Translated material
Counteroffensive near Barvikha
Rosprirodnadzor decided to sue the leaders of the Moscow region
Rosprirodnadzor, which has been waging a protracted bureaucratic war with the leadership of the Moscow region for more than a year , has launched a new counter-offensive against the enemy. As Vremya Novostei learned, the leadership of the environmental department has prepared to submit to the Odintsovo District Court claims against 15 Moscow region officials and their relatives to declare illegal the transfer of land plots to them for private use in the area of the village of Barvikha - the most prestigious place in the Moscow region.The lawsuits come in the midst of another controversial legal battle. Tomorrow, April 24, the Koptevsky Court of the capital should continue the consideration of the claim of the Governor of the Moscow Region, Boris Gromov, against the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, Oleg Mitvol, who, as the head of the region believes, at one time publicly discredited his honor and dignity. The government of the Moscow region regarded Mr. Mitvol’s new initiative to investigate the “Barvikha dachas” as “personal revenge” on the governor for his attempt to defend his reputation.
Relations between Rosprirodnadzor and the administration of the Moscow region regarding the validity of the distribution of land for cottage construction began to deteriorate a long time ago, and in the winter of 2006 the parties entered into an open war. Then Mr. Mitvol, at one of the press conferences, announced serious violations during the transfer of land for development in the area of the village of Nikolina Gora, Odintsovo district, accusing officials of “theft of timber.” In addition, he added that the regional branch of the environmental Green Party, headed by Mr. Mitvol’s wife, was removed from the elections to the Moscow Regional Duma by Boris Gromov “out of personal revenge.” Governor of the Moscow Region Boris Gromov filed a claim for protection of honor and dignity against the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor, estimating the moral damage caused to him at 50 million rubles.
Soon after the start of consideration of this claim, Rosprirodnadzor, as the Vremya Novostey newspaper already reported, in early April sent a letter to First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman asking for a legal assessment of the actions of the head of the Odintsovo district, Alexander Gladyshev. The latter, as stated in the letter, in 2003 divided the expensive land (the market value of one hundred square meters in this place reaches 100 thousand dollars), allocated in the mid-90s to the administration of the Moscow region for the location of a country recreation center in the Barvikha area, into plots and provided ownership at a “standard price” to officials of the Moscow region government. A list of names of persons who received land plots was also attached to the appeal.
Rosprirodnadzor reported that plots ranging from 20 to 84 acres were acquired by First Deputy Minister of the regional government Mikhail Andreev, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Parkhomenko, Deputy Minister Roman Agapov, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Koshman, daughter of the Minister of Economics Vyacheslav Krymov - Elena, head of the regional control and audit department Viktor Shilin, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations Tigran Karakhanov, former prosecutor of the Moscow region Mikhail Avdyukov, a relative of the former regional prosecutor Eduard Denisov - Nelli, as well as a relative of the chairman of the Moscow regional court Svetlana Marasanova - Nikolai, State Duma deputy Dmitry Sablin, vice- Governor Alexey Panteleev and press secretary of Governor Boris Gromov Andrey Barkovsky. In addition, a small plot of 9 acres was received by the former chairman of the regional committee for physical culture and sports, Vladimir Panteleev.
“Rosprirodnadzor” asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to pay attention to the fact that the category of plots sold in the resolutions is indicated as “industrial land”, and the intended purpose of the plots is “for dacha maintenance”, which, from the point of view of the law, is absurd. In addition, according to the environmental department, active construction is also underway on the forestry territory adjacent to this plot. According to the author of the appeal to the prosecutor's office, Oleg Mitvol, the head of the Odintsovo district, Mr. Gladyshev, did not have the right to transfer the state forest fund lands to another category, since only the federal government has this right. Also, Mr. Mitvol believes, he did not have the right to sell “land to industry,” since this should have been decided by the Federal Agency for Federal Property Management, which was not the case.
Then Mr. Mitvol said that the letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office pursues several goals - firstly, so that “people are punished for all this disgrace,” and, secondly, so that the forest is returned to the state. “Or, as an option, let these persons give the market value of these plots to the regional budget - an average of 220 million rubles. I think this will significantly replenish the Moscow region’s treasury than the 50 million that Gromov demands from me,” said the deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor.
The Prosecutor General's Office has not yet given a response to this letter, but Mr. Mitvol decided to immediately develop an offensive and ordered the preparation of legal claims against government officials of the Moscow region. “We will demand the release of illegally occupied forest areas,” said Rosprirodnadzor lawyers. “In addition, the department will insist that officials restore forest lands or pay compensation.”
As Rosprirodnadzor noted, lawyers already have most of the documents proving the illegality of operations with land near Barvikha: “We will not talk about specific materials and tactics in court. This is our secret so that “the mice do not eat” what is missing. (Earlier, during the next inspection of Rosprirodnadzor, officials from the Moscow region stated that some of the maps with land allocations were eaten by mice, and the copies were burned. - Ed. ) We are ready for the fact that we will lose in the Odintsovo court and in the court of the Moscow region. It is rare to win in local courts against local authorities. We hope for the Supreme Court."
The government of the Moscow region has so far refused to officially comment on the new initiative of Rosprirodnadzor. Unofficially, Mr. Mitvol’s behavior there was called revenge. “Gladyshev issued about 80 orders for this plot of land. The plots were distributed to the FSB of Russia, and the presidential administration, and the apparatus of the government and the Federation Council, but Mitvol sends statements of claim to the court only against members of the regional government, the source noted. - And in general, the case about this site is not new. Several years ago, “Rosimushchestvo” seemed to be trying to sue; in addition, State Duma deputy Viktor Alksnis was trying to sort out this case. Why only now Mitvol decided to take up it, in our opinion, is obvious.”
“We had documents on hand for 15 persons, and we are preparing lawsuits based on them. We do not have information on 80 individuals. I hope that if there is a trial, the remaining names will come to light,” Mr. Mitvol said in turn. — This story has an interesting moral and ethical aspect. How can people work in the highest bodies of power if they have someone else’s property in their hands? And when it turned out that this was illegal, they began to quickly sell everything instead of returning it. This is a question of how people relate to state property. The revenge motive is wrong. After all, if there were no violations, there would be no claims from Mitvol. As for Deputy Alksnis, it really all started with him. Only he began to investigate from the other side - why and among whom expensive plots near Barvikha were distributed, and we looked deeper - why the forest fund decreased.”