The first verdict in the case of a high-ranking officer of the TFR

Court: Moscow City Court
Articles: part 6 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code (“Receiving a bribe by an official”)
Defendant: Mikhail Maksimenko, ex-head of the Main Directorate for Interdepartmental Cooperation and Internal Security of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation
Stage: sentenced
Punishment: 13 years in a strict regime colony

On April 20, judge Oleg Muzychenko sentenced Mikhail Maksimenko, ex-head of the Investigative Committee Security Council, to 13 years of strict regime (the prosecution requested 2 years more) and a fine of 165 million rubles, finding him guilty of accepting bribes from representatives of the criminal world. Maksimenko was also stripped of the rank of colonel of justice.

Maksimenko was arrested in July 2016, along with his deputy Alexander Lamonov and the deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the TFR in Moscow, Denis Nikandrov (they made a deal with the investigation, their case is being processed by the Investigation Department of the FSB of Russia).

According to the prosecution, in the fall of 2015, Maksimenko received $50,000 from businessman Badri Shengelia. For this money, Maksimenko allegedly promised to initiate a criminal case against the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who confiscated Hublot watches from Shengelia. Shengelia testified in court, saying that he had had “financial relations” with an employee of the Investigative Committee for many years and that the colonel was pursuing his career goals: he was trying to achieve the removal of Alexander Klaus, head of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR in St. Petersburg. Another witness, ex-MVD operative Vitaly Fedosov, who exposed Maksimenko during interrogation at the FSB, retracted his testimony in court. The second episode of the accusation is connected with a shootout near the Elements restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street in Moscow, in which people of the crime boss Shakro Molodoy (recently convicted), on the one hand, and a retired colonel of the KGB of the USSR, lawyer Eduard Budantsev, on the other, participated. After this incident, Shakro's closest henchman Andrey Kochuykov (Italian) was under arrest.

According to the FSB, high-ranking officers of the ICR received two bribes for the release of Kochuykov. As prosecutor Boris Loktionov argued in court, one of the bribes - from businessman Dmitry Smychkovsky - was divided among themselves by the current head of the GSU in Moscow, Alexander Drymanov, his deputy, Denis Nikandrov, and the head of the TFR department for the Central Administrative District, Alexei Kramarenko. For a bribe, the officers were supposed to reclassify Kochuykov's accusation to a milder one and release him from custody.

The second bribe - $500,000 from businessman Oleg Sheykhametov - was intended personally for Maksimenko, who was supposed to "turn a blind eye" to his colleagues' "non-procedural decisions" in the shooting case.

Sheykhametov transferred cash to Maksimenko through a chain of intermediaries. One of them was his deputy Alexander Lamonov. The latter told the court that on May 18, 2016, he personally brought a shoe box with $400,000 to the boss’s apartment (another $100,000 was divided between intermediaries).

Maksimenko himself pleaded not guilty. In court, he stated that the day before the arrest, businessman Smychkovsky called him and told him about the impending large-scale provocation against the employees of the ICR. “To carry out this task, $ 3 million was sent, to which employees of the FSB department “M” could be involved. I wrote down this information on a piece of paper, but the note was seized during the searches,” Maksimenko said. According to him, Lamonov, in a conversation with him, mentioned that he received money from “some persons interested in closing the criminal case,” but Maksimenko believed that his subordinate was misinforming him in order to test his reaction. He allegedly tried to convince Lamonov to return the money. Maksimenko also indicated that the cash transferred to him was not found during the searches. Well, besides, Maksimenko reported on the pressure that is being exerted on him in order to force the leadership of the Russian Investigative Committee into a slander.

Let us add that in court, the current head of the Main Investigative Directorate for Moscow, Alexander Drymanov, spoke about the non-involvement of himself and Maksimenko in taking bribes and said that during the investigation he had repeatedly communicated with employees of the “M” department of the FSB, who claimed that there were “no complaints” against him. However, “then everything changed.” Drymanov described what is happening around the officers of the TFR as follows: "Worse than the 37th year."

Vera Chelishcheva,
"New"

Where, whom, why

The case of paper airplanes

Detained on April 16, Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina and Orthodox activist Dmitry Enteo received 100 hours of compulsory labor under the decision of the Meshchansky Court of Moscow for an action near the FSB building, where they, together with their supporters, launched paper airplanes in protest against the blocking of Telegram.

Alyokhina and Enteo, after being detained for two nights, were left at the police station, and protocols were drawn up under Part 1 of Art. 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (“Organization of a non-public mass event that caused a violation of public order”).

“A group of 12 people made paper products and interfered with the passage of citizens, throwing the products. Alyokhina did not respond to the remarks of passers-by, continued to throw, while Alyokhina organized this event, ”the court decision says.

Case of Tatiana Felgenhauer

A trial has begun in the Presnensky Court in the case of an attack on Tatyana Felgenhauer, a journalist from Ekho Moskvy. In the dock is Boris Grits, it was he who, in October 2017, entered the editorial office and stabbed Felgenhauer several times.

The process began with the questioning of witnesses. Ida Sharapova, chief of the referent service of Ekho Moskvy, spoke about how Grits attacked Felgenhauer, how she bled. Then Grits' second cousin Alexei Margulis was interrogated. According to him, he met with the attacker a few days before the incident. In conversation, Grits complained that Felgenhauer was following him telepathically, spoke of his desire to meet her, and even asked to find her home address. Margulis wrote it off as a whim and did not offer medical assistance to his relative.

After the meeting, the defendant's lawyers told the press that they were going to petition for the reclassification of the case to the article on infliction of grievous bodily harm (now he is charged under the article "Attempted Murder"). According to the defense, this will help Grits to socialize after undergoing compulsory treatment, lawyer Igor Zuber explained. The prosecutor's office also insists on compulsory treatment of Grits.

The case of the Magomedov brothers

The Moscow City Court upheld the decision to arrest the owners of the Summa group, the brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov and their partner Artur Maksidov. Businessmen are suspected of seven episodes of fraud, as well as the creation of a "criminal community."

The protection of businessmen asked to send them under house arrest. According to the lawyers, the reference to Article 210 of the Criminal Code (“Creation of a criminal community”) was necessary in order not to apply the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code on acts in the field of entrepreneurial activity to them.

“I was not afraid of anything. I'm here and I hope for the rule of law. As before I did not exert pressure, and I do not plan to continue. I want to live and work in this country,” Ziyavudin Magomedov said in court.

All defendants in the case pleaded not guilty.

The case of doctor Misyurina

The Moscow City Court overturned the sentence of hematologist Yelena Misyurina, who was convicted of “providing services that do not meet safety requirements and resulted in the death of a person.” The court of appeal returned the case to the prosecutor's office to eliminate the shortcomings in the indictment.

In January, the Cheryomushkinsky District Court of the capital sentenced Misyurina to two years in a penal colony. According to investigators, in 2013, a doctor incorrectly performed a bone marrow biopsy on a patient with cancer, damaging the blood vessels. This, according to investigators, was the cause of the man's death. The case was opened in 2015. The doctor's defense insisted that there was no intent in Misyurina's actions.

During the debate, the State Prosecution requested that the defendant be sentenced to a non-custodial sentence. The court sentenced to a real term. The medical community, the Moscow Department of Health, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Policy Olga Golodets, head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov spoke in defense of the hematologist. The head of the National Medical Chamber (NMP) Leonid Roshal attended the appeal hearing.

In February, the Moscow City Court released the doctor from the SIZO on bail.

Vera Chelishcheva, "New"
and OVD-Info