"Landing" of the Governor of the Kirov Region Nikita Belykh: "What was that?" Nikita Belykh's wife: Eight years in prison for him is a death sentence

It’s too early to draw a conclusion, but conclusions must be drawn

The detention and then arrest of Governor Nikita Belykh on June 24 in one of the Moscow restaurants came as a complete surprise to many residents of the Kirov region. Some, as they admitted, were simply shocked by this news. According to investigators, Belykh personally and through an intermediary received bribes from special large size for a total amount of 400 thousand euros for committing actions in favor of the bribe-giver and JSC Novovyatsky Ski Plant and LLC Forestry Management Company controlled by him. N. Belykh himself considers everything that happened to be a “set-up.”

The decision is up to the president

Today, various versions of what happened are actively discussed. From: “This is a setup, definitely!” - before: “No matter how much the rope twists...” The truth, most likely, as always, is somewhere in the middle. It is doubtful that operational measures against an official of such rank could be carried out without the approval of the highest level. However, the president of the country, through his press secretary, said that “investigative bodies work independently, so there is no talk of any kind of consultations in advance.” At the same time, Peskov added that the decision to remove the governor from office is made only by the president. “I cannot announce such a decision now, it will be his decision,” said the press secretary of the head of state.

Indeed, the decision is now up to the president. They also name the deadline for making such a decision: July 18 - two months before the single voting day. Until this time, the situation remains “suspended.” The arrest of N. Belykh also took his immediate subordinates by surprise. The confusion that reigned in the regional government in the first hours can be judged by a series of strange statements. For example, it was reported that during the absence of the governor, his duties would be performed in turns (!) by all 11 of his deputies. Meticulous journalists even calculated that in the time remaining before the possible elections, each of the deputies would be able to lead the region for as much as a whole week! On the morning of Monday, June 27, an emergency meeting of the regional government was held. This meeting was closed to the press. As a result, residents of the region were informed: Alexey Kuznetsov was unanimously appointed acting chairman of the government. He himself, in a statement to the press, emphasized: “The powers at my disposal make it possible to ensure the continuity of resolution of all issues relating to the functioning of the region.” However, the very next day, the same A. Kuznetsov, at a meeting with the heads of municipalities, admitted that in the current situation the government, and with it the districts and cities of the region, had no time for “strategy,” but God forbid they could cope with “tactics,” for which he called everyone “to think about the current situation and take personal responsibility for their work.”

Governorship. Results

The arrest of Belykh became the reason for summing up some (hopefully, not final, but necessarily intermediate) results of his activities as governor of the Kirov region. Unfortunately, in journalistic collections, which have become countless in recent days, achievements of dubious properties predominate.

First of all, they remember the political “somersault” when at the end of 2008 Nikita Belykh, the former leader of the right-wing liberal party “Union of Right Forces”, which positioned itself as an opposition to the “Kremlin regime”, decided to integrate into this very regime and lead the Kirov region. “Nikita Yuryevich sold his soul to the devil,” Maria Gaidar, a member of the presidium of the political council of the Union of Right Forces, said then. However, this did not stop Maria Yegorovna herself from accepting Nikita Yuryevich’s invitation to become his adviser, and then his deputy.

By the way, the selection of the team is also considered one of the dubious achievements of the Vyatka governor. And if someone from this team voluntarily left the Kirov region, such as the former Belykh deputies - Sergei Karnaukhov and Maria Gaidar, then the fate of others turned out to be completely unenviable. Belykh’s advisors, Alexei Navalny and Andrei Votinov, as well as the head of targeted projects, Roman Shipov, were convicted, and the former head of the state property department, Konstantin Arzamastsev, who escaped from the investigation, had to be caught all the way abroad.

In general, searches in the office and home of Governor Belykh on June 24 were not carried out for the first time. In 2013, investigators had already visited there in connection with the criminal case against the Urzhum distillery, but that time everything turned out fine...

Governor Belykh did not have a good relationship with the largest opposition party in the region - the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In 2012, Kirov communists held a series of protests against Belykh and collected signatures for his resignation. Belykh was accused of allowing an armed conflict on ethnic grounds in the village of Demyanovo. The Communists also blamed Nikita Yuryevich for the deterioration of the situation in a number of areas, for example in agriculture and healthcare. The first secretary of the Kirov regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Sergei Mamaev, spoke in the State Duma with public criticism of the governor, after which Belykh sued him and won the case, suing the communist for 90 thousand rubles.

The story of the purchase of, as they wrote then, “the most expensive tomograph in Russia”, the “styrene scandal” at the opening of the perinatal center, the construction (now frozen due to the financial difficulties of the contractor) of the “Terra-Sport” facility on the territory of the Palace of Pioneers received great public attention -memorial, a massive “entry” into the region of all kinds of Perm and Moscow firms and retail chains, the construction of the Hilton Hotel in the park near Diorama (the co-owner of the hotel is called ex-wife N.Yu. Belykh), the construction of a variety of, sometimes controversial and even ridiculous, in the opinion of some Kirov residents, monuments in the regional center...

