In the Central District Court of Sochi, the inspection of the special commission of the Krasnodar Regional Court and the Council of Judges of the Kuban continues, which has already cost four “servants of Themis” their robes: Valery Sluka And Ruslan Taigibov lost their powers and qualification class due to committing a disciplinary offense, and the chairman of the court Vladimir Bakhmetyev and the judge Vladislav Vlasenko chose to voluntarily resign. The reason was the identification during the work of the commission of about 200 illegal decisions related to land plots that were in municipal and state ownership, as well as the legalization of unauthorized construction. In particular, Judge Vlasenko authorized the “transformation” of the 15-story Volna Hotel in the Adler district into an apartment complex, which is actually a multi-apartment residential building without the required social infrastructure. Vladislav Vlasenko is the son-in-law of the former Prosecutor General, the current plenipotentiary representative in the Southern Federal District Vladimir Ustinov; his wife Irina Vlasenko in December last year she was appointed to the post of chairman of the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi. Vlasenko himself previously held the position of prosecutor of the Central District, where he worked together with Vadim Orekhov, in 2010 he became a judge at the Central District Court, where he has been acting chairman since last July. Thanks to the court decision made by Vlasenko, the Orekhov family received a lease of a land plot owned by the municipality in the Khostinsky district with an area of more than 600 square meters, which was then registered as their property. However, unlike his colleague, Orekhov was not dismissed, and the land history did not entail disciplinary action and the return of the land to the ownership of the mayor’s office. Officials of the Sochi administration regularly refuse to appeal illegal decisions made in the Central District Court, which may indicate both corrupt ties between the mayor of Kopaygorodsky’s team and representatives of the judiciary, as well as the interest of high-ranking prosecutors in land and real estate schemes.
Large-scale “cleansing” in the Sochi court
The recent personnel purge at the Central District Court of Sochi had the effect of a bomb exploding. Let us remind you: in a short period of time, four “servants of Themis” said goodbye to their positions. Authority Valeria Sluki And Ruslana Taigibova were discontinued “in connection with the commission of a disciplinary offense,” and both lost their qualification class. Chairman of the court Vladimir Bakhmetyev and the judge Vladislav Vlasenko did not wait for a similar decision to be made against them, leaving for resignation at your own request.
The reason for such radical measures was the results of the work of a special commissions Krasnodar Regional Court and the Council of Judges of the Kuban, created as a result of numerous appeals from citizens sent to a variety of authorities, including the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). As a result, it was possible to identify about 200 illegal solutions on disputes related to real estate and land plots, including those in municipal and state ownership, as well as the legalization of unauthorized buildings.
“During the inspection carried out in the Central District Court, we were shocked by the number of satisfied claims for the transfer of state and municipal land into private hands, as well as the legalization of unauthorized construction… The commission identified about 200 decisions that cast doubt on their legality and validity. More than 120 of them have already been canceled by the appellate court, the rest are under consideration. The most striking thing is that not a single one of these decisions had been appealed by that time.”– told “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” Chairman of the Council of Judges of the Krasnodar Territory Vladimir Kislyak.
The publication leads curious examplewhen, with the “light hand” of judge Vladislav Vlasenko, a 15-story hotel “Wave” in the Adler district with an area of more than 26 thousand square meters has turned into an apartment complex of 562 independent objects, and real estate is actively being sold, despite the lack of the necessary social infrastructure – a clinic, a kindergarten, etc. With a statement regarding the owner, who is JSC “Volna Resort and SPA”,contacted two individuals who referred to purchase and sale agreements for two hotel rooms and sought transfer to them “real estate objects”.
As a result, Judge Vlasenko, in the absence of objections from the defendant and ignoring the fact that the claim was filed not at the location of “Volna” (located, we recall, in the Adler region), not only satisfied the demands, but also obliged the company to divide the building into 562 objects, and Rosreestr – to enter them into the cadastral register of real estate. Thus, the owner of the hotel, without the necessary approvals and execution of permitting documentation, carried out its reconstruction, increasing the area, and to simplify the procedure for state registration and putting the facility into operation, initiated proceedings under the pretext of restoring the rights of third parties.
“For the Central District Court of Sochi, such a practice has become a common occurrence. Here they found support from citizens who, without permits and design documentation, carried out the construction of various objects (residential and guest houses, hotels, shopping pavilions). And those who want to get a plot of land they like too”– states “Russian newspaper”.
Corruption interests of “Kopaigorodsky’s team”
It is worth recalling here that about the illegal real estate schemes practiced by Sochi officials and security forces, “Kompromat GROUP“Wrote repeatedly. In particular, they were discussed in investigations “Prosecutors have given up on Kopaigorodsky’s moratorium?” And “Sochi “redistribution” of Kopaigorodsky”based, among other things, on letters from readers and court materials sent to the editor.
