“Socialist-Revolutionaries” and elections: catch, sponsor, big and small

In Perm, an interesting lawsuit ended with an amicable agreement. The deputy and his creditor reconciled. It seems to be nothing special. If not for one moment. The debt of the deputy Ilya Lisnyak was formed just at the end of the election campaign in September 2021. And the “creditor” Dmitry Otegov at that time worked in the regional Electoral Committee. “Version” decided to study what lies behind this fact, imperceptible at first glance, and what is happening in the ranks of the SRZP.

A lawsuit to the Industrial Court of Perm against a member of the Parliament of the Perm Territory from the A Just Russia – Patriots – For Truth faction Ilya Lisnyak was filed by Dmitry Otegov, a former member of the regional election commission, in November 2022. As Kommersant reported, it could have been about 5 million rubles.

Ilya Lisnyak, in an interview with a Kommersant-Prikamye correspondent, called Mr. Otegov’s lawsuit a technical issue. “These are errors and clarifications of internal calculations, a purely technical process. By mutual agreement of the parties, the issue was postponed by the court for a long time to agree on the final parameters and close the deals.” By the end of December, as Ilya Lisnyak said again, the debt had dropped to 400,000 rubles.

At a court hearing at the end of January 2023, the parties came to an amicable agreement. The deputy said that he was ready to transfer the remaining 400 thousand directly in the courtroom. The representative of the plaintiff agreed with the terms of the agreement, but noted that “the court is not the best place” for transferring money.

It would seem that everything ended to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, and there is nothing special in this matter. But one thing makes you think that the history of debt is not so simple. The fact is that Ilya Lisnyak had this debt neither earlier nor later, but in September 2021 at the end of the election campaign. And Dmitry Otegov at the same time worked in the Electoral Commission of the Perm Territory and represented the interests of the same party. We do not approve anything. But a difficult loan gave us the idea to figure out: what is going on in the ranks of the Right Russians? Looking ahead, let’s say: nothing sensational.

Reference

SRZP began its activities on August 29, 2006 as the Just Russia party, created on the basis of Motherland, the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Party of Pensioners.

In 2007-2009, the People’s Party and a number of other parties joined the Right Russians, people from the Union of Right Forces, the Liberal Democratic Party joined their ranks.

In 2012 Rodina left the united party, and later the Green Party and the Pensioners’ Party.

On February 22, 2021, A Just Russia merged with the For Truth and Patriots of Russia parties.

The merger of the three parties took place in 2021, the year of elections to the State Duma of the Russian Federation. It should be noted that in terms of the size of the electoral fund, the SRZP was second only to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and United Russia.

Sergey Mironov, who headed the SR, was elected chairman of the united SRZP, and the leaders of the other two parties, Gennady Semikin and Zakhar Prilepin, were elected co-chairs.

Number: 151.5 thousand people.

Justice from SRHR

In 2014, ex-deputy of the city council of Murmansk Tatyana Elpanova sent a letter to the leader of the “Fair Russia” Sergei Mironov. In it, she said that her fellow party members suggested that she give up her mandate in favor of a local entrepreneur, Antonina Taran, under the pretext that she “did a lot for the party” – she donated 2.4 million rubles to the SRZP. Apparently, Mironov did not respond to the appeal to him, the place had to be conceded.

There is a lot of data regarding the financing of SRHR. According to some unofficial sources, for example, in 2016, the “sponsors” of the party transferred about 1.2 billion rubles to its account. Then either the crisis affected, or the popularity is falling, but by now the annual budget for SRHR is about 500 million rubles.

Financial flows

As reported by the resource “URA.ru”, SRZP has at least seven influential sponsors. Five of them are State Duma deputies Valery Gartung, Fedot Tumusov, Gadzhimurad Omarov, Alexei Chepa and Anatoly Aksakov. In addition to them, the senator and banker Alexander Babakov is considered the largest “purse” of the party. Businessman Alexander Vorobyov also helps.

Valery Gartung ranks 97th in the ranking of the richest people in Russia. General Director of the Chelyabinsk Forging and Pressing Plant (ChKPZ). The plant’s revenue in 2018 amounted to about 9 billion rubles, net profit – about 200 million.

Fedot Tumusov earned his fortune on Yakut diamonds, being the president of the SAPI fund (Sakhaalmazprofinvest).

Alexander Babakov has long been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Tempbank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the CSKA football club. 26th place in the Russian Forbes.

Gadzhimurat Omarov is the chairman of the presidium of the autonomous non-profit organization “Center for the Protection of the Rights of Tourists” and has extensive connections with Dagestan business.

Alexey Chepa is a co-owner of the Technology Development Bank (assets – about 5 billion rubles). 23rd line in Forbes.

Anatoly Aksakov is President of the Board of the Association of Banks of Russia.

“Revolutionaries”

One of Spravoross’ biggest sponsors, Vadim Belousov, is currently on the run, avoiding a 10-year sentence for extortion and bribery.

From 2016 to 2021, the owner of the Makfa pasta factory, Vadim Belousov, was a State Duma deputy as part of the SRPZ faction. Prior to that, he was a deputy in the legislative assembly of the Chelyabinsk region. It was then that Belousov, together with his business partner Mikhail Yurevich, who became the Chelyabinsk governor, demanded that Yuzhuralavtoban monthly transfer into cash and pay the “governor’s team” 20% of the holding’s profits. The partners called their activities “road revolution”. According to investigators, up to 9 billion rubles could fall into the hands of the “revolutionaries” from the road holding. According to other sources – 3.5 billion, the rest could disperse to other interested parties. Together with them, the 80-year-old mother-in-law of Belousov, Margarita Butakova, who avoided a real term due to her advanced age, also participated in the “revolution”.

Vadim Belousov, who appeared at all meetings of the Moscow City Court, having heard that the Prosecutor General’s Office requested a sentence of 14 years in prison for him, did not appear at the last meeting and … disappeared.

In January 2023, another “right-wing Russian” distinguished himself – Alexei Mitrofanov, deputy of the Council of Deputies of the Samara Region. The deputy quarreled in a coffee shop with the Acting Minister of Property Relations of the region Igor Andreev. Opponents went to sort things out on the street. There, according to Mitrofanov, Andreev hit him in the face, after which he sprayed a gas canister. Andreev, in turn, says that he did not beat Mitrofanov, but limited himself to using a gas cartridge.

The full namesake of the Samara MP, ex-State Duma deputy Alexei Mitrofanov, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in June 2014. The reason was the prosecution in a criminal case initiated on the fact of extortion of 200 thousand dollars from businessman Vyacheslav Zharov. In the summer of that year, he left Russia.

If we take into account all the events outlined, then the court in Perm may turn out to be not just a resolution of a dispute between a creditor and a debtor who delayed the return of money, but a manifestation of well-established intra-party relations.