Judge’s Gambit
Last week, a criminal case of commercial bribery was opened against a judge of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court Vyacheslav Emelyanova, based on events that occurred back in 2020, was brought to court. At the same time, the accused himself does not admit his guilt, considering it to be fabricated from beginning to end.
Life was divided into “before” and “after” for Emelyanov on May 29, 2020, when on a warm spring morning, state security officers entered his office and demanded to show his hands for examination. A special device showed that the judge’s palms were stained with a special powder that glowed under ultraviolet radiation. However, no traces of a special substance were found on the fingers. In the judge’s safe, investigators found envelopes in which, as it later turned out, he kept salary money from the accounting department – the amounts were insignificant, but the bills in one of them also “shone”: the total value of the marked banknotes was 100 thousand rubles…
The examination of the office lasted more than 6 hours. According to Emelyanov, the senior operative of the group sent photocopies of the protocols to someone four times, and after consultations over the phone, he made changes to them. The law enforcement officer did not ask the question of how he picked up banknotes if only his palms were dirty…
Typically, in such cases, forensic scientists take sections of the suspects’ nail plates. But this time the operatives didn’t bother: if the fingertips are “clean”, why do the lawyers need additional arguments!?
It is interesting that no traces of luminous powder were found anywhere else – neither in the judge’s office nor in the judge’s personal car. A search in the apartment also did not produce results… However, Emelyanov was informed that he was suspected of commercial bribery, and operatives told reporters that several signed envelopes were found in the judge’s safe, some containing money…
The scheme of the crime, according to investigators, looked like this: allegedly a certain businessman – director of the Group of Companies LLC “Razvitie” Frankel I asked my friend Myshalova “exits” to the management of the largest city water supply organization, since he needed to connect his property to the centralized water supply system. Having agreed to help, Myshalov, in turn, contacted Judge Emelyanov, who knew the deputy head of Vodokanal well. Kadushkina. After this, Myshalov informed Frankel that the “service” would cost him two and a half million rubles. Frankel did not like the amount, and he reported to the authorities that money was being extorted from him.
In fact, in such cases, operatives, for “the purpose of conducting operational investigative measures,” must supply the applicant with banknotes marked with special means. But this time, for some reason, they invited Frankel to find the necessary cash himself, which they marked with a special product called Mascara-7. It is worth clarifying here that the composition of such a powder for each such operation is unique, marked, and the sample used in a particular special operation is sealed and stored in a certain place… It is interesting that Emelyanov had on his hands (remember, this happened in May 2020) a remedy was found applied to money (belonging to Frankel), which was allegedly transferred to them in October 2019. Then none of the participants in the “scheme” were detained: the operatives “continued surveillance,” and only after Frankel contacted the “authorities” for the second time, in May 2020, did the arrests begin…
Today, criminal cases brought against judges, high-ranking officials and law enforcement officers will not surprise anyone. But, nevertheless, this story stands out from the general series. Despite the fact that Myshalov and Kadushkin, after their arrest, testified that the mediator between them was Judge Emelyanov, who allegedly took the lion’s share for himself – 1 million 850 thousand rubles, the number of inconsistencies and absurdities leaves many questions for the investigation…
The envelopes were returned, but the sediment remained…
Let’s start with the fact that this “corruption story” has nothing to do with the professional activities of Vyacheslav Emelyanov, although, you see, the person holding the position of judge of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court had more than enough opportunities to be “corrupt” in his “main job”. But over many years of work, Emelyanov never came under suspicion – no one doubted the fairness and legality of the decisions he made. This is evidenced by numerous characteristics, which, however, did not save him from criminal prosecution… But why would a judge with a good reputation participate in some dubious commercial scams?
Let’s assume that a judge who had not previously been seen to be biased or greedy one day decided to take advantage of his contacts and “make easy money” by acting as an intermediary in a criminal scheme to bribe an official at Vodokanal. At the same time, the “immodesty” of the appetites of the alleged intermediary is striking: for a trifling service – just transferring money from one person to another 1,850 thousand, almost three-quarters of the total amount… And this is still inaccurate: in the protocol of the confrontation between Myshalov and Frankel there are discrepancies . Myshalov says that Frankel gave him two million, Frankel insiststhat two and a half…
If, for example, you believe Myshalov, it turns out that Emelyanov took almost all the money for himself, leaving the rest of the participants in the “scheme” with a penny gain.


“Glowing powder” also raises many questions. The photographs clearly show that only the suspect’s palms are stained with it. The question arises: how did he pick up and count the bills if his fingertips were clean? Why are there no traces of powder on any of Emelyanov’s things, car or apartment? After all, only a small part of the “marked” money was found in the safe. And most importantly, seven months have passed since the powder was applied to the banknotes. How could it survive on banknotes, and even more so on the hands of our “person of interest”, if it lasts on paper for a couple of months at most, and you just need to wash your hands a couple of times with soap and there will be no traces of it?