"My friend Nikita Belykh"

Until the president's final decision is announced, heavyweight politicians prefer to remain silent. Perhaps only Anatoly Chubais clearly supported the Kirov governor. Nikita Belykh’s longtime friend and business partner, owner of Vyatka-Bank (Norvik), Grigory Guselnikov, gave a lengthy message on his blog on the Echo of Moscow website. “In principle, there are no sinless people, if anyone has forgotten, but Nikita is the last person in our power structure, in my subjective opinion, to whom this should have happened,” he wrote. “He did not feel sorry for himself and his health and did not hope that his sacrifice would ever be appreciated.”

Grigory Aleksandrovich tried to explain how it could have happened that his friend was detained while receiving bundles of euros. According to him, it could be, for example, a debt that Nikita Yuryevich “most likely was paid in cash” (cash. - T.A.). He also settled on the version voiced by representatives of the Investigative Committee from the words, as reported, of N. Belykh himself. We are allegedly talking about sponsorship from certain businessmen “for the needs of the city” (Kirova. - T.A.). G. Guselnikov spoke in detail about the many projects that the Kirov governor financed at his personal expense: “He built ramps for the disabled in the city, invested personal money in bicycle parking and chapels, held city events... I know that Nikita at his personal expense led many parallel projects in the city - from repairing old pavements to new monuments, from putting parks in order to restoring churches. Many of the projects were large, so entrepreneurs chipped in for their implementation. So, for example, we gave money for Romance Day and for the Assol monument, restored Apollo Park...

Let us recall that all work similar to “pavement repairs” was put up for auction, money for them was allocated from the budget, and not a single square meter of road surface or sidewalks was paid for from N. Belykh’s personal money. As for the ramps, we reliably managed to find out about two paid for by Nikita Yuryevich - at the Druzhba cinema and near the circus. City events also went through a bidding procedure, and the sponsors who participated in their financing were always announced, and the name of the private donor Belykh was never found anywhere (for example, the sponsor of the “Time Machine” concert at one of the City Days was the same “Vyatka- Bank" by G. Guselnikov, as reported on the official website of the bank, and at the performance of "Buranovskie Babushki" Sberbank was the official partner, as evidenced by a giant banner on the stage). At the same time, tenders for financing these holidays were also posted on the government procurement website. That is, there was no talk of any “cache”! Then what is Guselnikov talking about?

Will the investigation figure it out?

Well, as Nikita Yuryevich himself said during his arrest, the investigation will sort it out, but for now a few comments on the matter. What cannot be taken away from N.Yu., who is still the governor of the Kirov region. White, because of his economic literacy. And who, if not him, should know how the budget of any municipal entity, for example the city of Kirov, is formed. Receiving hundreds of thousands of euros in cash in a dimly lit restaurant in the capital clearly does not fit into any legal budgeting scheme!

In the meantime, it seems that the version with money “for the needs of the city,” announced the day after the arrest, may be an attempt to evade the charge of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale and try to reclassify the incident as abuse of authority. Considering that for the first crime, the perpetrator faces a maximum of up to 15 years in prison, as well as a fine of 70 times the amount of the bribe (in this case, almost two billion rubles!), and for the second, you can get off with forced labor and a ban on holding certain positions for several years, then the game is worth the candle.

The other day, a single picket took place on Teatralnaya Square in defense of the arrested Kirov governor. Is it necessary to protect Nikita Belykh? Of course you need it! Like any other citizen of Russia, who is guaranteed by the Constitution the right to defense and an objective consideration of the case in court. But it is even more important for the authorities, including the Kirov regional and city authorities, today, without waiting for a court decision, to draw conclusions from this governor’s “landing” - to each their own.

T. ANDREEV.

P.S. As it became known, brother N.Yu. submitted his resignation of his own free will on June 28. Belykh - Alexander Yuryevich, who was the head of the department of the Prosecutor General's Office for the Volga Federal District. And on June 29, Nikita Yuryevich himself announced the start of a hunger strike in protest against the charges brought against him.

The wife of the ex-governor gave a press conference and answered several personal questions from the journalist of the Svoykirovsky portal.

On February 10, Ekaterina Belykh visited Kirov to talk with local journalists and film a video about what her husband did for the Kirov region as governor. The Kirov residents gave Ekaterina a short tour, simultaneously talking about the mood in society and the attitude of the locals towards the arrest of Nikita Belykh.

The press conference was attended by most of the media of the Kirov region. In addition to Ekaterina herself, the speakers were also her lawyer Daniil Berman and Nikita Yuryevich’s defender Andrei Grokhotov.

The wife of the ex-governor began her speech with condolences.

