They did not abandon their own

The Karelian official was found a new position without waiting for the verdict. Under him, the buried in Sandarmokh was declared "victims of the Finnish occupation."

"Maxim Antipov returned to sports!" -With such an enthusiastic post on social networks, the Minister of Education of the Republic Roman Golubev commented on June 10, the first working day as the head of the Aquatika water-sports center in Petrozavodsk, the former head of the administration of the Medvezhyegorsky district, Maxim Antipov. In this appointment of the Karelian athlete, the champion of Russia and the world in combat sambo in the past, it would not have been surprising if it were not for one circumstance: Maxim Antipov was the defendant in the criminal case of exceeding official powers.

The process over the former municipal official began in the Medvezhyegorsk District Court on May 29. Clause “E” of part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, on which the ex-mayor is charged, provides for a punishment of liberty for a term of three to ten years. But even before the announcement of the verdict, the republican authorities found the defendant Antipov a new position in the autonomous institution “Center for Sports Training of the Republic of Karelia”, where a backward official went to one of the most monetary units - Aquatika.

“I am sure that he will quickly flush into work in his native industry,” Roman Golubev wrote in social networks. - I know that Maxim Leonidovich also plans to train Petrozavodsky guys. The champion himself is a student of the founder of the Karelian school of sambo Ilya Shegelman. ”

Note that before he head the district administration in Medvezhyegorsk, Antipov served as the first deputy minister of sports Karelia, so the republican authorities consider him their own.

But if with the Karelian officials the champion of the country and the world in the combat sambo built a very good relationship, then the famous athlete did not manage to find mutual understanding with Medvezhyegorsk social activists.

Local residents did not immediately like the fact that the new mayor began their activities with an increase in their own official salary, and the district barely made ends meet. But when activists from Medvezhyegorsk began to criticize the municipal official in social networks, he answered them with dozens of statements to the police at those who were dissatisfied with the district authorities.

During the leadership of Antipov, the Medvezhyegorsky district was repeatedly shocked by scandals - from the eviction of stray dogs from the municipal shelter to plans to transfer part of the city park, comfortable for budget money. In July last year in Medvezhyegorsk, a small rally was even held for the resignation of the district mayor, organized by local activist Igor Turev. He emphasized that the participants in the action do not put forward any political requirements, but only express disagreement with the financial and economic activities of the management of the district administration. Nevertheless, those gathered in the main square of the city demanded not only to resign Maxim Antipov, but also to return direct elections of the mayor in the Medvezhygorsky district.

A few months later, the former municipal official of Antipov was in the center of the scandal, which broke out around the improvement of the Sandarmokh memorial cemetery in the vicinity of Medvezhyegorsk, where several thousand victims of Stalinist repressions rest. The district administration acted as a customer for which 24 million rubles were allocated from the republican budget. However, the contractor - the Juven company - was able to begin the improvement of the memorial only under the snow, and before the New Year the work begun had to be turned off.

But before leaving the facility, the workers installed in Sandarmokh Stles, which says that in addition to victims of political repression in the memorial cemetery, there are also “victims of the Finnish occupation”. Moreover, the word "Finnish" on the stele was carved with the title letter.

The deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Karelia from the Yabloko party, Emilia Slabunova, who visited the ex-head of the district administration Maxim Antipov, who agreed to the installation of the stele, and he referred to the Republican Office for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Councils. Slabunova warned the customer that such an inscription on the stele does not correspond to the status of a memorial cemetery, since in the federal register of cultural heritage objects there is no mention of the victims of the Finnish occupation in the territory of Sandarmokh. “This contradicts historical truth,” the deputy emphasized, to which the former district mayor said that he himself did not even see this inscription.

However, the crown of the career of the municipal official was the story of the crushed stone, which led the famous Karelian athlete on the bench of the defendants. Last May, the International Stone Production Forum was held in Petrozavodsk. It was on irony that on this day the Karelian security forces detained Maxim Antipov on suspicion of assigning 40 crushed stone cars intended for public territories, which, according to the investigation, took the municipal official to the family site.

The investigation of the criminal case against Maxim Antipov lasted a year, but before the court to appear before, the head of the district administration announced his resignation.

“He made a difficult but deliberate and balanced decision to resign from the post of head of the administration of the Medvezhyegorsky district in connection with the move and transition to another place of work,” Antipov said in social networks.

Obviously, the district chief already knew that the republican authorities would not abandon him, despite the accusations against him.

According to the Karelia Prosecutor's Office, from May to November 2022, Antipov, being the head of the administration of the Medvezhyegorsky district, illegally received at least 800 tons of crushed stone worth more than 250 thousand rubles from entrepreneurs, which used to equip his site. The ex-mayor himself did not plead guilty to court.

It is noteworthy that the republican authorities took the defendant Antipov to work in the center of sports training two weeks after the director of the Center, deputy of the City Council and former FSB special forces Timur Zornyakov was arrested in Petrozavodsk. True, he is charged with a completely different article - an illegal collection of information constituting GOSTain.