In Moscow, the auditor of the Accounts Chamber Mikhail Men was detained

"Medusa" tells about the stormy biography of the son of a famous priest, a liberal governor and Medvedev Minister

The son of a priest Alexander me, the former head of the Ministry of Construction of Russia and the current auditor of the Accounts Chamber Mikhail Men on Wednesday, became accused of embezzlement of 700 million rubles from the budget of the Ivanovo region-he headed this region from 2005 to 2013. After interrogation, he was detained until Thursday morning, Interfax said with reference to an anonymous source. However, according to the agency, the investigation will not ask the court to detain him, but will ask to choose a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions. "Medusa" tells about the biography of Mikhail, saturated with events.

On Wednesday, November 18, the Investigative Committee detained the auditor of the Accounts Chamber, the former Minister of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities and Governor of the Ivanovo Region Mikhail me. The sanction for its detention was promptly given by the Federation Council (without its permission, it is impossible to detain the auditors of the Accounts Chamber).

He is accused of embezzlement of 700 million rubles from the budget of the Ivanovo region in 2011, when Men headed this region. According to investigators, thanks to the patronage of the governor, the regional fund to support small and medium -sized enterprises sent 700 million rubles LLC Prodo, and these funds were stolen.

He does not admit less guilt in embezzlement and calls his detention a misunderstanding, “Interfax” said on Wednesday evening, citing his lawyer.

Invisible politician and noticeable official

“Of course, on his last name there was a reflection of his father - priest Alexander me, but not only that. Sergiev Posad was in the suburbs of the center of democracy and democracy, ”says Meduza, Moscow -Moscow Politician Boris Nadezhdin, who has long known Mikhail me well. In 1995, the nominee of the Yabloko party, in 1995, was elected to the State Duma (and in the suburbs of the parliament in 1993).

In the village of Semkhoz near Sergiev Posad, a temple was located, where his father lived, one of the most famous church preachers and clergymen of late Soviet times Alexander Men. On September 9, 1990, the priest was brutally killed. His son Mikhail was at that time 30 years old.

Mikhail Men graduated from the director's faculty of the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, worked in the cultural sphere and was fond of politics. The smallest in his youth is a “real democrat and romantic,” says Nadezhdin. “There was such a time, then everyone was romantics,” he grins.

What they blame me for

Mikhail is accused of involved in the theft of 700 million rubles from the budget of the Ivanovo region in 2011. The former governor is charged with appropriation or embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code), under this article he faces up to ten years in prison.

According to investigators, in 2011, a group of beneficiaries of the Prodo group of companies decided to receive a loan from the Ministry of Finance of Russia to the budget of the Ivanovo region, then to kidnap it by transferring the money of the Ivanovo Broiler company - she then entered the Proda Group of Companies. Prodo is one of the largest meat and meat products in Russia (until 2009 was associated with oligarch Roman Abramovich).

This organized group, according to the investigation, also included the deputy general director of LLC Prodo Management Ekaterina Semenova, managing director of Ivanovo Broiler OJSC Dmitry Greshin and Men himself. According to Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, as the governor Men had the right to conclude an agreement on the provision of a budget loan on behalf of the government of the Ivanovo region and dispose of it. As a result, he “assumed criminal obligations for a waste of funds in favor of the Group of Companies“ Proda ”, transferring them to the Ivanovo Boiler OJSC through the regional fund for support for small business.

According to the Prosecutor General, Men bowed to the crime of the then deputy chairman of the Government of the region Pavel Konkov (he changed me as the governor in 2014), who was the chairman of the board of the Fund. At the beginning of the spring of 2011, at the disposal of me, an application was prepared for the Ministry of Finance for a loan of one billion rubles, which he agreed with the unidentified beneficiaries of Proda. In order to abduct most of the funds, Konkov amended the legislation of the region, which allowed the Fund for Supporting Small Enterprises 750 million rubles without coordination with the Ministry of Finance. The charter of the fund was also changed, thanks to which the money was transferred to the “Ivanovo Broiler”, which was not a subject of small and medium -sized enterprises.

In the summer of 2020, Proda returned 700 million rubles to the budget of the Ivanovo region, which were allocated by the Enterprise Support Fund “Ivanovo Boiler” in 2011. “At one time, this money disappeared without a trace and for many years there was no hope that they would return,” said Governor Stanislav Voskresensky.

Since the spring of 2020, Pavel Konkov has been under house arrest (he was transferred from the pre -trial detention center for health reasons).

The colleagues of Mikhail at the Yabloko faction were well -known politicians: the party leader Grigory Yavlinsky, the future Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, future Minister of Finance Mikhail Zadornov, deputies Oksana Dmitrieva and Elena Mizulina.