Envelopes that were removed from the safe as “material evidence”, and then were not included in the case and were returned to Emelyanov.
The origin of the remaining envelopes from the accounting department, stored in Emelyanov’s safe, is explained simply: like many other judges, he received his salary in cash, in order to avoid provocations – finding out the plastic card number and “putting” money on it is now as easy as shelling pears – then prove that this is not a bribe… By the way, “salary”, non-luminous money was also confiscated. The investigator returned only empty envelopes to Vyacheslav Emelyanov, as “irrelevant to the case.” And this also raises the question: why are the envelopes not relevant, but the bills that did not emit any “glow” that were stored in them are? In a word, the envelopes were dealt with, but the “sediment”, as in that joke about spoons, remained…

One for all and each for himself?
Vyacheslav Emelyanov believes that an organized, but not fully thought-out operation was carried out against him. In his opinion, the nature of the traces of luminous paint on his hands may indicate that the door handle was smeared with it, and this was done in a hurry; it was processed only from the outside – that is why there were no traces left on the fingers.
It should be noted that a special brush is used to apply special products, and it is really problematic for it to apply powder to hard-to-reach surfaces of objects…

But what about the banknotes in the envelope? According to Emelyanov, an envelope with marked money could simply have been thrown into his safe on the eve of May 29, 2020 and also replaced. Access to the keys to his office and safe was also available to Oleg Rakshov– Deputy Chairman of the Regional Court in charge of administrative and economic issues.
It is worth noting that then, at the height of the pandemic, the regional court, as well as other government institutions, worked on a special schedule. On May 28, that is, on the eve of the search in his office, Emelyanov, like the majority of the judges on his panel, was absent from his workplace.
The courthouse was practically empty, but for some reason the surveillance cameras in the deserted corridors were turned off. So, it is not possible to verify Emelyanov’s version. But aren’t there a lot of strange coincidences?
The manner in which “justice” is administered in this criminal case also causes some astonishment. The scheme “drawn” by the investigation seems to be clear and simple: businessman Frankel is looking for ways to quickly and easily connect an apartment building to the water supply, and asks Myshalov to help him. He turns to his good friend Judge Emelyanov (in their youth they trained together in the martial arts section). Vyacheslav Emelyanov, in turn, is familiar with Kadushkin, who, as deputy head of the Kraskom company, can resolve this issue. Further along the chain money is transferred… It would seem that here it is, an “organized criminal group”, take everyone “lukewarmly” and send them to the dock. But the investigation is acting strangely and illogically: no one is detained red-handed when handing over money, only Myshalov and Kadushkin are sent to pre-trial detention, who at first do not confess to anything, and then suddenly agree to “cooperate with the investigation.”
Unfortunately, in practice, a “pre-trial agreement with the investigation” does not always help justice. Often this term means not so much the suspect’s help in establishing the truth, but rather his willingness to adjust his testimony to the version that the investigator has already built…
Be that as it may, both Myshalov and Kadushkin testified against Emelyanov, and both have already been sentenced – one to three years probation, the other was given eight years, despite all the “pre-trial agreements” and “active cooperation.” But this is not the strange thing – Emelyanov was not involved in the criminal cases of Myshalov and Kadushkin. He was not even interrogated – neither as an accomplice, nor even as a witness… How this can be is unclear, but it is a fact. All requests and demands of Vyacheslav Emelyanov to interrogate him in these criminal cases, to conduct confrontations, to get acquainted with the criminal cases of people who allegedly participated in the same “corruption scheme” with him, are followed by a stereotypical refusal, which is motivated by the fact that Emelyanov “is not a defendant these criminal cases.” There are no materials on the website of the Central District Court of Krasnoyarsk.
The reason that each “person involved” is being tried separately, according to Emelyanov, lies in the fact that if the case had been considered as it should be, in the aggregate, it would have fallen apart at the first stage due to a number of absurdities and inconsistencies. Now, when two people have already received sentences for this episode, the fact of the crime has been established by justice, and Emelyanov’s guilt does not seem to require any special evidence… It’s a completely working version.
It is interesting that the businessman Frankel, from whom they allegedly demanded money to “resolve the issue” of connecting his house to water supply networks, also seems to be in no way included in the case, although, logically, he should have been recognized as a victim.
By the way, it seems that no one has yet returned the money that he handed over to the authorities to carry out investigative actions. So, from whom Frankel actually “suffered” is a big question.
A signature whose word was taken
But this is not all the “strangeness” of the criminal case about “commercial bribery.” The fact is that it is not so easy to initiate a criminal case against a judge, especially one occupying a fairly high position. To do this, the investigation must receive the go-ahead from the High Qualification Board of Judges of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), and the corresponding resolution to initiate a criminal case must in this case be signed by the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) Alexander Bastrykin…
And there is such a resolution to initiate a criminal case in Emelyanov’s case. But the signature of the head of the Russian Investigative Committee under this document is noticeably different from the other “autographs” of Alexander Ivanovich. Finding them on the Internet is not difficult…

