SUSU teacher on trial for false denunciation

Yesterday, the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk began considering the criminal case of rocket scientist, professor of South Ural State University (SUSU) Yuri Pavlyuk. He is accused of falsely reporting corruption crimes at his university. The defendant himself is confident that the real reason for the criminal prosecution was his critical speeches about the deterioration of the level of education in the specialty “rocket engineer.”

As Kommersant was told in the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk, yesterday, under the chairmanship of Judge Anastasia Bragina, the consideration of the criminal case of SUSU professor, 70-year-old rocket scientist Yuri Pavlyuk began. He is charged under Part 2 of Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Knowingly false denunciation”), the sanctions of which include up to six years in prison. The reason for the criminal prosecution was a personal statement to law enforcement agencies by SUSU Rector Alexander Shestakov, who considered the professor’s letters to the regional prosecutor’s office and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation about “corruption crimes” at the university offensive.

As follows from the case materials, Professor Pavlyuk asked to carry out checks on facts of corruption at the university and bring the management of the university to criminal responsibility. In particular, the scientist pointed out that at the university, the director of the Makeev State Rocket Center (Miass, Chelyabinsk region) Vladimir Degtyar is on the teaching staff of the aircraft department of the aerospace faculty. And although, as the professor wrote in his letters, he does not conduct any teaching activities, he receives a monthly salary. Based on these facts, checks were carried out in 2010 by employees of the Chelyabinsk Internal Affairs Directorate, but no crime was identified in the actions of the university management. After this, the university leadership initiated criminal prosecution of the professor.

At yesterday's hearing, the court heard the indictment and began questioning prosecution witnesses, in particular three employees of the Makeev State Missile Center, who allegedly from 2007 to 2010 were applicants (candidates for scientific titles) at the university and consulted on their work with Vladimir Degtyar . However, as Mr. Pavlyuk’s lawyer Nadezhda Solovyova told Kommersant, the witnesses were unable to provide documents confirming the appointment of Mr. Degtyar as the head of their scientific work. Therefore, the court postponed the hearing of the case to February 16.

Meanwhile, the defendant himself believes that this criminal case is necessary for the university’s management to force it to remain silent about the university’s problems, including the issues of training rocket engineers. “I’m not at all against Shestakov paying money to just anyone. I am against the collapse of the missile formation, which was arranged by the rector of SUSU. The aerospace department, the head of which I was a few years ago (now Mr. Pavlyuk is a lecturer in the department of aircraft - Kommersant), is simply collapsed - they don’t produce normal rocket specialists. All studying at a university is for show: for example, ordinary classrooms with computers are called rocket science centers,” Yuri Pavlyuk told Kommersant. In his opinion, there are also no achievements at the Makeev Missile Center. “Those samples that are being developed in the center can no longer compare with foreign analogues. And the head of the center, being listed as a professor, is only gaining scientific titles,” concluded Mr. Pavlyuk.

Yesterday it was impossible to get a comment from SUSU Rector Alexander Shestakov. In his reception they explained that “the rector does not discuss this topic.” Vladimir Degtyar also declined to comment.

In private conversations, SUSU teachers note that the conflict between Professor Pavlyuk and the current head of the university began back in 2005, when Mr. Shestakov was appointed rector. “Pavlyuk took this appointment painfully; he began to publicly discuss all events at the university, published critical materials in the media, and accused everyone of corruption. The rector tried to resolve the conflict, but Pavlyuk did not negotiate - he is a litigant by nature. As a result, the university management was forced to take extreme measures,” explained Kommersant’s interlocutor.

Kommersant will follow this trial.

Igor Lesovskikh

The professor lacked education