As it became known to Kommersant, in the criminal case of a criminal group that helped applicants receive academic degrees through Voronezh State Technical University (VSTU) for bribes, a new defendant from the capital appeared. At the request of the investigation, Sergei Lukyanov, Academic Secretary of the Expert Council for Economic Sciences of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) under the Ministry of Education and Science, was placed under house arrest. This structure is responsible for scientific certification, assignment and deprivation of scientific degrees in Russia. It follows from the materials of the criminal case that it was Mr. Lukyanov who was repeatedly brought bribes from Voronezh “for general patronage”.
47-year-old academic secretary of the expert council for economic sciences of the Higher Attestation Commission Sergey Lukyanov was detained by the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow as part of a criminal investigation into bribes for obtaining academic degrees. It was initiated in June last year by the investigative department of the TFR for the Voronezh region against the chairman of the dissertation council of VSTU, 45-year-old Natalya Sirotkina, and the teacher of the department of digital and industrial economics of this educational institution, 38-year-old Elina Lubyanskaya. The first was charged with taking a bribe by a group of persons on a large scale (clauses “a” and “b” of part 5 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and her colleague was charged with mediation in bribery (part 3 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, bribery for the preparation and approval of dissertations for academic degrees at the VSTU was put on stream at the university. So, for the preparation and defense of a dissertation for the degree of candidate of economic sciences, applicants had to pay about 400 thousand rubles, and for 600 thousand rubles. they could already become doctors of economic sciences. There was also a separate fee for writing scientific articles. It varied depending on the complexity of the topic chosen by the applicant.
After the arrest, the women sent by the Leninsky District Court of Voronezh under house arrest, according to Kommersant’s information, cooperated with the investigation. In particular, Mrs. Lubyanskaya, whose preventive measure was later changed to a ban on certain actions, said that she was only an intermediary in the transfer of money from applicants to Natalya Sirotkina. In turn, the chairman of the dissertation council of VSTU told the investigation that she transferred part of the money received for the so-called general patronage to the Higher Attestation Commission, which is responsible for scientific certification, assignment and deprivation of academic degrees in Russia.
From the testimony of the accused Sirotkina, it follows that she herself repeatedly took the money to Moscow and gave it to Sergei Lukyanov.
The latter, after he was transferred to Voronezh, where the Leninsky District Court chose a measure of restraint for him in the form of house arrest (for this, lawyers, with the consent of the homeowners, rented an apartment for him), also allegedly did not deny that he received money from Natalia Sirotkina. True, he agreed to recognize as such only 2.5 million rubles found at his house during a search. However, the scientific secretary, according to Kommersant’s information, could not clarify for what exactly this money was received. It is only known that the detainee did his best to avoid calling them a bribe received for lobbying the interests of applicants for scientific degrees. Be that as it may, Mr. Lukyanov was accused of taking a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
In the near future, the investigation intends to interrogate possible bribers. The names of some of them, according to some sources, have already been named by Natalia Sirotkina herself. It is possible that Sergey Lukyanov will also complete the picture. Thus, it is possible that new detentions and arrests will follow in the resonant criminal case. Kommersant failed to get comments from Mr. Lukyanov’s lawyer. The Ministry of Education and Science “Kommersant” could not comment on the arrest of the academic secretary, referring to the fact that they did not receive information from law enforcement agencies on the merits of his criminal case.
At the same time, the department noted that the activities of the dissertation council created on the basis of VSTU, chaired by Mrs. Sirotkina, were terminated.
On October 28, 2022, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, on the basis of the recommendation of the Higher Attestation Commission, refused to issue permission to create a new dissertation council in economic sciences on the basis of the same university.
As Kommersant has already reported, in recent years, the discouncil led by the accused Sirotkina has considered, among other things, the work of high-ranking tax officials and banks from the Voronezh region and other regions, as well as officials, entrepreneurs and even defendants in criminal cases.
In 2019, 6 theses were successfully defended at VSTU, and in 2020 and 2021, 11 and 15 theses. In 2022, there are already 17 dissertations. Among those who defended their dissertations, for example, were the head of the Rostov department of the Federal Tax Service, Andrei Moiseenko, and the head of one of the inter-district inspections for the Rostov region, Tigran Dodokhyan. Also dissertators were the wife of the rector of Voronezh State University and the head of the department there Elena Endovitskaya and ex-candidate for the mayor of Voronezh and a former deputy of the local city Duma Ruslan Kochetov, who received two years in a colony-settlement at the end of last year for abuse of power (part 1 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ).