Astrakhan syndrome

Under mayor Sergei Bozhenov, Russian Venice is mired in corruption, murder and lawlessness

Recently, a decision was made on the sensational case of Astrakhan bribe-takers from the traffic police. The Astrakhan Regional Court sentenced nine patrol companies of a separate battalion of traffic police No. 1 to various terms of imprisonment, and their commander Arkady Kirsanov ...

Recently, a decision was made on the sensational case of Astrakhan bribe-takers from the traffic police. The Astrakhan regional court sentenced nine patrol companies of a separate battalion of traffic police No. 1 to various terms of imprisonment, and their commander Arkady Kirsanov received 8 years in prison. The investigation found that Kirsanov's company could "whistle" on Astrakhan roads up to 150 thousand rubles a month. A total of 16 inspectors were prosecuted in the course of a special operation to capture "werewolves in uniform" carried out by FSB officers with the participation of the internal security service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is not so much surprising that there are such traffic police officers in Russia, but that they still did not manage to avoid the court. Previously, such corruption cases crumbled at the very beginning of the investigation. And even more so, it seems incredible that justice is administered in Astrakhan, where the crime rate is traditionally high: all issues there are still resolved not in the courts, but according to concepts, in the style of the dashing 90s with the resultant raider seizures and gang wars.

Highly profitable fire

Oleg Shein, Russian State Duma deputy from the Astrakhan region, right-wing Russian, has been talking for several years about “the adhesion of the authorities and the mafia, the criminal coup” that took place in Astrakhan. Russian Venice has always been divided between various ethnic criminal groups, but the crime situation in the city worsened with the beginning of the reign of Sergei Bozhenov, who actually usurped power: having received the post of speaker of the city duma in 2004, Bozhenov achieved a change in the charter of the city and became the mayor of Astrakhan. Immediately after Bozhenov moved to the mayor's chair, the redistribution of property began in the city. At one time, all the leading media wrote about strange fires in private residential buildings in the center of Astrakhan in 2005. Four years later, when Bozhenov came to power again, Novaya columnist Yulia Latynina spoke about the results of the Astrakhan mayoral election (their legitimacy is still disputed): “Mr. And when they burn down, it turns out that before that, as a rule, they were sold by the mayor's office to some company for development. For 8 months, the "red rooster" destroyed about 60 residential buildings in the city center. Inspection authorities will later establish that these were arson. Then 28 people died. Years later, it turned out that the land of the fire victims was re-registered - either to Bozhenov's relatives, mainly to his wife Olga, or to city officials and businessmen close to him.

Lawlessness, established under the current city administration, was the result of the merging of power and crime. The sensational case of the head of the Astrakhan UBOP, Rinat Salekhov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing an organized criminal group, who, according to investigators, also protected the local groups Russian Club and Tatar Trade Union, did not affect the criminal situation in the city. Salekhov was arrested in 2007, and in 2010, according to deputy Shein, members of the two above-mentioned groups, together with police officers, participated in the seizure of one of the Astrakhan markets, which the mayor's office tried to close in order to build a shopping center in its place.

Astrakhan residents call the team of the mayor himself the "City" grouping. It can be attributed to a certain Vladimir Sitnikov, who is the right hand of Sergei Bozhenov. In 2004-2008 Sitnikov held the high position of vice-governor of the Astrakhan region for investments and was in charge of all construction projects in Astrakhan. And in the 90s, Sitnikov worked in the infamous Effect-Credit bank, in which the money of the Solntsevo organized criminal group was stored and where, like in a black hole, billions of rubles of ordinary depositors disappeared without a trace. The bank went bankrupt, and Sitnikov was hiding from justice in Spain and Greece for several years, and after serving some time in prison in Switzerland, he was extradited to the Russian Federation.