I would like to offer condolences to the residents of the Kirov region in connection with the fact that Mr. Sudgeimer [The briber in the case of Nikita Belykh, a German businessman, owner of the Novovyatsky ski plant] appeared in your region some time ago. I know that talented people live here strong people, who, especially lately, often wish me good luck and patience. I would like to wish you good luck and patience, because personally I think that Mr. Sudheimer robbed you. I was under interrogation. We all heard with what disdain he spoke of Kirov. Meanwhile, his company is functioning. Today we were traveling by train, and a train with untreated wood and the inscription “NLK” passed us.

Ekaterina explained why she came to Kirov, why they needed this video, why talk again and again about all the inconsistencies in the case, which the court for some reason did not take into account.

To my great regret, some inertia of perception allows about 60% of people to draw incorrect conclusions. And I, of course, both as a wife and as a person who recognizes himself on the side of the truth, would like to dispel many illusions. I understand perfectly well that people may have different opinions. For example, people in Kazakhstan will see pictures on Ren TV with glowing hands and banknotes around them. And what is there to understand in this matter? What kind of “teleports”, inconsistencies and smeared packages are there? This is a good calculation. People without critical thinking rely on “oh, that’s it.” We have to figure it out, we have to preserve our memory.

Ekaterina, together with lawyer Andrei Grokhotov, once again lists the obvious gaps in the case. The only clear “proof” of the governor’s guilt, in their opinion, can only be called the “show” that was shown to Russians on TV. The governor with glowing palms and a confused look. There is cache lying around. Well, how can you not believe it? However, they don’t count money with their palms, and, as it turned out later, everything was smeared with a special compound - a large gift bag, and even a bottle of wine.

15 minutes before the governor’s arrest, Catherine was with him.

I was with him exactly at the moment when Sudheimer called him and moved their meeting from the lobby bar, in which there were about 40 people and 30 cameras, to the closed part of the restaurant, which was then very successfully called the “tavern.”

Another indirect, but indirect evidence of Belykh’s innocence can be considered the fact that during the searches nothing was found on him. Well, except for four bottles of “elite alcohol” (moonshine, actually). Catherine illustrated this with other examples from recent high-profile corruption cases.

27 real estate properties and 8.5 billion rubles were confiscated from police colonel Zakharchenko. Property worth a billion rubles was confiscated from the former governor of Sakhalin Khoroshavin. More than 60 kg of jewelry, 150 watches, more than 50 seals and stamps of legal entities involved in the implementation of offshore schemes, and a project for the purchase of two Bombardier aircraft were confiscated from Gaiser (the governor of Komi).

Catherine speaks in a firm voice, in which there is no trembling. She almost calmly talks about the fact that Nikita Belykh most likely will not survive the transfer to the Kirov region if this happens. And only journalists in the front row can see how periodically the eyes of the ex-governor’s wife turn red, become wet, and she takes a short pause to drive away such unnecessary emotions from herself.

I was at all the hearings. I looked into the eyes of Seryozha Shcherchkov [Belykh’s former deputy and friend], who had the rudeness to wink at me, slandering my husband, who in turn aged 25 years while in the pre-trial detention center. I looked at Mr. Sudheimer, at all these people. I saw what was happening. The entire convoy, the bailiffs, saw this, many of whom quit after that. I have three options: lie down near the walls of “Matrosskaya Tishina” and die immediately, sit and cry all day long, or do the maximum to help my husband. I have to help the whole family, because if I fall apart, who will support them?

After the press conference, journalists and social activists approach Ekaterina to ask questions and simply wish her more strength. Someone hands Nikita Belykh a book, someone quietly says “we are with you.” She listens to everyone, and thanks everyone, and when leaving, she tries to warm up a little. “This is where the stress goes,” she says and points to her legs, which are cramping with emotion.

We are on the street, and Ekaterina, shuddering, smokes cigarettes one after another.

Before Nikita’s arrest, I came to Kirov only once, but for a few days. We had a long cool walk around the city, we went to the ice cream museum and the chocolate museum. I managed to look around. Today, when I again walked through the same and new places, listening to the guide’s story, I felt proud of Nikita Yuryevich. He's great. As for the memories... It's very painful, of course. I feel not even resentment, but annoyance. Because of one person... It seems to me that the name Sudheimer will become a household name. I will do everything for this. Wherever I can tell about this person, I will tell.

Speaking about personal health and regime, Nikita Belykh’s wife is trying to quickly skip this topic. But she hints that her health is still normal, despite all the difficulties.

I have a spartan regime, it’s just that, apparently, I have fewer diagnoses. For the last two years I have been living either at the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in my car, or at Matrosskaya Tishina, again in my car. This is my mobile office. I have a blanket there, a supply of food, water, and medicine. But I will endure everything, the main thing is that Nikita Yuryevich has enough strength.

Ekaterina is not only the modern wife of a Decembrist, but also the mother of five-year-old Misha, who loves Star Wars very much and is always ready to defend the person closest to him.