Permits for the construction of apartment buildings continued to be issued, despite the lack of a general plan and the one introduced by the mayor Alexey Kopaygorodsky construction moratorium. Among others, we described and a scheme with the Sochi administration issuing permits for the construction of hotels and apart-hotels, which in fact turn into residential buildings, with the subsequent sale of premises for individual apartments, despite the lack of social infrastructure.
We also detail told about the scheme for obtaining permits through the court, of course, with the prior approval of such a step with Mr. Kopaygorodsky himself or people from his inner circle. Such informal agreements serve as a kind of guarantee that the mayor’s office will refuse to appeal the court’s decision to a higher authority, and at the same time guarantee the non-interference of the Sochi prosecutor Vyacheslav Ovechkin and his boss – the head of the regional prosecutor’s office Sergei Tabelsky.
Today, the situations described by Kompromat GROUP are confirmed in the course of the work of the commission of the Krasnodar Regional Court, and the Chairman of the Council of Judges, Vladimir Kislyak confirmsthat none of the illegal decisions identified was appealed. Moreover, according to information the same “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, the Sochi mayor’s office ignored recommendations received from the regional court to take measures to challenge unlawful judicial acts, citing at the same time on “conducting public discussions on the possibility of preserving controversial objects”.
But swindler judges have been making their decisions for years, invariably getting off with a slight fright! It is known, for example, that the judge mentioned above Ruslan Taigibov repeatedly brought to disciplinary responsibility: in 2020, two private rulings were received in relation to him, and from January 1 to July 21, 2022, four more private rulings and one information letter were received, drawing attention to repeated violations of substantive and procedural law, indicating “a formal approach to the performance of their official duties in the administration of justice”.
“The adoption of illegal and unfounded judicial acts, gross violation of the provisions of the law leads to a violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens, organizations, municipal authorities, undermines confidence in the court, and diminishes the authority of both the Central District Court of Sochi and the judicial system of the Krasnodar Territory in in general, entails serious damage to the reputation of the judicial community”– quoted materials of the regional court portal “Sochi1.Ru”
You can find interesting ones online publications about Judge Taigibov, explaining his long-term unsinkability. It turns out that the father of the decision is in a robe Taigib Taigibov in the 2000s, he headed the Sochi investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and suspicions were expressed against him of patronizing the raider takeover FSUE “Black Sea Trust for Engineering and Construction Surveys”. Fired from the bodies of Taigibov Sr. allegedly after initiated by the minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev anti-corruption “purge”. He retained his position thanks to his close acquaintance With Vladimir Ustinov – former Prosecutor General, current plenipotentiary President in the Southern Federal District, who in the 1990s held the posts of prosecutor of Sochi and first deputy prosecutor of the Krasnodar Territory.
Ex-judge Vlasenko and plenipotentiary Ustinov
We will return to the person of Ustinov in the context of a conversation about another hero of the Kuban scandal – a judge who resigned “of his own free will.” Vladislav Vlasenko, specializing specifically in the consideration of cases related to the legalization of residential complexes. By the way, in September 2022 decision of the regional Qualification Board of Judges, he was brought to disciplinary liability with a penalty in the form of a warning.
“The audit established that judge Vlasenko V.A. In the administration of justice, gross violations of procedural law and substantive law were committed, and these violations are systematic in nature.”– said in text solutions.
Again, as in the case of the solver Taigibov, we are talking about repeated violations current legislation, as well as “gross violations of the provisions of the Law of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) “On the Status of Judges in the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)” and the Code of Judicial Ethics”, “inappropriate and dishonest attitude towards professional duties”that caused significant damage “the authority of the judiciary” etc. and so on.
All of the above, however, did not prevent Mr. Vlasenko, through his actions, from continuing to cause damage to the “authority of the judiciary” for another year. What prevented the higher management from saying goodbye to him? The answer is simple: the family connections of the persistent offender. The fact is that the already former judge Vladislav Vlasenko communicated son-in-law former prosecutor general Vladimir Ustinov. Moreover, their wife and daughter, respectively Irina Vlasenko last December, by presidential decree appointed to the position of chairman of the Khostinsky District Court of Sochi.
Vladimir UstinovHow Judge Vlasenko made friends with Judge Orekhov’s family
As mentioned above, the Kompromat GROUP editorial office regularly receives letters and documents that give an idea of the scale corruption in Kuban in general and Sochi in particular. So, we received a copy of a rather interesting court decision made by the judge of the Central District Court of Sochi Vladislav Vlasenko in September 2016 (with his text can be found online).