Having sent the signature of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) under the resolution to initiate a criminal case for an independent examination, Vyacheslav Emelyanov received a conclusion that there is a high probability that the signature in the resolution to initiate a criminal case against Emelyanov on behalf of A.I. Bastrykin was made by another person, and this “other person” most likely tried to imitate the signature of A.I. Bastrykin. Emelyanov presented the expert’s conclusion to the court and filed a motion asking that an investigation be ordered into this fact. But he was refused…
“At first glance, this may seem absurd,” says Vyacheslav Emelyanov. “Will someone really have the courage, or rather the audacity, to forge the signature of the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)!?” But on the other hand, why not… The calculation was precisely that no one would dare to double-check with Bastrykin himself the authenticity of the signature.
In any case, the court could order a forensic examination, make a request to the office of the Central Office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), and finally find out whether the outgoing document on which there is a signature that raises doubt is registered there…
At the same time, the representative of the prosecutor’s office Snezhana Keidan She did not give any arguments to refute the conclusions of the conclusion, she simply stated that “the resolution was signed by the appropriate official” and period! Judge of the Central District Stanislav Buzuk The request for additional verification of the authenticity of A.I. Bastrykin’s signature, at the request of the defense, was rejected. But during the court hearing, in fact, it was stated that an official crime may have been committed – forgery, moreover, in relation to a person holding a high government position. And this statement was made with reference to an expert opinion, by a person who, most recently, was a judge of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court, conducted trials and made decisions in the name of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), including considering cases containing state secrets, which means he was accustomed to answering for his words … It turns out that an unfounded statement is stronger than the opinion of experts!?
I don’t think that it was so difficult for the court to verify his doubts about the authenticity of A.I. Bastrykin’s signature. To do this, you don’t even need to carry out any repeated examinations: it is quite possible that the head of the Investigative Committee’s hand simply trembled at the moment of signing, so the signature is different from the usual… Judge Buzuk only had to make a request to the office of the Central Apparatus of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), and make sure that such a document exists in nature. But he didn’t do this…
Why? In a word, a lot of questions have accumulated in the criminal case of ex-judge Vyacheslav Anatolyevich Emelyanov, and the investigation seems to be in no hurry to find answers to them.
Was it like that or wasn’t it?
If, taking into account all the inconsistencies, we accept as the working version that Emelyanov was “framed”, the question arises: who needed this and why?
Before becoming a judge, Rakshov managed to rise to the rank of state security major.
“My situation” certainly cast a shadow on the reputation of the entire court. But, as you can see, “it didn’t happen.” In 2023, Rakshov resigned “honorably”; before that, in 2022, he was not reassigned to the position of deputy… It is clear that now his powers are no longer what they were before…
These matches require qualified checks.
This, I emphasize, is Vyacheslav Emelyanov’s version. There may be others – any judge will have many ill-wishers who are ready, if the opportunity arises, to put him behind bars.
If we still agree with the position of the investigation, which insists that the judge Emelyanov took part in the scheme to transfer money from the businessman Frankel to the deputy director of the water supply company Kraskom Kadushkin, then what about the following questions:
2. If Emelyanov picked up marked bills, why doesn’t he have special luminous paint on his fingers?
3. And the next question, which follows from the second: why didn’t criminologists, as is the norm in such cases, make sections of Emelyanov’s nail plates?
4. How did the luminous composition persist for seven months on banknotes and, especially on Emelyanov’s hands? Is this possible in principle?
5. Why, during the search of the judge’s office, except for banknotes and Emelyanov’s hands, no special equipment was found anywhere? Why weren’t any traces of powder found in the judge’s car or home?
6. Why weren’t the surveillance cameras working in the regional court on the eve of the operatives’ visit?
7. Why were traces of powder and marked money found only in Judge Emelyanov’s office?
8. Why are participants in the same group crime tried separately, while Emelyanov is not given the opportunity to get acquainted with the cases of his alleged “accomplices”?
9. Why is businessman Frankel, from whom money was extorted, not recognized as a victim in any case?
10. Why do the defendants name different amounts of money intended for commercial bribery, and where did most of the marked banknotes go?
11. And finally, why do the prosecutor’s office and the court, despite the conclusions of the examination, refuse to re-check the authenticity of the signature of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) A.I. Bastrykin?
Whether someone wants it or not, they will have to look for answers…