The child has my character. He is a man, he is five years old! When Nikita was arrested, I came home. My son was only three years old then. Do you know what the three-year-old boy did? He took a plastic gun, stood near my room and said: “I will protect my mother.” He is now writing letters to Nikita. During almost two years of his imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center, he mastered letters, syllables... I take photos and send them through the application to “Matrosskaya Tishina”. By the way, three days after Nikita’s arrest, Mishka came to the garden, stood in the middle of the group, stamped his foot and said: “I demand that the pirates who stole Nikita return him.” Funny, childish. He has his own version of the development of events. He didn’t want to let me go to Kirov, so literally before leaving, I bought him a chinchilla. She was named Che Guevara, by the way. Now we have a chinchilla, four dogs, three cats, four birds, and five squirrels on the property.

Ekaterina assures that neither she nor the lawyers encountered any pressure. But there are difficulties in communications, of course. They are easy to explain.

I was looking for a doctor for a press conference in Moscow [an endocrinologist was needed at the press conference to explain the seriousness of Nikita Belykh’s health problems]. Many people are ready to advise me, but doctors from government agencies told me in plain text that they would not be allowed into the press center. And if they come, they will be fired. Another situation: I have a boy on Twitter who is very worried about this whole situation. He serves in the unit, and I know that his superiors gave him two orders for writing tweets in defense of Nikita. I’ll probably still have to get the status of a lawyer and go into human rights.

Zinaida Dmitrievna is very strong, of course. Our communication looks rather strange, because I am trying to support her, and she is trying to support me. But that's probably how it should be.

In a short period, Catherine had to transform from an absolutely closed and non-public person into a real media personality.

I have almost everything social media were closed. About four years ago, I deleted all information about myself from the Internet. I only have a couple of resumes left there. Shortly before Nikita Yuryevich’s arrest, I planned to work in a government agency on a very large Moscow media project. And those four months of silence after I was dubbed a poetess were aimed at the fact that the wave of interest would subside and everyone would forget about me. This did not happen, to my great regret. And we had to build a dialogue with the media. We must pay tribute to many correspondents and journalists who, despite the first negative impression of the publicity of my person and the situation with Nikita Yuryevich, behaved like real reasonable people and even supported and helped me very much in many ways.

Now Ekaterina Belykh and Andrei Grokhotov are doing everything to ensure that Nikita Yuryevich is not transferred to the Kirov region. He may be sent to our region due to his local registration. But there are loopholes, and his wife is not discouraged.

If he is sent to Kirov, it means we will see each other more than once, because I will absolutely definitely move to live here. Maybe I'll have to open an endocrinology clinic here. Why not? It seems to me that even from the government’s position it would be logical to support such an initiative, because we have about 10 million diabetics in the country, and endocrinologists have been abolished.

But, naturally, I will ask the Federal Penitentiary Service to send Nikita Yuryevich to the Moscow region. We have the right to do this, we will write a request taking into account the fact that I have an official place of work in the Moscow region, there is real estate where registration can be done. Some argue that this is not practiced or allowed. Not certainly in that way. It is not prohibited. And everything that is not prohibited can be realized with the right amount of effort and stubbornness.

In 2009, when it became known about the appointment of SPS leader Nikita Belykh as governor of the Kirov region, they began to be indignant at internal political disputes in various public and party lobbies. They say, what’s going on here, a man walked around for several years with a poster saying “Putin’s gang is being brought to justice” and got the province for it,” voices were heard. Since career growth looks like this, everyone needs to get involved in the opposition, and not just any opposition, but precisely the most odious Kasparov’s Solidarity.

Fortunately, events in this province regularly made it onto the federal agenda for discussions. Vice-Governor for Social Affairs Maria Gaidar, advisor Alexei Navalny, then the Kirovles case: the “reserve of liberalism” never tired of reminding itself.

And the fact that Nikita’s older brother, at that time the prosecutor of the Perm region, Alexander Yuryevich Belykh, can be assumed to have provided some assistance or protection to his brother, the governor; from 2009 to 2015, he headed the prosecutor’s office of the Perm region. In June 2015, Alexander Belykh was appointed to the position of head of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District. And that’s when, in Navalny’s opened mail correspondence, they found letters from N. Belykh, where hewrote to him, now deal with the security forces yourself - one can assume that until this moment the Whites had some kind of opportunity to cover along the power line. But now he himself was under arrest, apparently as a result of an operation that had been prepared for a long time. Details of the arrest indicate that the governor was being “led.” And the brother, it seems, did not know or did not want to warn his brother to be careful and remove him from the territory of the region in advance promotion, depriving him of the opportunity to assist him.

A Navalny AND N Belykh during the Hunt.

