The general director of Lenfilm, Fyodor Shcherbakov, could have been put on the criminal wanted list due to the fact that the owners and administrators of the Nebrekhnya Telegram channel testified against him, reported RBC with reference to the source. According to the publication, Shcherbakov is considered an informal curator of a number of Telegram channels.
February 19 Shcherbakov was put on the wanted list under the criminal article, under which – the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not specify. In the press service of the film studio TASS reportedthat it works as usual and does not comment on information about this. Shcherbakov’s adviser Yulia Fotchenko added in a comment to RBC that there is no official information about the search and its reasons. According to her, Shcherbakov is on vacation until February 29. His duties are temporarily performed by Deputy General Director for Security Alexey Tratnikov.
TASS with reference to sources in law enforcement agencies, he wrote that Shcherbakov is wanted in the case of extortion from the director for special assignments of Rostec. Vasily Brovko. “Investigators want to check the head of Lenfilm for Shcherbakov’s possible involvement in this crime,” the agency’s interlocutor said, without specifying other details or naming Shcherbakov’s status in this case. According to FontankaShcherbakov walks along it as a witness.
On October 27, 2023, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Shcherbakov’s business partner Anton Safonov, wrote TASS with reference to the press service of the court. He was arrested in the case of extorting more than 2 million rubles from Brovko, the court clarified. Safonov’s lawyer Vladimir Slashchev then said that his client does not admit guilt. He added that Safonov provides PR services to build reputation and, for a fee, organizes the placement of materials in the media and Telegram channels. “But Safonov did not have the opportunity to influence this or that content of publications, since this content was agreed upon in advance with the customer. And my client did not demand any of the 2 million rubles that appear in the case,” Slashchev emphasized. At the same time, he noted that Shcherbakov did not appear in the materials of the criminal case that he had read earlier. “The investigation continues, perhaps later he will appear in some status in the case materials,” Slashchev added.
TASS, with reference to the case materials, wrote that Safonov and another defendant, Stanislav Deineko, allegedly demanded money from Brovko for refusing to publish information compromising the top manager of the state corporation on the Nebrekhnya Telegram channel.
@vchkogpu, 11/17/2023 11:31: As it became known to the Cheka-OGPU, investigators brought charges of three counts of extortion against the CEO of Digital Soft, Anton Safonov. The materials claim that he managed four telegram channels: “Provisional Government”, “Nebrehnya”, “New Sincerity” and PZDC. Money was allegedly extorted for blocks from Rostec director Vasily Brovko and head of Rosseti Andrey Ryumin. The most remarkable thing is that the materials claim that the real beneficiary of these channels is Safonov’s senior partner in the media business, Fyodor Shcherbakov (the second co-founder of Digital Soft). Shcherbakov is a former employee of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), who now holds the position of head of Lenfilm. At the time of Safonov’s arrest, he was outside the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and has not yet returned.
However, Safonov himself categorically denies guilt. According to his version, he never had anything to do with the channels, he was engaged in PR and placed commercial posts in the channels within the framework of official contracts with clients. It is worth noting that after the arrest of Safonov, these channels continued to work and only the “Provisional Government” on November 3 posted a post with apologies to Brovko, Ryumin and a number of officials and ceased to function. A source from the Cheka-OGPU, which is actually related to the management of the “Provisional Government,” said that the channel’s team had nothing to do with the apology, but they appeared when, after the operational operation, control of the channel was transferred to unknown persons, apparently close to Brovko. — Insert K.ru
According to information on the film studio’s website, Shcherbakov headed Lenfilm on September 8, 2020; before that, he worked in the government apparatus and in the presidential administration, was press secretary of the presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District and served as vice-governor of the Volgograd region. In addition, he is the founder and CEO of the communications holding 1MI (1st MediaInvestment), founded in 2016. It includes the federal publications “New Izvestia”, “Agroinvestor”, “Oil and Capital”, as well as regional media.
URA.ru, 02/19/2024, “The departure of media manager Shcherbakov was linked to the presidential elections”: Fedor Shcherbakov is the general director of the 1MI media holding, which includes media at the federal (for example, Novye Izvestia) and regional (including Tagil City, Our City, About Perm, 24 sites in total). Geography from Petrozavodsk to Vladivostok. There are also industry media “Oil Capital” and “Agroinvestor”. According to Liveinternet, the total audience of all the holding’s resources over the past month amounted to 19.6 million (17th place in the “News and Media” category). […] In addition to the media, Shcherbakov controls several large public organizations. The agency’s interlocutors suggested that among them could be the telegram channels “Nebrekhnya” (95+ thousand subscribers), “Provisional Government” (54+ thousand subscribers) and even “Media Russia (*aggressor country) is not Moscow” (3.5+ million subscribers) . […] According to URA.RU sources, Shcherbakov could leave for Turkey in the fall of 2023, since he allegedly faced criminal prosecution after the media manager’s business partner Anton Safonov (together with Shcherbakov) was detained for extorting Rostec top manager Vasily Brovko co-founder of Digital Soft LLC). […]
This is not the first scandal that Shcherbakov has gotten into. From 2010 to 2011 he was the vice-governor of the Volgograd region and, according to V1.RU dataappeared in a high-profile story: Shcherbakov was fired “for lack of proper control over the work of the departments under his supervision, which resulted in a series of corruption-related violations.” […] Kommersant wrote, that questions from law enforcement agencies were raised by the story of fireworks during the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in Volgograd. According to preliminary data, the fireworks display was organized by the Volgograd company “Piromir” at the expense of the budget. However, at the same time, Tatiana Dvornikova’s company, Event Team, received payment from the regional investment and development agency for the same service. According to the publication, citing local media, Shcherbakov introduced Dvornikova at public events as his “best friend.” — Insert K.ru
This is not the first case of extortion from Brovko. In May 2023, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow sentenced the owners and administrators of the Project Scanner and Riddle Telegram channels Evgeny Moskvin, Alexey Slobodenyuk and Vladislav Malushenko to eight years in a maximum security colony in the case of extortion from Brovko and his wife, TV presenter Tina Kandelaki. In addition, the defendants will have to pay a fine of 500,000 rubles. All three were found guilty of extortion committed by an organized group of persons (clause “a”, part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code), they admitted guilt. According to the case file, in 2020 the defendants teamed up and published articles about Brovko and Kandelaki, “negatively covering their work and personal lives.” After that, they demanded 470,000 rubles from Brovko for deleting the posts, and otherwise they threatened to post new data discrediting him and his wife, reported the press service of the Moscow courts.
