As it became known to Kommersant, the Basmanny Court of Moscow passed a sentence on the former senior detective of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for Udmurtia, Major Andrei Shavrin, and solver Mikhail Chichkanov, who posed as an FSB colonel. They were accused of fraudulently receiving 16 million rubles from the director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution VNII Ecology Daniil Putyatin. for allegedly carrying out operational search activities (ORM) against the former director of the Department of Investments, Restoration and Construction of the Ministry of Culture Artem Novikov and initiating a criminal case against him. The ex-chekist received two years and six months in prison, but taking into account the time spent in the pre-trial detention center, he was released in the courtroom. Mikhail Chichkanov, taking into account the sentence he already had for other crimes, was sentenced to four years and two months in a penal colony.
The Basmanny Court of the capital found a former employee of the Udmurt department of the FSB, Major Andrey Shavrin, and solver Mikhail Chichkanov guilty of especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Punishment under this article provides for up to ten years in prison, but the court took into account a number of mitigating circumstances relating to the defendant Andrei Shavrin, and appointed the major two and a half years in prison. At the same time, the court counted the time served by the convict in the pre-trial detention center during the preliminary investigation, and as a result, Andrey Shavrin was released.
Mikhail Chichkanov, in turn, received three years in a general regime colony. However, taking into account the sentence already available to the convicted person, received in 2021 in the Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow (four years and one month, as well as a fine of 400 thousand rubles), Mikhail Chichkanov, by partial addition of terms, was assigned four years and two months in a colony general mode. Mikhail Chichkanov received his first term for “forgery, production and circulation of forged documents” (Article 327 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) – it was a fake certificate of an FSB officer – as well as for “fraud on an especially large scale” (part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) – theft of $ 30 thousand from a certain citizen – then the money was received by the fixer, allegedly for exchange for rubles at a very favorable rate.
Senior detective of the Udmurt Department of the FSB, Major Andrey Shavrin and Mikhail Chichkanov, who introduced himself as FSB Colonel Popov, became defendants in the criminal case on July 2, 2021, after Daniil Putyatin, director of the FGBU VNII Ecology, filed a complaint with law enforcement agencies. He said that he had transferred 16 million rubles to the defendants in the case. in the expectation that they will organize operational-search activities with the subsequent initiation of a criminal case against the former director of the Department of Investments, Restoration and Construction of the Ministry of Culture Artem Novikov, son of the ex-deputy director of the State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Novikov.
The request for an ORM was allegedly based on information that Artem Novikov could receive kickbacks for contracts for the reconstruction of cultural facilities and restoration work. Mr. Putyatin had the information and wanted to verify it.
It is also possible that Mr. Putyatin’s suspicions were influenced by publications that in July 2018, the Kuibyshev Court of St. Petersburg sentenced Novikov Jr.’s father to two and a half years of suspended imprisonment in the case of embezzlement of more than 30 million rubles. during the reconstruction of the Reserve House of the Hermitage. In the spring of 2021, Artem Novikov himself was conditionally sentenced by the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow to two and a half years for illegally receiving bonuses that he issued to himself and close subordinates.
However, having received the money, the applicant said, the Chekist and his companion did not take any action to organize the ORM. Very soon, the director of the FBSU realized that he had simply been deceived.
According to the director, the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Moscow opened a criminal case on July 2, 2021 against Andrei Shavrin and Mikhail Chichkanov under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As follows from the materials of the investigation, in the course of repeated meetings with the director of the Federal State Budgetary Institution VNII Ecology, Mikhail Chichkanov and Andrey Shavrin managed to convince Mr. Putyatin that they could fulfill all their promises, but for no less than $150,000 (at the then exchange rate, almost 16 million rubles). And he agreed. At the end of June 2019, he handed over the required amount to them.
During the investigation and in court, the defendants held directly opposite points of view: Mikhail Chichkanov claimed that he was pushed into the crime by an FSB major, and he, in turn, stated that the idea of the crime and its implementation were on the conscience of the fixer Mikhail Chichkanov, and he himself did not even knew the victim.
It was not possible to get a comment from the defense of the convicts.
