The new leadership of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf went to jail after Valery Rukhledev

Quiet circuits

The security forces had another round of questions regarding real estate transactions that belonged to the oldest organization of disabled people in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Since 2016, Our Version has been studying the schemes of the now former VOG president Valeria Rukhledeva. It appears that the sale of property at a reduced price continued after he heard the verdict. The new criminal case promises to be no less high-profile.

On February 20, the All-Russian Society of the Deaf announced the detention of its leader Stanislava Ivanov. A message appeared on the official website of VOG that this happened “in accordance with the decision of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)”.

Law enforcement officers came at a good moment: on this day at 11 am, a meeting began at the VOG office on 1905 Street in Moscow, which was attended by the heads of the organization’s regional branches. The security forces took about 20 people out of the hall, after interrogation, some of the detainees were released, while others were left in the temporary detention center – later the court decided to place them in a pre-trial detention center. Let us note that the FOG did not specify the reason for initiating a criminal case, but it is most likely related to the sale of supposedly “non-core” assets of the organization at a reduced price.

If you believe the sources, we are talking about real estate in Vologda, Kazan, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk and the Kaliningrad region. According to media reports, the investigation estimates the damage caused to the All-Russian Society of the Deaf at 217 million rubles.

Rukhledev sits, Rukhledevism lives…

But not even a year has passed since the previous head of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, Valery Rukhledev, received a real sentence for multimillion-dollar embezzlement (Article 160, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)). A criminal case against him under Art. 159 part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) (fraud on an especially large scale) was initiated back in 2018, later the charge was reclassified, and in March 2023, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow sentenced him to seven years in prison. For the company with Rukhledev, two more defendants received prison sentences – the former chief lawyer of VOG Evgeniy Novoseltsev (6.5 years) and former head of finance Tatyana Zembatova (4.5 years). The investigation estimated the amount of damage caused at 320 million rubles. Read more about this on our website in a series of articles “How to do business with people with disabilities”.

It turns out that the current leadership (and Stanislav Ivanov has held the post of president of VOG since 2020) has not learned any lessons from the inglorious end of the career of the previous leader? Or did the long-term corruption inertia in the organization turn out to be too strong to resist, and so they went downhill? Or, perhaps, they hoped that after Rukhledev’s imprisonment, the security forces would consider their duty accomplished and would bypass the new leadership with their attention?

Be that as it may, the facts remain facts: the leapfrog with real estate belonging to the All-Russian Society of the Deaf continued under the new leadership. So, in May 2023, a scandalous situation arose in Ryazan, where VOG intended to sell a complex of buildings on the street. Stroiteley, 17 built in 1964. The organization then explained that “according to the documents, the service life of these buildings has expired.”

They seemed to intend to buy a new building to replace the old one, but the scandal arose due to the fact that the complex put up for sale housed a sewing production facility where disabled people worked, as well as a dormitory in which they lived. From a comment on the VOG website it became known that the organization intended to create its own sewing production in Ryazan – in the very new building that it was supposed to buy, and to attract seamstresses with hearing impairments to cooperate. Frankly, this looks like a clumsy attempt to eliminate a competitor. How this murky story ended (and whether it ended?) is still unclear.

And in the summer of 2023, in Yekaterinburg, the three-story building of the House of Culture of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf at the address: Separate Lane, 5 was demolished. As local journalists found out, in December 2022, this object was sold to a certain individual with a mortgage. The new owner, without thinking twice, sent a notice to the Yekaterinburg mayor’s office about the demolition of the cultural center building. It is expected that a multi-storey residential building will appear on this site.

We have given just a couple of examples of dubious, in our opinion, transactions with the assets of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf. It would be interesting to know on what grounds the organization’s management considered these real estate objects to be “non-core”? Maybe people with hearing impairments do not need either a cultural center or a dormitory? The investigation, most likely, has questions regarding real estate properties located in other regions, in addition to those already mentioned.

Yes, lawyer Nina Romanovich, questioned by investigators as a witness, told Izvestia that the interest of law enforcement officers is related to “real estate objects alienated by society.” Another such facility is the House of Culture for the Deaf in Kolomna, Moscow Region, she specified. Another source explained to the publication that we could also be talking about the Moscow Theater of Facial Expression and Gesture. It seems that law enforcement officers have really accumulated a lot of questions for the leadership of the Vog.

According to the same Nina Romanovich, the mass detention of the VOG leadership may also be related to the harassment of athletes who compete under the auspices of the organization at international competitions for people with hearing impairments. As the lawyer explained, disabled athletes allegedly “they were forced to pay for participation in sports tournaments and so that their sports career did not end in an instant”. According to her, “the money was given to the coach, and he carried it further”and in case of refusal, the athletes were threatened to be removed from the national team list and deprived of their scholarships.

It is appropriate to assume that if the athletes’ complaints referred to by Nina Romanovich are confirmed, this may serve as the basis for initiating a separate criminal case. But so far, as far as we understand, the main attention of the investigation is focused specifically on the “schemes” with VOG real estate in the regions.

Speed ​​up the deadline…

Meanwhile, the ex-president of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, Valery Rukhledev, and his accomplices Novoseltsev and Zembatova, it seems, have not accepted the court’s verdict. In the file of the courts of general jurisdiction of the city of Moscow there is information that the verdict of the Khamovnichesky Court of March 22, 2023 was appealed by them. The appellate court issued a ruling on February 1, but neither the verdict nor the appeal ruling were published. However, given the evidence of the accusation, the maximum that one could count on here is a slight reduction in the term of imprisonment, taking into account Rukhledev’s advanced age (he is 79 years old).

In general, it turns out to be some kind of unhealthy gimmick: before the law enforcement agencies had time to imprison the previous leadership of VOG for fraud, the next boss is already on the way. It seems that bosses simply don’t hear calls to stop doing business with people with disabilities, although, let us repeat, we are talking about the oldest of such organizations in our country – VOG was founded in 1926. Judging by information in open sources, its structure includes (or until recently included) 35 social rehabilitation enterprises, 52 regional and 182 local social and cultural institutions, the Mayak sanatorium and resort institution in Sochi, other recreation centers and tourism throughout the country. The activities of VOG affect at least 100 thousand people throughout Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), 95% of whom are hearing impaired.

To be fair, we note that some commentators connect what is happening with the alleged reduction in budget funding for VOG – they say that the company’s management had to sell objects in order to make ends meet. How fair this opinion is can only be determined by the court, which will appoint an appropriate examination for each of the transactions. But what to do if it turns out that VOG really did not have enough money to conduct its core activities, but at the same time the objects were still sold at a reduced price?

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