| The Prosecutor General's Office attached Mikhail Kasyanov to the “dacha” case Through the mouth of Vladimir Kolesnikov, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation on Friday finally officially dotted the i’s in the “dacha” story of Mikhail Kasyanov. Judging by the words of the Deputy Prosecutor General, who has long earned a reputation as the main “newsmaker” of his department, the former Prime Minister of Russia can now be considered a full-fledged suspect in a criminal offense. Talking about the history of the privatization of the state residence “Sosnovka-1”, Mr. Kolesnikov openly stated that Mikhail Kasyanov “illegally helped” to carry out the transaction to sell this state dacha to himself “for a symbolic amount”, as a result of which state interests were caused “damage in especially large size."
In principle, the Deputy Prosecutor General did not say anything significant new. About the dubious details of how “Sosnovka-1” - a residence in the prestigious Troitse-Lykovo district in the north-west of Moscow, in which the Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Suslov once lived - became the property of Mikhail Kasyanov, back on July 4 in his The article was described in detail by State Duma deputy and journalist Alexander Khinshtein. Based on the results of supposedly his own journalistic investigation, he found out that back in early 2003, while being Prime Minister, Mr. Kasyanov signed a government decree on the transfer of Sosnovka-1, as well as another residence in the same place - Sosnovka- 3" - to the balance sheet of the Ministry of Property to assign them to the subordinate Federal State Unitary Enterprise "VPK-invest". This company is engaged in the sale of federal property, and by the beginning of 2004, both Sosnovkas were sold at auction. Mr. Khinshtein claimed that the bidding took place “behind the scenes” - only three companies took part in the competition for Sosnovka-1, all of them in one way or another connected with Mr. Kasyanov, and one of them was allegedly founded by the prime minister himself and his wife. As a result, Sosnovka-1 was sold for only 11 million rubles, although, as the deputy claimed, in fact its market value was tens of times more. According to the same scheme, as stated by Mr. Khinshtein, Sosnovka-3 became the property of one of the leaders of Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman.
Despite such detailed revelations by Mr. Khinshtein (a newspaper publication, by the way, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation can be a reason for initiating a criminal case), Vladimir Ustinov’s department only admitted a week ago that a criminal case on the “dacha story” had actually been opened - under Art. . 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust).
Now Mikhail Kasyanov is directly named as one of the main defendants in this case. Moreover, the Prosecutor General’s Office has very serious “views” on him. Mr. Kolesnikov mentioned the former prime minister not in passing, but at a special press conference. Moreover, it later became clear that the investigation of this case, according to unofficial information, was entrusted to the investigator for especially important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Vladislav Smirnov. And he is known for the fact that he was previously the deputy head of the investigative team in the case of Leonid Nevzlin, who is now accused not only of economic crimes, for which Khodorkovsky and Lebedev recently received nine years in prison, but also of organizing a whole series of murders and attempts. So there should be no “mistakes” with the investigation of the “dacha story,” and Mr. Kolesnikov made it very clear on Friday that there were enough violations of the law in it.
“At the moment,” said Vladimir Kolesnikov, “the investigation has established: Gaisin, using illegal schemes for the transfer of state property with the active and illegal assistance of a number of federal officials and the former chairman of the government Kasyanov himself, was sold to the latter - one would like to say “kidnapped with complicity,” but it’s too early to talk about it - for a symbolic amount of 11.5 million rubles. the Sosnovka-1 property complex with an area of almost 3 hectares, with a developed infrastructure for living and recreation, thereby causing damage to state interests on a particularly large scale. It seems to me that this combination of property seizure began on January 22, 2003, with an order signed by Kasyanov (on the transfer of both Sosnovkas to the balance sheet of the Ministry of Property. - Ed. ).”
Mr. Kolesnikov also dwelled in detail on the personalities of Messrs. Gaisin and Kasyanov. “Who is Gysin? - the deputy prosecutor general asked a rhetorical question, - This is a native of the city of Abay, Karaganda region of Kazakhstan, until December 7, 2001 - a stateless person, and since December 7, 2001 - a citizen of Russia, temporarily registered in the village of Pravdinsky, Pushkin district, Moscow region, as it turned out, according to address of the former pioneer camp. According to the director of this children's institution, Gaisin never lived there. We will look into the circumstances under which he received citizenship, who gave citizenship, and on what grounds. We have enough of our own crooks. Look what we entrusted to this Gysin. He disposed of enormous assets, including real estate in the center of Moscow and entire complexes.” Mr. Kolesnikov assessed the role of the former prime minister in obtaining a state residence on the cheap as his personal property as follows: “The question is, for what kind of eyes? Well, we, in the sense of society, hired Kasyanov to perform the duties assigned to him, and gave him a salary. All! And so they come and think that the state is me, and I do whatever I want.”
Mr. Kolesnikov did not forget to rebuff those who, just a week ago, immediately after the news of the initiation of this criminal case, said that in this way the authorities were trying to pacify the political ambitions of Mikhail Kasyanov, who at the beginning of this year did not deny his possible participation in the next elections for the post of president of the country. “I would like to draw attention to the fact that as soon as such a case is initiated, labels begin to be attached that this is politics, politics, politics. I have already stated more than once - stop stealing, and there will be no “politics”.
However, Mr. Kolesnikov’s refutation of the political background of this case was not very convincing. During his entire speech, he never mentioned Mikhail Fridman, who, as Deputy Khinshtein claimed in his revealing publications, became the owner of Sosnovka-3 in exactly the same way as Mr. Kasyanov. Why Vladimir Kolesnikov’s “punishing sword” did not touch him remains unclear. In addition, it remains unclear why the Prosecutor General’s Office announced its suspicions against the former prime minister right now, when Mikhail Kasyanov himself is beyond the reach of the investigation. Soon after the initiation of a criminal case and the release of Khinshtein’s revealing publications, Mr. Kasyanov went on vacation abroad for two weeks. His press secretary Tatyana Rozbash on Friday once again assured that the former prime minister will return to Moscow on July 25. However, it is obvious that with his speech, Mr. Kolesnikov subjected Mr. Kasyanov to a serious temptation to think about an indefinite continuation of his vacation. And if he does not return, the Prosecutor General’s Office will have every moral right to assert that the former prime minister actually has something to fear. Victor PAUKOV |
|
