| The former mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky received four years probation Yesterday, the city court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky found the former mayor of the city, Yuri Golenishchev, guilty of exceeding official powers under Art. 285 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which led to the disruption of the 2003 heating season. The court sentenced Mr. Golenishchev to four years of suspended imprisonment and banned him from holding leadership positions for three years. The former head of the housing and communal services department of the city mayor's office, Liliya Slovetskaya, was also found guilty of disrupting the heating season and received a suspended five-year prison sentence.
The former mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was found guilty by the court of exceeding official powers, since on his order the city administration transferred 30 million rubles. municipal enterprise "Gorteploset" for the purchase of fuel. Then the money ended up in the accounts of commercial firms, some of which were registered in neighboring regions. However, fuel oil was never supplied to the boiler houses of Petropavlovsk. As a result, in November and December 2003, 11 schools and almost all kindergartens were closed in the city. In those schools where classes did take place, lessons were shortened to 30 minutes, and children were allowed to sit at their desks in jackets and hats. Of the 33 hospitals and clinics in the city, heat was supplied to only 15, despite the fact that due to the cold weather, doctors recorded an outbreak of colds among children and adults. Initially, the prosecutor's office accused Mr. Golenishchev not only of exceeding official powers, but also of negligence (Article 293, Part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). However, during the trial under this article, the former mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was found not guilty. Mr. Golenishchev lost not only his position, but also his membership in the Communist Party. The regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, headed by the governor of Kamchatka Mikhail Mashkovtsev, decided that they were not on the same path with Comrade Golenishchev, and asked the official to put his party card on the table.
However, Mr. Mashkovtsev, who was then planning to fight the negligence of the mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by introducing direct gubernatorial rule, was clearly in a hurry with this statement. Soon a criminal case was initiated against him under the same article. 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Moreover, in August 2004, Mr. Mashkovtsev was officially charged with abuse and excess of authority. The reason for this was Mr. Mashkovtsev’s order to allow unlimited salmon fishing, signed by him during the salmon season of 2002, because of which, as the prosecutor’s office decided, damage to Russia’s aquatic biological resources amounted to 7 billion rubles. The Kamchatka governor and vice-governor Vladislav Skvortsov, who was in charge of the region’s fuel and energy complex at that time, were also accused of misuse of northern delivery funds.
However, by For Mashkovtsev and Skvortsov, who has since become the mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the prosecutor's office showed leniency and closed their cases last Friday. The prosecutor's office said that they were terminated "on rehabilitative grounds and due to repentance." Although this was not enough, Mr. Mashkovtsev’s actions had to be reclassified from Art. 285 and 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding and abuse of official powers) at Art. 293 (negligence).
The convicted Mr. Golenishchev does not hide his indignation at the unfair, from his point of view, court decision. “My criminal prosecution was organized by the local fuel mafia, and the court’s decision is nothing more than an order,” says the ex-mayor of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and now a deputy of the regional council. Mr. Golenishchev plans to appeal the decision of the city judges in the regional court in the near future. Dmitry CHERNOV, Vladivostok, Ekaterina GORDEEVA |
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