The representative of the Investigative Committee emphasized that there is no political background in the case against Belykh, and guaranteed that the investigation will be comprehensive and objective. One of the companies mentioned in the Investigative Committee’s release, Novovyatsky Ski Combine, recently appeared in the media in connection with another criminal case. FSB investigators accuse an entrepreneur from Belarus, Albert Laritsky, of fictitiously lending to a company and stealing Sberbank loans. He is being tried under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“fraud on an especially large scale”). Laritsky was arrested in June 2015. Kommersant reports that he was a close friend of the governor of the Kirov region. Earlier, the ex-director of the Novovyatskiy Ski Plant, Vladimir Sysolyatin, and his deputy, Natalya Fukalova, were tried in Kirov. They are accused of illegally refunding VAT in the amount of 38 million rubles.

In December 2014, the Kirov court issued acquittals, but a year ago the cases were returned for further investigation, where they are still pending.
Sysolyatin, in an interview with Kommersant, claimed that Laritsky set him up and Fukalov, since all the money chains actually passed through Laritsky’s companies, and both ex-heads of the company were his “hired employees.” The punishment under the article that Nikita Belykh is charged with is from 8 to 15 years of imprisonment with a fine of 70 times the amount of the bribe, or a fine of 80 to 100 times the amount of the bribe with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a period of up to three years.

According to a law enforcement source cited by TASS, Belykh was detained during an operational experiment while receiving marked money: “100 euro bills marked with a special solution were handed over to Belykh under the control of operational officers as part of an operational experiment.” (June 24, 2016) In 2004, Belykh became the leader of the Union of Right Forces. The media claimed that Belykh took advantage of the connections of his deputy at the Perm Union of Right Forces, Sergei Shcherchkov.
Shcherchkov is one of the deputy general directors of Territorial Generating Company No. 9, which is part of the structure of RAO UES, headed by the shadow leader of the SPS Chubais. On December 17, 2007, Belykh at the SPS congress announced his resignation as head of the party’s federal political council, since he considers himself responsible for its defeat in the parliamentary elections. In his opinion, before the elections to the State Duma it was necessary to create a unified democratic party of Russia, but this was not done. In addition, Belykh said, he is guilty of “not including a number of worthy people in the lists of party candidates who could attract additional votes.”

On December 8, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted Belykh's candidacy to the Legislative Assembly of the Kirov Region for consideration to vest it with the powers of governor. Belykh said that he accepted the offer of the head of state because he considered it possible to “realize himself in regional work.” He expressed hope of maintaining personal relations with his former comrades in the opposition, but some of them condemned him, suggesting that the post of governor was offered to Belykh as a reward “for abandoning the party” and helping to create the “Right Cause.” Belykh and his comrades in the democratic movement “Solidarity”, in the creation of which Belykh took an active part, were also convicted.

Even before the congress of democratic forces held in December 2008, at which the movement was founded, Belykh announced his withdrawal from Solidarity. He explained his decision by saying that the principles of the movement do not imply cooperation with the authorities, which, in turn, gave rise to accusing the Whites of apostasy. In 2009, the head of state visited Vyatka (the old name of Kirov). Governor Belykh prepared thoroughly for the arrival of Dmitry Medvedev. For example, along the president’s route, a railroad crossing was paved (to prevent the motorcade from shaking), and several sewer manholes were rolled into asphalt for the same purpose. A one-way street was turned into a two-way street, urgent road markings were applied (so that an overzealous traffic police officer would not decide to fine the head of state for driving into the oncoming lane), and residents of the streets along which Medvedev drove were required to wash their windows.
In March 2011, Nikita Belykh filed a lawsuit against the chairman of the board of directors of the Perm investment group Ermak, Nadezhda Agisheva, who on February 2, on the radio station Echo Perm, announced the governor’s involvement in the withdrawal of part of the assets of the Ermak company in 2008. Belykh demanded to refute the information discrediting him and to compensate 500 thousand rubles as compensation for moral damage. The Leninsky District Court of Perm decided to take into custody her husband, deputy of the regional legislative assembly Andrei Agishev (accused of illegal entrepreneurship), and Agisheva linked the criminal prosecution of her husband with the conflict of shareholders of the Ermak group, co-owned by the Agishev family.

During the court hearing, Nadezhda Agisheva’s representative stated that there was no interview at all, and the telephone conversation with the journalist was “confidential.” In April 2011, it became known that Nikita Belykh divorced his wife, who gave him three sons. Belykh carefully concealed his divorce from his wife. The fact was revealed only during the filing of the income tax return. The new document did not contain data on the income of the wife of the head of the region, although by law they must be published. In last year's declaration, the spouse was mentioned. The declaration was submitted in accordance with the law,” said Belykh’s press secretary Boris Vesnin. At the same time, employees of the Kirov region administration reported that Nikita Belykh was courting his deputy, Maria Gaidar. Maria Gaidar’s own marriage broke up a long time ago. Although she officially divorced her husband in 2008.
The relationship with Nikita Belykh is not Gaidar’s first attempt to arrange her life by destroying someone else’s marriage. Maria is also credited with an affair with the famous blogger Alexei Navalny, who is also happily married, just as Nikita Belykh was married. And a number of bright love episodes. The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against the lawyer of the Moscow Bar Chamber, blogger Alexei Navalny on the grounds of a crime under Part 3 of Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust in the absence of signs of theft).

