Anatoly Mosievsky was banned from being an official

In Biysk (Altai Territory), the mayor Anatoly Mosievsky was found guilty of extorting local businessmen for the needs of urban improvement. The court sentenced him to three years probation, also prohibiting him from holding municipal and public service positions for three years. If the mayor fails to appeal the court's decision, this will accelerate the change in the power structure in the city: the institution of a city manager will be introduced not after the expiration of Mayor Mosievsky's term of office, but after their early termination.

Yesterday morning in the Eastern District Court of Biysk, Judge Irina Stroilova completed the reading of the verdict against the city's head, Anatoly Mosievsky, which began on Tuesday. As Kommersant reported, the mayor was accused of 10 episodes of abuse of power (Part 2 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), most of which were extortions from businessmen. As reported in the investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee for the Altai Territory, in 2007-2008, Mr. Mosievsky demanded that entrepreneurs and citizens “transfer large sums of money, from 100 thousand to 15 million rubles, to the city budget under the guise of voluntary donations, or perform various works of significant cost." Investigators estimated the damage caused by the mayor at 9.5 million rubles.

During the debate between the parties, the prosecution asked that the mayor be sentenced to five years in a general regime colony, but the sentence turned out to be much more lenient. Anatoly Mosievsky was sentenced to three years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of two years. In addition, he was deprived of the right to hold municipal and public service positions for three years. The court took into account, as mitigating circumstances, a positive reference from his place of work, his state of health (“a number of severe chronic diseases”), as well as the fact that the mayor was convicted under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the first time. Despite the fact that the sentence contains the wording “taking into account the social danger of the crime,” the court did not establish any aggravating circumstances. The head of the city does not have the right to change his place of residence without notifying law enforcement agencies.

Anatoly Mosievsky came to court accompanied by two of his lawyers. After the decision was made, he noted that the verdict was not clear to him, but the procedure for appealing it was clear. “Today’s court hearing was evidence that the so-called fight against corruption is being carried out using corrupt methods. If I “messed up” somewhere, I’m a completely sane person, I could have simply corrected it, and not tormented me for three years. They once refused to initiate a criminal case, twice returned it (for further investigation - Kommersant), no, the case was brought to its logical conclusion. Someone just really wanted this, and they achieved it. As my father said, you can take away your position, but you can’t take away your head, and we won’t be lost,” Mr. Mosievsky commented on the verdict. Lawyer Alexander Gusakov added that, in his opinion, many gross procedural violations were made during the preliminary investigation, but for some reason the court did not take this into account.

The mayor's political opponents greeted the verdict with satisfaction. “The very fact that the person committed a crime has been confirmed. Of course, there are mitigating circumstances, but the verdict confirmed the fact of violation of the law, and I believe the verdict was the logical conclusion of a three-year process,” said communist Andrei Nagaitsev. In 2010, in the second round he lost the election to Anatoly Mosievsky by only 70 votes and for a long time tried to prove the fact of falsification of voting results in the courts. However, Mr. Mosievsky also has opponents in United Russia, which supported him in these elections. “At the political council, we have repeatedly raised the issue of expelling Anatoly Mosievsky from the party in connection with the initiation of criminal cases against him, but it was decided to wait for the court’s verdict. Accordingly, an official decision on this matter will be made by the local branch of the party in the near future,” Dmitry Bryzgalov, a member of the United Russia faction in the City Duma, told Kommersant. According to him, “in general, such a court verdict was predictable, because small and medium-sized businesses in the city have been completely brought to their knees, and... the current mayor perceives the city as his personal enterprise.”

The verdict of the Eastern District Court may speed up the transition of Biysk to a new management system - a city manager. The Biysk Duma adopted the corresponding amendments to the city charter in April. Then it was assumed that they would come into force after the end of the term of office of Mayor Mosievsky - in the spring of 2014. “Anatoly Mosievsky will remain in his post for at least another 10 days, until the court’s decision comes into force. During this period, he has the opportunity to appeal the verdict. In addition, if he files a cassation appeal, then the decision does not enter into legal force and Mosievsky will act as mayor during the entire period of its consideration. This procedure, based on practice, takes from a month to two,” explained Sergei Malyukov, chairman of the City Duma Committee on Legality and Local Self-Government, yesterday. Anatoly Mosievsky himself and lawyer Gusakov did not give a definite answer to the question of whether the verdict would be appealed. In turn, another defender of the mayor, Elena Shcherbakova, told the Interfax-Siberia agency that the verdict would be appealed.

Victoria Tarasenko, Biysk; Valery Lavsky, Novosibirsk

The mayor of Biysk lost his job in court