There are no longer any culprits

Closed all criminal cases on the facts of illegal bureaucratic hunting

The Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation closed the criminal case on the fact of the crash in the Altai mountains of the Mi-171 * helicopter, the passengers of which were hunting for rare animals. So it is written in the answer of the head of the committee Alexander Bastrykin to the request ...

The Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation closed the criminal case on the fact of the crash in the Altai mountains of the Mi-171 * helicopter, the passengers of which were hunting for rare animals.

So it is written in the answer of the head of the committee Alexander Bastrykin to the request of the deputies of the El Kurultai (parliament) of the Altai Republic.

“The investigation reliably established that during this flight, passengers Kaimin V.Ya., Vyalkov V.M., who were on board the helicopter. and Livishin S.V. took active steps to track down and pursue with the aim of catching animals, the hunting of which is completely prohibited, ”Bastrykin’s letter says. But the investigation did not find evidence that the plenipotentiary representative of the President of Russia in the State Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, who died in the crash, and Anatoly Bannykh, the surviving deputy chairman of the government of the republic, participated in the poaching hunt (the fact that the flight was organized at the request of the Bannykhs, writes, for example, in his conclusion of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC).

The case was dismissed on August 11 “in connection with the death in a plane crash of persons subject to criminal liability,” but this became known only on November 6, when the procedural deadlines for appealing the decision of the prosecutor's office had passed. By the way, back on September 15, at a briefing in the administration of the Altai Territory, journalists asked the chief prosecutor of the Russian Federation, Yuri Chaika, about how the investigation of illegal hunting was progressing. He refused to answer.

In the ten months that have passed since the helicopter crash, the scandal around the poaching hunts of high-ranking officials has been repeated more than once. In May, another helicopter crashed in Altai with the governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Esipovsky. According to rumors, the governor flew to hunt bears, but the staff of the Investigative Committee did not find any weapons or dead animals at the crash site.

And on November 6, the UPC refused to initiate a case against employees of the Kamchatka Transport Prosecutor's Office who had a picnic in the Valley of Geysers, the most protected nature reserve in Kamchatka.

On September 13, 23 people, led by transport prosecutor Yuri Seiranov, flew to the Valley of Geysers under the pretext of checking flight safety. The deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Kamchatka Territory found out that they had arrived for sightseeing purposes, but did not pay either for the flight (about 70 thousand rubles per hour) or for the services of a guide, but got drunk in the reserve and threatened the forester. According to the conclusions of the Investigative Committee, “there are no signs of malfeasance in the actions of prosecutors, since their actions to make a flight for the purpose of recreation and use a tour guide did not cause significant harm to the legally protected rights and interests of organizations.”

• The crash of a helicopter belonging to the Tomsk branch of Gazpromavia occurred on January 9 in the south of Altai on the slope of Mount Chernaya. Seven people died and four were injured.