custody. […]