“In public politics, he did not show himself at all, in the Duma they knew that it was the son of a famous priest - perhaps all. There were completely different “apple trees” in sight. The smallest quickly went to the executive branch, ”recalls journalist Viktor Khamraev, who worked at that time in the newspaper Today.

Indeed, in 1999, the candidate for governors of the Moscow Region, General Boris Gromov nominated me as a contender for the vice-governor’s position: in those years, candidates for the leaders of this region had to call a potential vice-governor. Boris Nadezhdin, in an interview with Medusa, stated that this was done from his filing.

“The positions of the Democrats - the Union of Right Forces,“ Yabloko ” - were strong in the suburbs then, Gromov had to intensify, and I suggested that he nominate me. We conducted sociological research, it turned out that the couple of Gromov-Men won, ”explains Nadezhdin.

The campaign turned out to be difficult: Gromov was competing not only with the current governor Anatoly Group, but also with the speaker of the State Duma, communist Gennady Seleznev. Boris Gromov - Mikhail Men and Seleznev, deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party Vladimir Kashin, entered the second round. The State Duma speaker scored more votes in the first round, but the second round won Gromov.

Mikhail Men worked in his team a little less than two years. In November 2002, heresigned on a formal occasion-elected positions of vice-governors were abolished under federal law. There was no appointment to a similar position. “In the team of Gromov, Men was still a stranger-as a result, the Gromovo colonels of the Afghans ate it,” says Boris Nadezhdin (in Afghanistan Gromov made a military career, including he withdrew troops from this country in 1989).

A few days after the resignation, Mikhail Men went to a new place of work - Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov appointed him his deputy. “Mikhail Men is an experienced and decent person. Having submitted an application for departure from his former post, Men was invited by me to the city government, ”Luzhkov explained his choice.

According to Nadezhdin, the quick appointment of me by the vice-mayor was explained by the fact that the authorities of the capital and the Moscow Region had long been conflicting on the land and transport issue. “The lesser who knew the thunder cuisine well was a find for Luzhkov. Then the real wars of the feudal lords were going on, the participation of Vladimir Putin as an arbitrator was not implied in them, it was not implied, it was the battles of the boyars with a weak king, ”he says.

In the metropolitan city hall, Mikhail Men oversee interregional (including interaction with his native suburbs), interethnic and inter -religious relations. In 2005, a 45-year-old official was sent relatively young for Russian politics for a promotion -Putin appointed me the acting governor of the Ivanovo region.

Shortly before this, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod region was the former deputy Luzhkov Valery Shantsev - one of the key figures of the metropolitan administration. And close to Luzhkov, the vice speaker of the State Duma from United Russia, Georgy Boos headed the Kaliningrad region.

The smallest received one of the most depressed regions of the middle lane. The book of political scientist Vitaly Ivanov “Head of the subject of the Russian Federation” says that the appointment of me “personally lobby” the deputy head of the presidential administration, the curator of domestic politics Vladislav Surkov: “They have once agreed on love for rock music.”

Since the mid-1980s, Mikhail Men played a bass player and sang in several hard rock groups. Already as an official, he recorded the album “Made in Moscow” with a member of the Deep Purple group, Glenn Hugues and a member of the Rainbow group, Joe Linn Terner.

Varangian Governor and Crisis Manager

With the advent of the new governor, the majority of key posts in the government of the Ivanovo region were occupied by the Varangians - then the practice of landing in the region of the whole team that had previously not had the relations of officials to him was still in the novelty. In 2008, Mar even appointed one of the Vikings of Sergei Pakhomov by the speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the region. “Then it was some kind of nonsense,” the interlocutor of “Medusa” in “United Russia” shrugs his hands.

At that time, at that time, he also left home every weekend, where his family lived most of his time, says the interlocutor of Medusa, familiar with Pavel Konkov (Governor of the Ivanovo Region in 2013-2017).

“For me, liberal beliefs are primarily humanism and market relations in the economy. This is the basis of liberal thinking. In my opinion, a person can combine liberal beliefs with non -authoritarian, but rather rigid principles of management if circumstances require this, ”Mikhail Men himself later characterized his views.

Being the governor, Mikhail Men became close to the first deputy chairman of the government and future President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. Since 2008, Medvedev has often been in Ples (standing on the Volga in the Ivanovo region): the smallest attracted the interest of the head of state to this town. Medvedev especially liked the half -abandoned estate "Mercy".