According to the investigation, in 2009, Navalny, being an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region on a voluntary basis, committed a number of illegal actions, as a result of which the Kirov regional state unitary enterprise “Kirovles” suffered particularly large amounts of damage. Nikita Belykh in his blog called the accusations against Navalny groundless.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the public committee “For Openness of Justice” Denis Dvornikov noted that law enforcement agencies may have compelling reasons to initiate a criminal case against Navalny. “I don’t believe he’s guilty until the court verdict. But I admit that this is a very real scenario,” he said. In May 2011, the Historical Memory Foundation brought charges of plagiarism against Belykh. According to the results of research conducted by the foundation, allegedly in scientific articles by Belykh, published as part of the preparation of a candidate’s dissertation on the topic “Features of the formation and functioning of the camp economy in 1938-1953.” (based on materials from the Vyatlag NKVD-MVD of the USSR),” written under the guidance of Professor V.A. Berdinskikh at the Vyatka State University and defended at the Udmurt University in the summer of 2010, were borrowed from the Kirov local historian V.I. Veremyev without citing references.
In this regard, the foundation sent an appeal with demands to take action to the Higher Attestation Commission of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. At the same time, no borrowings were found in the candidate's dissertation itself. On the same day, Belykh denied the accusations, saying that information based on the same sources was considered plagiarism. He also provided a statement from Veremyev, in which he confirms that there is no plagiarism. Belykh also indicated that he provided references to Veremyev’s works, but not in articles, but in a monograph.

Conflict with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Belykh's work as Governor of the Kirov Region received a negative assessment from the Kirov Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and personally from its first secretary Sergei Mamaev. In 2012, the communists organized a series of protest events against Belykh in the Kirov region, including the collection of signatures for his resignation. Claims were made against the Belykhs on a number of issues, such as allowing an armed conflict in the village of Demyanovo, carrying out health care reform in the region, due to which there was a reduction in the number of local hospitals, and a worsening situation in agriculture.
On November 21, 2012, Sergei Mamaev spoke at a meeting of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly Russian Federation about the problems in the socio-economic situation of the Kirov region, directly naming the Governor of the Kirov region as the main culprit in the emerging crisis situation and demanding his resignation. In response to this speech, Nikita Belykh filed a lawsuit to protect his honor, dignity and business reputation, in which he demanded compensation for moral damage in the amount of 1 million rubles from Sergei Mamaev. On February 14, the court decided to recover 90 thousand rubles from Sergei Mamaev in favor of Nikita Belykh.

Of course, rumors immediately spread across the Internet that “he was set up.” But from previous experience it is known that Belykh had previously been extremely careless in communications, meaning both the choice of contractors and the manner of doing business. Experts from all over the world write that managers of this rank generally do not deal with money themselves: there is always an intermediary or some kind of scheme, an offshore account, a friendly company, a nephew of some kind in the end. Nevertheless, over the past year they have already “taken” the third governor, who keeps money and valuables almost in a cache under his pillow, and this is precisely where the Belykh’s story fits quite organically in the series.

Nikita Belykh was detained while receiving only the third part of the bribe - a package with 150 thousand euros and a bottle of wine, which was given to the governor by Yuri Sudheimer, co-owner of the Novovyatsky Ski Combine (NLK), the first tranche - 200 thousand euros - Nikita Belykh received in 2014 from a former member of the board of directors of NLC Albert Laritsky, who is now in custody on charges of fraud with loans. The second tranche was in the amount of 50 thousand euros. In his testimony, co-owner of the forestry management company and the Novovyatsky ski plant, Yuri Zudheimer, indicates that Nikita Belykh asked for money for patronage. Belykh, when testifying, confirmed that he had taken the package.

The governor owns a plot of land with an area of ​​700 square meters. m, residential building of 344 sq. m, two apartments and 1/3 share of an apartment. One of the apartments is also used by three children of the head of the region. Nikita Belykh uses three plots of land, a residential building with an area of ​​133.6 square meters. m and an apartment of 51.5 sq. m. Nikita Yuryevich drives a 2011 Nissan Patrol.

The residence and its surroundings as of 2010.

