At the end of May, a member of the Novosibirsk City Council, a former candidate for mayor of the capital of Siberia, was detained and then sent to a pre-trial detention center. Igor Ukraintsev. He is accused of receiving a bribe in the amount of 3.5 million rubles (Part six of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)).
We will tell you about Igor Sergeevich himself, restore the chronology of events and suggest why a criminal case was opened against him. In addition, in this longread we will publish unpublished excerpts from a conversation with the people's representative.
Hu from Ukrainians?
Igor Ukraintsev was born on February 4, 1986 in Novosibirsk.
He graduated from the Novosibirsk State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering with a degree in Heat and Gas Supply and Ventilation and the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration with a degree in Municipal and Public Administration.
In 2011, he was elected as a deputy to the municipal council of deputies of the city of Leninsk-Kuznetsky. In 2013, he was elected to the Council of Deputies of Kuzbass in a single electoral district from the Liberal Democratic Party.
In 2017, he returned to Novosibirsk, left the LDPR and headed a public club group of companies “Strizhi”. In 2018, he created the “Green Squad” volunteer squad. In 2019, he became chairman of the Novosibirsk branch of the environmental party “Greens”. In 2020, he received the position of Director for Development of Social Projects of the Strizhi Group of Companies.
Since 2020, he has been an independent deputy of the Novosibirsk City Council in single-mandate electoral district No. 11. You can learn more about his life path from interviewtaken by journalist Babr.
Attempt to lead Novosibirsk
Direct elections for the mayor of Novosibirsk were canceled in April 2023. It was decided that the city manager should be selected by a special commission consisting of four people from the city council and four people from the governor.
At the end of 2023, a communist left the post of mayor Anatoly Lokotappointed acting Oleg Klemeshov.
The first stage of the competition for the post of mayor took place on April 4, 2024, where it was necessary to pass a test. Of the 17 candidates, two remained – Maxim Kudryavtsev and Igor Ukraintsev. To a question from journalist Babr “Why did you decide to participate in the competition?” The city council member responded:
In the second stage, which took place on April 16, it was necessary to present a city development program and pass an interview. Kudryavtsev, who was supported by the governor of the Novosibirsk region Andrey Travnikov, scored more points and became the head of the capital of Siberia. And Ukrainians… More on this below.
CHBD (what happened next?)
Then the story developed quite sadly. On May 25, 2024, it became known that Igor Sergeevich decided to leave the post of chairman of the regional branch of the Green party. He explained it this way:
Five days later, May 30, Ukraintsev was detained.
On May 31, the Central District Court of Novosibirsk sent Igor Sergeevich to a pre-trial detention center until July 29. The prosecutor's office reported that from September 2022 to January 2023, the deputy, being an official, received money from the head of a construction company for lobbying the interests of his company in the city council. In total, the people's choice allegedly received 3.5 million rubles. The press release of the Investigative Committee, however, differs from the press release of the prosecutor's office in the following detail:
The briber and applicant, as it turned out, was the owner of the Strizhi Group of Companies. Igor Belokobylsky.
Immediately after the arrest of Igor Sergeevich, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly Ilya Polyakov, who also owned the Strizhi Group of Companies, stated that the case was initiated on the basis of a false denunciation. In 2022, he and Belokobylsky started the business. The ex-partners agreed that Swifts would continue to pay individual entrepreneur Ukraintsev (TIN 540697803345) for organizing public events until March 2023. Before the dissolution of the Group of Companies, Ukraintsev was there as the director for the development of social projects, as we have already said above.
That is, if you believe Polyakov, the money received by Ukraintsev from September 2022 to January 2023 is not a bribe, but payment for services. Igor Sergeevich produced printed materials for Swifts, hired animators and artists.
Polyakov also called the “false denunciation” against his comrade Ukraintsev revenge for criticizing the Strizhi Group of Companies, which dumped wastewater into Lake Zhemchuzhina of Siberia. The purpose of the denunciation, the deputy of the Legislative Assembly assures, is to prevent Igor Sergeevich from participating in the 2025 elections.
Pearl of Siberia
On the eve of the mayoral election, our journalist interviewed Igor Sergeevich (link above). It was not possible to publish the entire conversation then.
In particular, the interviewer asked Ukraintsev to talk about the situation with Lake Pearl of Siberia. Earlier, we note, a rally was held to protect a water body in the Zaeltsovsky district of Novosibirsk from the discharge of wastewater from the construction site of the Novella residential complex. The organizers of the meeting were Ukraintsev and his colleague on the City Council Ekaterina Shalimova
(both he and she are members of the “League of Efficiency” parliamentary association).
First, the mayoral candidate described the lake itself:
The interviewee then moved on to the problem itself:
Group of Companies “Strizhi” described Ukraintsev as follows:
Was there a bribe?
Of course, we cannot answer this question unambiguously. On June 4, 2023, a video interview with Belokobylsky appeared in the VKontakte group “Novosibirsk 24/7”.
He immediately admitted, saying, yes, it was I who wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee against Igor Sergeevich in May. According to him, it was like this: when the Swifts Group of Companies was divided, Ukraintsev left along with Polyakov, but his, Belokobylsky’s, companies continued to pay the deputy until March 2023 “for the services that he, in his status, should provide to our company.” The interviewee then refers to this money as a “bribe.” Once firms stop paying, Ukrainians begin to criticize the Swifts Group of Companies.
But there is, in other words, the deputy had previously lobbied for the interests of the company for a bribe, and everyone was happy with everything. But after cutting up the business with Polyakov and Ukraintsev’s departure, Belokobylsky decided to get rid of his man on the city council… Something definitely doesn’t add up here.
Firstly, the press release from the prosecutor’s office states that the “bribes” fell into Ukraintsev’s accounts until January 2023, and Belokobylsky claims that until March of the same year.
Secondly, Ukraintsev may be an official (a member of the standing committees on urban management and on monitoring the execution by local governments and their officials of powers to resolve issues of local importance), but, of course, he has little power.
Thirdly, Igor Sergeevich is a deputy from single-mandate district No. 11, which includes the Zaeltsovsky district. He simply could not help but respond to the complaints of his voters who were worried about the purity of the Pearl of Siberia.
We think everything is much simpler than it seems. Probably, the Strizhi Group of Companies wanted to continue polluting water bodies, and Ukraintsev and his comrade-in-arms were greatly in the way. So Belokobylsky came up with the idea of bribes. He did not limit himself to one deputy – he wants to sue Shalimova as well.