Former candidate for deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region Salnikov and candidate for mayor of Novosibirsk Pronichev extorted 9 million rubles from the deputy of the City Council Tarasov.
On February 8, the guilty verdict was announced to Novosibirsk journalist Nikolai Salnikov, who had gone into politics. Initially, he was charged with fraud on an especially large scale as part of an organized crime group, but in the debate, the state prosecutor decided to soften the article. The journalist extorted money from well-known people in the city, declaring that he had compromising video evidence on them. The story of a bluff for 20 million rubles is in the material of the NGS journalist.
From Success to Fiasco
The history of this high-profile criminal case began in March 2021, when journalist Nikolai Salnikov published the video “Success Story of the OPS Success” on his YouTube channel. In it, the journalist tells about the history of the sports club “Success”, the natives of which now hold positions in the city council of deputies, the Legislative Assembly and the government of the region. Nikolai Salnikov calls Success a criminal community, whose members allegedly ran racketeering in the 90s and protected the flea market along with other organized criminal groups in the city. The successes, according to Salnikov, managed not to go to jail, but to get into the highest echelons of power in the Novosibirsk region.
The investigation involves the Chairman of the Committee for Culture, Education, Science, Sports and Youth Policy of the Legislative Assembly of the NSO Veniamin Pak, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Novosibirsk Region Andrey Goncharov, the Chairman of the Novosibirsk City Council Dmitry Asantsev, as well as deputies Alexander Tarasov, Sergey Trubnikov, Alexander Bestuzhev and Dmitry Kolpakov . Details about the “Success” and its people – in the material of the NGS.
The video contained information about the conviction of Alexander Tarasov for alleged rape. It soon became clear that the last statement was unreliable, in fact, Tarasov was tried for forging documents. Salnikov publicly apologized for the mistake and deleted the first version of the video, explaining to Precedent that the video was a draft and should not have appeared on the Web yet, but his “taken away before”. In April, a journalist posted new versionshe is still on his channel (the number of views at the time of publication is over 20 thousand).
04/16/2021, ngs.ru, “A businessman and a journalist could have been detained because of a scandalous video (7 politicians are mentioned in the video)”: Nikolai Salnikov published the second and final version of the video (without information about rape) on April 9 on his Facebook page with the following caption: grown into power? Which of the werewolves in uniform protected the bandits? Will the Uspekhovskys really seize power in Novosibirsk?” […]
It was MP Oleksandr Tarasov who contacted the police after the video was published.
– Nikolai Salnikov spread false information about me and my colleagues and demanded money for the termination of his alleged journalistic activities. Acting in accordance with the requirements of the law and generally accepted standards of morality, I filed a complaint with the relevant authorities. I can’t comment on their actions, I hope for a fair and objective investigation of all the circumstances of what happened,” Alexander Tarasov commented on the NGS. — Inset K.ru
A couple of weeks later, the FSB officers detained Nikolay Salnikov and ex-candidate for mayor of Novosibirsk Sergey Pronichev on suspicion of media blackmail and fraud.
Journalist’s bluff
According to the state prosecutor in the Salnikov case, Alexander Tarasov, offended after the release of the investigation about Success, asked his friend to meet with the journalist and convince him to delete the video. Salnikov said he was ready to do this, adding that he had footage for a new video about people from Success.
– For the removal of the first investigation and the cancellation of the publication of the continuation, Salnikov asked for 20 million rubles. At the same time, the new materials filmed by the journalist did not actually exist. During the next meeting with an acquaintance of Tarasov, the journalist reduced the cost of his “services” to 9 million. The deputy agreed with the proposal, but at the same time he filed a complaint about extortion with the FSB, – Oksana Tolstykh, assistant prosecutor of the Central District, told the NGS.
Upon receiving the first tranche of 1.5 million rubles through an intermediary, Salnikov and Pronichev were detained by the security forces. According to NGS sources, Pronichev’s role was to find an intermediary to transfer the money.
Salnikov and Pronichev were put in jail. Soon, the journalist pleaded guilty to fraud on an especially large scale as part of a group of people, his case was separated into a separate proceeding. On August 12, 2021, the investigator released him under house arrest. The journalist tried to hide in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he was detained, after which he again placed in isolation.
“Shameful Mistake”
Today, February 8, the parties held a debate before the verdict was passed, journalists were not allowed into court due to coronavirus restrictions. During the judicial investigation, the state prosecutor came to the conclusion that Salnikov needs to mitigate the article from fraud to attempted fraud. The representative of the prosecutor’s office asked the court to punish the journalist in the form of 2.5 years in a penal colony with a fine of 200 thousand rubles.
– Salnikov did not have a real opportunity to bring his criminal plan to the end. In this regard, I made a motion to reclassify the article of the accusation, – commented on the decision of the NGS assistant prosecutor Oksana Tolstykh.
According to the state prosecutor, in his last word Salnikov repented of his deed, drew attention to his merits as a journalist and asked for a punishment not related to imprisonment.
– Salnikov called the deed a “shameful mistake” and drew attention to the fact that he contributed to the investigation. He also thanked the FSB officers for not allowing him to complete the criminal plan, the prosecutor’s office for concluding a pre-trial agreement. He reported that in freedom he would be more useful to society than in the colony, Tolstykh added.
The court sentenced Salnikov to two years of suspended imprisonment with a fine of 50,000 rubles. Sergei Pronichev did not admit his guilt, he is still being held in a pre-trial detention center.
Salnikov’s lawyer refused to communicate with the NGS.
Who is who
Nikolai Salnikov until 2019 worked as a journalist and presenter on the Novosibirsk TV channel OTS, in his own words, his total work experience in the media is 15 years. He quit after video messages to federal authoritiesin which he raised the problem of smoke from forest fires in Siberia.
In the fall of 2020, Salnikov ran for the Legislative Assembly of the Novosibirsk Region, but lost to the communist Yevgeny Smyshlyaev.
Sergey Pronichev
Sergey Pronichev is known not only for running for mayor of Novosibirsk in 2019. In 1984, he was appointed director of the Souvenir production association, which was subsequently divided into separate enterprises, from which the Siberian Balsam company grew. From the early 2000s until 2016, the company was engaged in the production of food products, alcohol and restaurant business. After the liquidation of Siberian Balsam, Pronichev went into the housing sector.
Subsequently, Pronichev actively engaged in the housing and communal services business, becoming the founder of several management companies associated with the MKS holding. The publication “Precedent” reportedthat back in 2016, the heads of several management companies in Novosibirsk announced an attempt to raiderly seize their business by the MKS. In particular, the executive director of the regional center “Housing and communal services. Control-Novosibirsk” in the Novosibirsk region Sergey Averyaskin called this an attempt to monopolize the market of managing organizations by Pronichev, and not always by legal methods.
The slogan of Sergei Pronichev at the election of the mayor of Novosibirsk sounded like this:
I don’t promise miracles, I guarantee order!
A week before the election, the businessman withdrew his candidacy.
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