The war wrote everything off

Bailiffs write off the debts of ex-prisoners from the Ministry of Defense detachments, although the law does not require this

The fighters of the Storm Z units get rid of debt obligations after they are recruited in the colonies of the Ministry of Defense. As “Verstka” found out from the data of the bailiffs’ files, enforcement proceedings on unpaid loans, state duties and civil claims are closed to the fighters, despite the fact that the debtors have sources of income.

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The fact that the Ministry of Defense, when recruiting, promises prisoners to get rid of debts in July was reported by the ex-head of the Serpukhov district of the Moscow region, Alexander Shestun, who is serving a sentence in correctional colony No. 6 in Bezhetsk. In his post, which was published by the telegram channel “VChK-OGPU,” Shestun wrote that in July 2023, in addition to salaries, prisoners were promised “repayment of all debt obligations, except for alimony.”
Although this is not formally provided for by law, bailiffs are willing to fulfill the Ministry of Defense’s promise , an analysis by Vorstka showed.

Thus, on June 28, a soldier of the “Storm Z” unit, Pavel Alyokhin from the 71st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment , was immediately closed with 11 enforcement proceedings totaling 639 thousand rubles . Among them are debts on loan payments in microfinance organizations and moral damages in a civil suit. The bailiffs opened some of the proceedings only in the spring-summer of 2023 and closed them almost immediately. Pavel Alekhin’s largest debt of 321 thousand rubles is compensation from a civil claim within the framework of a criminal case.

In December 2022, Alyokhin was sentenced to 26 years for robbery and murder of a 91-year-old pensioner in Tambov. A close friend of the murdered pensioner sued Alyokhin for compensation for moral damage in this criminal case. But immediately after the verdict, Alekhine enlisted in the Storm Z unit. And in May 2023, Pavel Alekhin became the hero of federal media materials - in them he said that he received a pardon, signed a six-month contract with the Ministry of Defense and now, as an “employee of the Ministry of Defense”, receives a salary from Storm Z.

Despite the presence of an official salary, Tambov bailiff Natalya Pankova, when terminating enforcement proceedings, Alyokhina referred to clause 4 of part 1 of Art. 46 of the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”. In accordance with it, the proceedings are terminated “if the debtor does not have property that can be levied on, and all measures taken by the bailiff permissible by law to find his property were unsuccessful.”

Another hero of the reports about “Storm Z” and Alyokhin’s colleague is Oleg Batishchev. The Lipetsk bailiff closed the enforcement proceedings for him on the debt, which the Federal Tax Service demanded to collect - a court state fee. The bailiff referred to clause 3 of part 1 of Art. 46 of the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”, since since December I could not find either the debtor himself or his property. In September 2022, Batishchev was convicted of murder, but in the spring he appeared in the “Soloviev live” story among the Ministry of Defense fighters from among “Storm Z” .

Former Crimean prisoner Artyom Gavzheev , who also serves in the 71st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, had two enforcement proceedings closed in April and May 2023. One of the proceedings is procedural costs to the state in the amount of 11,500 rubles, which Gavzheev had to pay to a lawyer in his criminal case. The man was convicted four times for possession and sale of drugs and theft and, according to his last conviction in 2022, served a sentence of 5 years and 4 months in prison . But in May 2023, he appeared as a Storm Z fighter in a video by blogger Alexander Volozhanin, who serves in the same unit with Gavzheev.

On July 29, “Storm Z” fighter Vyacheslav Stepanenko had enforcement proceedings closed to collect a loan in the amount of 16,371 rubles. He has been at war since March 2023, but is now in the hospital due to injury. Before traveling to Ukraine, the man, according to his own words, was serving a 19-year sentence.

For the same reasons, the bailiff terminated the IP for a credit debt in the amount of 9,200 rubles in relation to Kemerovo resident Vladislav Kanyus. In 2020, Kanyus beat his ex-girlfriend Vera Pekhteleva for several hours and then strangled her. For this he was sentenced to 17 years in a maximum security colony . But in the summer of 2023, Vera Pekhteleva’s parents received a photograph of Kanyus in military uniform and with weapons and assumed that he had gone to the Wagner PMC. Later, the FSIN informed them that Kanyus had left for the GUFSIN in the Rostov region on April 28. It is likely that Kanyus entered into a contract not with the PMC, but with the Ministry of Defense. Yevgeny Prigozhin stated in February 2023 that recruitment to the Wagner PMC from the colonies had completely stopped. According to Sitting Rus', since February 2023, representatives of the Ministry of Defense have been involved in recruitment in the colonies - prisoners were recruited for service in the Storm Z units.

Illegal exemption from penalties

Anastasia Sirotina, a lawyer for the Sitting Rus' Foundation, explained to Vorstka that a serviceman who has entered into a contract with the Ministry of Defense receives a monetary allowance from the department, which, in essence, is his salary. In accordance with the Federal Law “On Enforcement Proceedings”, bailiffs can impose a penalty on these payments, and then the employer himself, that is, the Ministry of Defense, is obliged to deduct money from the soldier’s salary and transfer it to the bailiffs.

In the summer of 2022, amendments to Federal Law No. 229-FZ “On Enforcement Proceedings” came into force, which prohibited the collection of debts from payments to military personnel and National Guardsmen participating in hostilities “outside the territory of the Russian Federation” (Article 101, paragraph 21). However, the occupied territories in which the Storm Z units are fighting are recognized as “the territory of the Russian Federation” from the point of view of Russian legislation.

The bailiffs themselves have enough authority to establish the whereabouts of the debtor, the lawyer notes.

At the same time, legislative amendments adopted in December 2022 make it possible to temporarily suspend enforcement proceedings against military personnel at the time of their participation in hostilities. The serviceman must request such a deferment by personal application.

“But to exempt from collection, justifying this by the lack of property or the inability to find military personnel, is illegal . The grounds for termination of enforcement proceedings are clearly regulated; their list is contained in the law and is exhaustive,” says Sirotina. “The termination of enforcement proceedings and release from collection means that subsequently this enforcement proceedings cannot be resumed. If enforcement proceedings against someone are terminated, then those who receive money from penalties must start the whole process again from scratch: go to court, receive a writ of execution.”

Lawyer Anastasia Burakova says that this practice of terminating enforcement proceedings after the start of the war in Ukraine has turned from corrupt into “ideological.”

“The termination of enforcement proceedings due to the impossibility of establishing the whereabouts of the debtor, his property or account is not a new practice, but previously it was more likely to be corrupt than “ideological,” notes Burakova. “With the outbreak of the war, the state is trying to take advantage of the extreme poverty of the population and lure people to war, releasing criminals from colonies, forgiving debts, paying amounts that a person would not have earned in his entire working life.”

According to her, most likely, the bailiffs provide formal documents about the measures taken to collect debts: requests to banks, real estate registries, which allegedly did not yield results. In conditions of complete subordination of the legal system to the political situation , the system will turn a blind eye to poor quality work and the rights of the claimant .

“The creditor has the opportunity to challenge the decision to terminate enforcement proceedings, but if there is an order from above, there will be little hope for a fair court decision,” Burakova believes.

From the very beginning of the war, Russian authorities have been trying to improve conditions for combatants. Thus, in March 2022, the Federal Bailiff Service spoke in favor of canceling the collection of bank debts from the military and National Guard in connection with the “special operation,” RBC wrote . Then the department suggested that banks withdraw the enforcement documents in progress from the bailiffs. However, this idea was not implemented.

In the fall of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allows loan debts to be written off in the event of the death of a SVO participant or the development of a Group I disability as a result of combat operations.

Cover: El