In 2008, the Dar Foundation took the estate, while Medvedev began to regularly come there after the repair. The founder of the Corruption Foundation, Alexei Navalny, calls Medvedev the real owner of the estate. He notes that the FSO unit was located in the Ples, and a useless zone has been installed above the city.

The Plesky Bulletin newspaper counted eight Medvedev’s visits to Ples from 2008 to 2012. “On August 4, 2008, a commemorative board was dedicated to the Pleskoy Yacht Club building, where D.A. Medvedev dined during his first arrival in the company of the Governor of the Ivanovo Region Mikhail Alexandrovich and Governor of the Kostroma Region Igor Nikolayevich Slyunyaev,” the newspaper journalists were proudly noted.

In turn, Mikhail Men admitted that it was Dmitry Medvedev who helped Ples to enter the program for the development of domestic and inbound tourism. “And this is what over the next two years will radically change the entire infrastructure of the city - a power supply system, sewage, roads. What will affect the quality of the life of every Plesa resident. Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev really fell in love with Ples and really helps the Ivanovo region and this city, ”he said .

Before retired from the governor’s position, Men said that he led the region as a “crisis manager”. “I clearly understand that my main mission as a governor directed from the capital to the region has been completed. Today, political and business elites are aimed at creating, ”Men reasoned. In 2006, he proudly reported that the region in the rating of the investment attractiveness of the Russian regions rose from 45 to 19th place.

Construction Minister and Auditor of Nature

In the government of Dmitry Medvedev, Men received a ministerial post: in 2013, he began to lead the newly created Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities. The Ministry of Construction at Men was setting up citizens from emergency housing, a new overhaul system of apartment buildings, and projects for the formation of a comfortable urban environment. The construction market under the mines survived reforms in the field of shared construction - and by the end of his leadership of the Ministry of Construction, officials began to gradually abandon the "lobster". In addition, under Mene in 2017, a housing renovation program in Moscow, which the authorities now intend to spread throughout the country, started.

In the federal office of ministers, he worked for five years; After the 2018 presidential election, Medvedev did not enter the second government of Medvedev. The media read the position of envoy to the Central Federal District. But around the same time, after a long break, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin, who became the chairman of the Accounts Chamber, returned to the civil service. Minut, according to the president, was appointed its auditor.

In the Accounts Chamber, the smaller leads the direction of the audit of environmental management and the agro -industrial complex, checking, including the work of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture, Rosprirodnadzor, etc.

In 2019, the smaller could change work: the then Deputy Prime Minister and Ecology, Alexei Gordeev, officially said that the smaller will become the head of the long-suffering Russian ecological operator, who is responsible for the garbage reform throughout the country (since the creation in January 2019, the leadership has already changed in the state-owned company; the new-the director is still not appointed, and the reform continues to slip). But despite the public statement of the deputy prime minister that the “processing process” is going on, the appointment did not take place in the end.

The smaller so far retains its position of the auditor of the Accounts Chamber - to release it, a separate decision of the parliament is needed. Kudrin did not comment on the accusations against me; The press service of the Accounts Chamber emphasized that the accusations relate to the period of work in the Ivanovo region in 2011 and that the chamber will wait for the investigation.

“Sovereign Service. Nothing personal "

Mikhail has six children. In his free time, he plays in the music group Chetmen (according to the first syllables of the names of its creators - guitarist Dmitry Thursday and me). On the group’s website in the section on its history, the Men is represented as “a musician, singer, composer and arranger”, as well as “one of the world -famous guitar collectors”.

The biography emphasizes that the smaller began his creative activity at 10 years, playing in 1970 the main role in the film " Deniskin Stories " based on the same story by Viktordragansky. “After a successful debut in the boy’s film, Soviet film studios began to be invited to continue their career, but Michael’s parents were against the work of the young son as an artist and insisted that he successfully graduate from a comprehensive school,” the site says.

The smaller actively leads social networks. Under one of the last photos on his Instagram, where he poses in his own office under Putin's pencil portrait, the two -headed eagle and the icon of the Archangel Mikhail, smaller spoke about the plan of checks of the Accounts Chamber for 2021, having completed the post with the words: “Sovereign Service. Nothing personal, but sometimes it’s very offensive for the power. ” On November 12, smaller celebrated the 60th anniversary.

Boris Nadezhdin calls the “political” pursuit of Mikhail me. He is surprised that they gave a move right now, although in the case of the successor to the post of governor of the Ivanovo region Pavel Konkov, arrested in 2019, there are already sentences. “There is some kind of struggle under the carpet,” says Nadezhdin. “There will be what to start the case for any official in any regional government, these are some elite showdowns, and not the fight against corruption.”

Andrey Pertsev and Farida Rustamova