It is believed that it was Sitnikov, who oversaw the construction industry, who helped Bozhenov "master" the funds allocated by the federal and regional budgets for preparations for the 450th anniversary of Astrakhan in 2008. Almost none of the significant objects that were planned to be completed by the anniversary of the city were built. Tenders for the construction of urban facilities were won by "their" companies, then they overestimated the estimates, and then hid along with the money. The most scandalous was the construction of a musical theater, the Astrakhan "La Scala". The contract for the construction was won by Techstroyinvest XXI century company of the “Kremlin developer” Viktor Stolpovskikh, the defendant in the sensational Mabetex case. The construction of the theater, which began in 2006, has not been completed so far. Although in January last year, Minister of Culture Avdeev personally assured Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that "there is still a little bit left to finish the roof" and by May 1, 2010 the theater will open.

Kuschevka is resting

It is not surprising that federal officials receive distorted information from Astrakhan. What is freedom of speech, they do not seem to know here, and those who try to exercise their constitutional right are subject to criminal prosecution. Oleg Teplishchev, a former businessman and now an independent journalist, can best tell about this. He is accused of beating Rifkat Shabanov, a United Russia deputy. At the end of March of this year, the next court session in this case was postponed - Teplishchev was hospitalized, because he had not been able to recover for two years after he “beat” the deputy. Everyone in the city knows that Shabanov and his wife Munira, a local official, are the closest associates and friends of the Bozhenovs and have a common business with them. Therefore, many Astrakhan residents consider the persecution of the journalist fabricated and are sure that everything was the other way around - perhaps it was Shabanov and his “athletes” who beat Teplishchev and the journalist of the “Caucasian Knot” Vyacheslav Yashchenko in 2009, when they tried to objectively cover the elections of the mayor of Astrakhan. And in February of this year, Oleg Teplishchev said that he had enough documents confirming the possible involvement of the mayor of Astrakhan in the seizure of land and their subsequent re-registration to his relatives.

Everyone who crosses the road with the Astrakhan "Gorodskoy" finds themselves either in the grave or behind bars. This was discussed on December 7, 2010 by the participants of the press conference “The Astrakhan Kingdom of Lawlessness” organized by the all-Russian public movement “For Human Rights”, after which a picket was held on Pushkinskaya Square. Contract killings and falsified criminal cases are methods of reprisal against those who defend their rights and prevent the arbitrariness that is happening in Astrakhan, human rights activists are sure. They have long since learned to read official propaganda between the lines. If, according to the authorities, the only cause of almost a thousand fires that occurred in the region in 2010, including in the center of Astrakhan, and claimed the lives of 54 adults and 11 children, was domestic drunkenness, then the participants in the press conference unanimously argued: it continues the systematic destruction of people because of the earth.

Coincidentally, on the same day, when the participants of the picket on Pushkin Square tried to draw the attention of the federal authorities to Astrakhan problems with their action, Aslan Aslanbekov, General Director of Gazenergoset Astrakhan LLC, was murdered in Astrakhan. A representative of a company that is part of Gazprom was shot in the head. The city immediately started talking about a new wave of redistribution of property, but of a different caliber. “Aslanbek was engaged in filling stations, liquefied gas, - the second cousin of the murdered man, deputy of the People's Assembly of Dagestan of the third convocation Rafik Aslanbekov speaks of his relative as a very decent, honest businessman. — Aslanbek always paid on time. The terms of the contract were observed impeccably. The man made his living. Versions of the murder may be related to business - I don’t see anything else there. ”

Six years ago, Astrakhan entrepreneurs warned then-president Vladimir Putin in an open letter: “Such leadership of the city <…> leads to a further social explosion, the destruction of the regional economy and small businesses, and the situation of the population will become even more impoverished and slavish.” Since then, the president has changed in the country, and the tone of Astrakhan residents' appeals to the head of state has only become tougher. “Mayor Bozhenov S.A. and his oprichniki freely create mayhem in the city,” this is from last year’s appeal of local businessmen to Dmitry Medvedev.

As you can see, corruption and crime have reached such alarming proportions in Astrakhan that, it seems, the episode with the “planting” of traffic police inspectors to the local elite is like a pellet to an elephant. And the murder of Gazprom representative Aslan Aslanbekov showed that the Astrakhan gangsters and officials have seriously advanced in development - it’s not enough for them to protect stalls in the market, they have set their sights on oil and gas big business and, probably, they are not going to stop of their own free will.