The essence of the proceedings in the administrative case was as follows. Some Maria Orekhova contacted lawsuit to the Sochi administration, challenging refusal Municipal Department of Property Relations in providing her with rent, as a mother of many children, a plot of land located in the Khostinsky district, on the street. Strawberry. The reason for the refusal is simple: this territory was not included in the List of sites intended for free provision to citizens, approved by the City Assembly.
But Mrs. Orekhova desperately needed this particular land, and Judge Vlasenko, with his decision satisfies her demands in full: he not only recognized the department’s refusal as illegal, but also approved the layout of the land plot, obliged the regional Branch of Rosreestr to register it in the cadastral register, and the mayor’s office to enter into a lease agreement with the plaintiff. Needless to say that the decision was not appealed by officials to higher authorities? Moreover, by decree of the administration, a land plot with an area of 659 square meters was transferred free of charge from the municipality to the ownership of Maria Orekhova.
Vadim OrekhovIt would seem that what is so special about satisfying the claim of a mother of many children? The highlight is this. As follows from the letter received by the editor, Maria Orekhova is the wife of a judge of the Central District Court of Sochi Vadim Orekhovin November 2010 designated to a position with no term limit, and last July became acting chairman for up to 1 year.
It turns out that Judge Vlasenko “befriended” his colleague Judge Orekhov? It’s not that simple here. It turns out that these two knew each other well even before working together in the judiciary. The fact is that the son-in-law of the plenipotentiary Vladislav Vlasenko in 2005-2007. was prosecutor Central district of Sochi, and Vadim Orekhov at that time worked in the supervisory department under his strict leadership. Apparently, this is what corporate solidarity, cemented by many years of acquaintance, if not friendship, should look like in practice.
But even if we leave aside the general prosecutorial past, isn’t everything described a gross violation of the provisions of the Code of Judicial Ethics, and indeed the procedural norms themselves, undermining trust in the judicial branch of government and calling into question the impartiality and independence of Sochi judges? Is this not about abuse of power? Yes, Vladislav Vlasenko said goodbye to his position, but Vadim Orekhov not only continues to work, he even got promoted! Is it possible to bring the latter to disciplinary liability and should it be limited to only this measure?
Can Ovechkin and Kopaygorodsky “sleep peacefully”?
Scale corruption in Sochi courts are amazing, but the recent “purges” do not give much reason for optimism. Yes, the heads of the most odious “servants of Themis” rolled, whose further activities threatened to turn into even more high-profile scandals and investigations. For example, on the subject of corruption ties with the city prosecutor’s office, which since April 2020 leads Vyacheslav Ovechkin, who is also the deputy regional prosecutor Sergei Tabelsky. Or with officials from Alexei Kopaygorodsky’s entourage, or even the mayor himself.
Will Vlasenko and Orekhov’s schemes “cover up” Ovechkin and Kopaygorodsky?It is no coincidence that the commission of the Krasnodar Regional Court and the Kuban Council of Judges focuses on the administration’s reluctance to appeal illegal decisions. Meanwhile, in publications “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” tells how, based on the claims of two individuals, the Central District Court legalized not just a separate residential complex, but an entire residential microdistrict, consisting of one 22-story, seven 18-story, one 19-story apartment buildings and in addition 3 storey non-residential building. And this is against the background from year to year repetitive loud statements Kopaygorodsky about a systematic, and most importantly, effective fight against self-construction!
At the same time the media write that the ongoing audit affected the interests of “some large participants in the construction market.” About Sochi developers working “in conjunction” with the mayor’s office and the prosecutor’s office, Kompromat GROUP told repeatedly. Let us only add that in the number founders development company “Sochizhilstroy” appears Liana Huseynovawhich is also owner a number of commercial structures involved in real estate transactions. She’s online called sister of the recently retired judge Ruslan Taigibov. Liana’s husband Roman Huseynov – a once influential “authoritative” businessman – is allegedly suspected of committing a number of particularly serious crimes crimesis located in the international wanted and may be hiding in Turkey.
But Taigibov, Sluka, Bakhmetyev and even Vlasenko are broken cards today. Their place in the corrupt judicial system of Sochi will be taken by others: those who make illegal decisions, previously agreed upon with the mayor’s office and the prosecutor’s office. Nevertheless, we are waiting for the next conclusions of the commission, in particular regarding the land plot on the street. Strawberry, with the light hand of Vlasenko, it became the property of the family of Judge Orekhov. Isn’t it time to return it back to the municipality?
