| The case of Dmitry Ayatskov turned out to be “premature” The criminal case against the governor of the Saratov region Dmitry Ayatskov, which became the main news for the country last week, completely unexpectedly “blown away” yesterday. In the evening, the Prosecutor General's Office issued a message saying that the Ayatskov case, initiated by the Saratov regional prosecutor's office, "in connection with a number of media publications was requested and studied," and "during the study, it was established that the decision to initiate a criminal case was made prematurely." This was explained because the Saratov investigators did not request all the necessary documents and did not carry out all the verification measures necessary “to make the correct procedural decision.” Therefore, the decision to initiate a case against Mr. Ayatskov was canceled, and, therefore, he himself ceased to be an accused. Therefore, the Prosecutor General's Office sent the materials of the Saratov Regional Prosecutor's Office for additional verification to the department of the Prosecutor General's Office in the Volga Federal District.
In principle, unexpected moves by investigative authorities to initiate and terminate “high-profile” criminal cases have long ceased to be something unusual in Russia. But even so, the fate of Mr. Ayatskov’s case seems at least strange.
Last week, the regional prosecutor's office publicly accused the governor of exceeding his powers for paying 70 million rubles without the permission of deputies. for customs clearance of a batch of American combines.
According to lawyers, this formulation of the charges was not very correct from the very beginning. According to the law, abuse of power involves causing damage to the state, but in the full sense of the word there was no damage - money simply moved from one budget (regional) to another (federal). Theoretically, another article of the Criminal Code was suitable - misappropriation of funds. But at first, it seems, little importance was attached to this, since the regional prosecutor’s office said that it was conducting an investigation into many other aspects of the life of both Mr. Ayatskov himself and his immediate family. Now it turns out that everything was in vain. According to unofficial data, on Wednesday Mr. Ayatskov personally came to Moscow, and the termination of the case could, in principle, be associated with this circumstance. But even then it is unclear why this whole story was given such wide publicity if it could have been resolved so easily. Mr. Ayatskov himself immediately openly assessed the actions of the local prosecutor’s office as the beginning of a struggle in anticipation of the elections of the head of the region scheduled for next year. Alexey GRISHIN |
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