In the Kirov region they are interested in: on what basis Governor Nikita Belykh and members of his team live in the government residence Black Lake, affiliated as the residence of the governor, and how much does it cost the regional budget to maintain. During the trial, from the lips of Maria Gaidar, who testified in court and mentioned that many issues of governing the Kirov region were discussed there. We often communicated, had dinner together, since there was a common dining room, exchanged opinions, discussed current problems and issues. Some meetings also took place on Black Lake, said a former official of Governor Nikita Belykh.
Today, many in the Kirov region are interested in the issue concerning the functioning of the so-called state residence of the governor “Black Lake”. The fact is that in Russia, as is known, state residences are provided to two leaders of the country: the President and the Chairman of the Government, and the amounts of financial resources for their maintenance are approved by parliament. In the Kirov region, before the election of Nikolai Shaklein to the post of governor, there was no mention of the residence: http://abos.ru/?p=79672

Belykh could not tell the court his registered address. Governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh in the Basmanny court, answering questions from the judge, said that he was divorced and had three minor sons, but did not remember his registration address.

There was an economic facility intended for the temporary stay of government officials of the Russian Federation who came to the region on working visits. The costs of maintaining it at that time were minimal. And after major renovations (I know about this as the former head of the administration of the Sovetsky district), they planned to transform the facility into a branch of a hotel owned by the regional administration,” notes the deputy. These plans, however, were not destined to take place.

Niktita Belykh: “The state should not control parties”
“The object, at the personal whim of Nikolai Shaklein, gradually began to turn into a place of residence for regional officials,” the deputy’s appeal further states. - Personally, for the governor’s family, a luxurious mansion was built next to a complex of palace-type buildings, a Finnish bathhouse (rumored to be with a swimming pool) and a helipad were erected nearby to go hunting from (this is also a popular version, which should be confirmed or rejected - no). About 100 million rubles were allegedly spent from the regional budget on the arrangement of the facility, which, at the instigation of Shaklein’s close circle, began to be called a “residence” (these figures were reported in some media reports). The number of service personnel increased sharply: from four to 25-30 people.

It was assumed that with the arrival of the new governor, the obvious abuses of his predecessor, associated with the misuse of huge budget funds, would cease. But, unfortunately, the vicious system of abuse of official position continues to operate and even gain momentum. At the same time, the governor violates not only the moral and ethical rules of a civil servant, causing irreparable damage to the authority of state power. Even worse: the governor and a number of his associates, who came from Moscow and Perm, did not consider it necessary to acquire service apartments. Many of them settled in the Black Lake. They began to live in the place of their new habitat widely, in a lordly manner, acquiring numerous servants. The object began to take on the appearance of a kind of noble nest, stylized to match the features of modern civilization: with gas heating, sewerage, hot water.”

Sergei Mamaev reported the illegal use of the Black Lake economic facility in the personal interests of the governor and his entourage to the Chamber of Control and Accounts of the Kirov Region, asking them to check a number of facts and provide information about financial costs. However, the answer Sergei Pavlinovich received from the chairman of the chamber, Yuri Laptev, did not satisfy him as a deputy of the Russian parliament:

Firstly, the certificate does not indicate the functional use of a number of objects included in the economic complex. For example, what is house No. 1 with an area of ​​133 square meters intended for? House No. 2 with an area of ​​51 square meters? a warm warehouse with an area of ​​316 square meters?

Secondly, the certificate does not explain why the regulations on the operation of the complex of buildings included in the Black Lake economic facility, as well as the costs of its maintenance, were not approved by a special resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the region.

Thirdly, the costs of ensuring the functioning of the facility are given only for 2011-13, while, according to our information, the main share of costs falls on the beginning of Nikita Belykh’s governorship - 2008-10. Fourthly, the certificate contains references to circumstances that do not exactly correspond with the actual facts. In particular, it is alleged that the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation were in “Black Lake” during official visits, although during Nikita Belykh’s almost five-year tenure as governor, the head of state and the head of government visited the Kirov region on one-day short visits: in the morning flew in and departed for Moscow in the evening.”

At the same time, in addition to “Black Lake”, Sergei Pavlinovich invites Sergei Petrovich to deal with another fact of bureaucratic wastefulness. “The regional administration pays some Kirov restaurants, which includes the elite Tsarskoe Selo, large bills for treating various guests arriving in the region,” the deputy writes, citing questions from voters. “And this is at a time when there is an excellent restaurant in a hotel owned by the regional administration.”

What response does Sergei Mamaev expect to receive to his message? Honest and effective - with the adoption of the necessary measures in case of detection of facts of inappropriate spending of budget funds. That is, he not only asks: “Are there legal grounds to consider the Black Lake economic complex the country residence of the governor of the Kirov region?”, but also proposes to “find out the costs of its maintenance, starting from 2008, including - indicating , do Nikita Belykh and Sergey Shcherchkov pay for their stay at the residence?”

In addition, deputy Mamaev hopes that the prosecutor’s audit will help us finally understand “what is the amount of profit received from the operation of a hotel and restaurant owned by the regional administration? In what areas are they used? and does the regional administration really pay bills coming from elite restaurants in the city of Kirov, and if so, what is their total amount over the past five years?” - notes the publication.

On the picture: Nikita Belykh's hut - modesty and asceticism

It is interesting that the question of Nikita Belykh’s residence in the Black Lake residence was raised earlier. So, in 2010, the governor of the Kirov region, responding to the “housing question,” said that he actually lives in the residence, but pays for it himself. Moreover, Socialist Revolutionary Sergei Mironov hastened to Belykh’s rescue. Being then the speaker of the Federation Council, Sergei Mikhailovich shared that, while in the Kirov region, “he actually lived in a residence - in a stone house, in a room similar to a 5-star hotel. And the governor lives in a small house on the lake.” Nikita Belykh emphasized his modesty against this background by publishing a photo of the house. However, according to the archives of the newspaper “Vyatsky Observer”, signed by Nikita Belykh, a decree of the government of the Kirov region was issued “On approval of the boundaries and regime of special protection of the natural monument of regional significance “Lake Chernoe near the village. Comintern". The “natural monument” now includes not only the territory of the government residence, but also the entire mirror of the Black Lake, as well as forests and hayfields around it. And the costs of ensuring the established regime of special protection of the natural monument will be carried out at the expense of the regional budget,” the publication noted.

However, there are enough questions for Nikita Belykh even without a “house”. It is enough to look at demanding a legal assessment of the published package of documents. One episode related to a gift from Vyatka-Bank, for example, others are obviously waiting for their turn, just as trials in already initiated cases involving Vyatka officials of various ranks are waiting for their turn.”

At the Ryazan IK he will be able to make hay and receive another higher education

Ex-governor of the Kirov region Nikita Belykh arrived to serve his sentence in Ryazan. For now he is in a pre-trial detention center, but literally one of these days he will be transferred to a local maximum security colony. Belykh will, according to our information, serve out his sentence in a former prisoner of war camp, where he will be asked to make hay.

Nikita Belykh was transported early on Monday morning. Moreover, this was an obvious surprise for him: he himself did not know about the upcoming trip even on Sunday evening. He complained to the members of the Public Monitoring Committee who visited him then that the Lefortovo administration had not fulfilled a single promise - he was never given either a TV or an orthopedic mattress.

“And I’ve been sitting alone for three days now,” he remarked.

The absence of his cellmate was explained simply: three days ago, documents arrived from the court, which means Nikita Yuryevich officially changed his status from prisoner to convicted and cannot be kept with those who have not yet been sentenced. Everything else (lack of TV, mattress) is most likely caused not by objective reality, but by the dislike of the detention center staff for the ex-governor. They considered and still consider him arrogant and overly demanding.

Nikita Yuryevich, are you letting your hair grow out or is there simply no way to cut it here? - members of the Public Monitoring Committee asked Belykh, who was so overgrown that he looked like Robinson Crusoe.

There is no opportunity to get a haircut.

There really was no hairdresser in the isolation ward. Prisoners are now simply given hair clippers upon request. Usually, cellmates cut each other’s hair (few people can cut their own hair, so Belykh couldn’t).

In general, without a haircut, without sleeping on a good mattress, without watching a single football match on TV, Nikita Belykh set off on his journey at dawn, accompanied by a convoy. The ex-governor got to Ryazan in just (!) a few hours without transfers or delays. There was no medical escort (human rights activists were worried that he wouldn’t make it if there wasn’t a doctor with him ready to help). Well, as for the choice of place to serve the sentence, it was quite expected. Moreover, in his case, Ryazan is an ideal city. Firstly, it’s not far from Moscow. Secondly, Nikita Yuryevich had nothing against him (but he had no desire to go to Kirov, where he registered, since it was almost 1000 km from Moscow, and it would have been difficult for his wife to come to him on dates).

We don’t know which colony we will send him to from the pre-trial detention center,” says an employee of the detention center. - This will be decided by the Federal Penitentiary Service for the region. In the Ryazan region there are only three maximum security institutions - IK-2, IK-3, IK-5. But there is only one within the city limits, I think that’s where they’ll place him.

The IR in question is exemplary. The convicts do not get bored there - there is a club and its own vocal and instrumental ensemble. During the war, in its place there was a prisoner of war camp, which was disbanded in 1949, and the barracks were filled with Soviet prisoners. Since then, convicts from all over the country have served their sentences here. Belykh will be, perhaps, the most famous prisoner of this modest colony. By the way, he will be offered a choice of several industries, including sewing. Since the colony is still manufacturing hay harvesting equipment and harvesting hay, he will be able to try his hand at this craft. And in the colony there is a chance to get another higher education: study remotely at the Ryazan branch of the Moscow Academy of Economics and Law. The colony is also very sporty; hockey and football competitions are regularly held. But since Belykh has a leg injury and walks with a cane, he is unlikely to explore the local sports ground. Two other maximum security colonies are located not in Ryazan itself, but not far from it - one in the city of Skopin, the second in the village of Skopinsky district. They are not as “advanced” as IK-2, and besides, the distance from them to the regional hospital is quite decent. And initially it was discussed in the FSIN that Belykh might have to be hospitalized more than once, taking into account his ailments.