Colonel Zakharchenko's Paradox
On June 3, the Presnensky Court of Moscow will consider an administrative claim filed by former Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko against the Russian Defense Ministry. Zakharchenko has been working for more than three years to sign a contract and send him to the combat zone of a special military operation. Zakharchenko is the same former police officer who was arrested almost 10 years ago, on September 9, 2016.
And in the apartment on Lomonosovsky Prospekt, issued to the sister of a police officer, they found 342 million 300 thousand rubles, 1 million 600 thousand euros, 124 million dollars and a half-kilogram ingot of gold. On the same day, another apartment on Michurinsky Prospekt, registered to Zakharchenko's mother, was seized 600 thousand euros, 20 thousand dollars and 19.5 million rubles. In total, about 9 billion rubles in ruble equivalent were attached to the criminal case as evidence.
But a year later, on September 1, 2017, the decision to attach deposits of money to the criminal case was canceled. Later, this money was converted into state revenue, almost as ownerless, that is, nobody's money. And Dmitry Zakharchenko was tried twice for bribes, but not for the billions found in the apartments associated with him.
In two criminal cases, Dmitry Zakharchenko was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony, deprived of the special rank of police colonel and the state award, the medal for distinction in the protection of public order. Almost two years ago, on July 25, 2024, during a break in one of the court sessions, Dmitry Zakharchenko complained that he was not being taken for a special military operation. Although the Ministry of Defense has no formal grounds for refusing to conclude a contract with the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Back in May 2024, the Ministry of Defense received a response to the appeal of Valeria Tunnikova, Dmitry Zakharchenko's lawyer, in which the military department reported that the head of the selection point for military service under a contract in Samara was instructed to consider Zakharchenko's candidacy for concluding a contract with him. At the same time, in 2024, the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Mordovia reported that there were no obstacles on the part of the colony to conclude a contract with Zakharchenko. Two years have passed.
From IK-5 in Mordovia, where Zakharchenko was serving his sentence, last year he was transferred to the Komi Republic, to correctional colony number 49 in Pechora. And for a special military operation, as they did not take it, they do not take it. So the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs appealed to the court with an administrative claim against the Ministry of Defense.
Let's understand why the Ministry of Defense does not sign a contract with Dmitry Zakharchenko. Moreover, such contracts are not unique. Dozens of former officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of Russia, former employees of the Prosecutor's Office and officials convicted of bribes are currently fighting at the front.
And Zakharchenko, let me remind you, was convicted precisely for taking bribes. Two criminal cases that look very strange. On June 10, 2019, the Presnensky Court of Moscow sentenced Dmitry Zakharchenko to 13 years in a high-security penal colony forbeing an official who personally received a bribe in the form of illegally providing him with property-related services.
The court found that for several years Zakharchenko 66 times sat well in the restaurants of the chain "La More". And when the waiters brought the bills, along with the money, the police officer allegedly provided a discount restaurant card with a 50% discount. By the way, the investigation did not find the discount card itself.
It's like she disappeared into the water. Moreover, it was designed for a completely different person. Not on Zakharchenko.
However, the court found it proved that for several years Zakharchenko had underpaid restaurant bills 2,949,754 rubles. And it was this amount that the court recognized as a bribe in the form of property-related services. About 9 billion rubles in ruble equivalent, found in apartments associated with a police officer, in the verdict of the Presnensky court of Moscow, issued on June 10, 2019, there was not a word.
These deposits of money were simply withdrawn to the state revenue almost as ownerless. That is, a draw. In general, the criminal case on the bribe of the discount card of the restaurant chain "La More" looked very ridiculous.
To find 9 billion rubles in ruble equivalent and be sentenced to 13 years in a high-security penal colony for having a good appetite, for less than 3 million rubles underpaid on restaurant bills, it looked like a bad joke. So the operatives and investigators rolled up their sleeves again. And they constructed a new criminal case.
Again about bribes. They say that Zakharchenko, while still only a captain from 2007 until his arrest in September 2016, received 150 thousand dollars a month for general patronage of the criminal shadow banking industry, organized initially in the shadow of Inkredbank, and then moved under the cover of the Novoe Vremya bank. I must say that the fugitive Russian banker German Gorbuntsov, who fled Russia in 2011 and settled in London, very successfully turned up here.
Russia has put Gorbuntsov on the international wanted list in a criminal case related to the embezzlement of assets of the founder of the Party firm, billionaire Alexander Mineev. A small digression. Alexander Mineev was shot dead in the Moscow suburb of Korolev on January 22, 2014.
After the murder of the billionaire, a serious battle for his assets began. In Moscow alone, the businessman owned two dozen large objects, including a shopping center and car dealership on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a shopping center on Taganka, and a shopping center "Europe" on Kaluzhskaya. In total, Mineev owned real estate with a total area of more than 60 thousand square meters.
Shopping centers were registered to 18 Russian companies established by offshore companies from Belize and the Seychelles. In turn, the sole shareholder of these companies was the Hong Kong firm Krezidragon, the ultimate beneficiary of which was Alexander Mineev. After the murder of Mineev, as aresult of the implementation of an ingenious and frankly criminal scheme, the Hong Kong Krezidragon came under the control of the Panamanian offshore Forest Corporation.
The investigation believes that the organizer and leader of the criminal group that carried out the raider attack and the seizure of the Hong Kong company Krezidragon was German Gorbuntsov. And it is in this criminal case that he is put on the international wanted list in Russia. But this did not prevent Gorbuntsov from becoming a serial witness in the so-called "laundromat" cases, in which several dozen owners, managers and ordinary employees of banks have already been convicted.
And the foundation of all these criminal cases is the absentee testimony of German Gorbuntsov, written and notarized in Cyprus.
Excerpt from an interview with German Gorbuntsov (2022)
- I gave them ten times before I wrote them down. And we just issued them.
- A journalist?
- Not a journalist. I gave them to the investigator ten times.
- On the phone?
- Of course. I've talked to him ten times. Then he said it was all illegal. Everything will be assured through a lawyer when it is in the name of my courts.There I burned. I had to give this statement.
But here's what's interesting. Dmitry Zakharchenko is not involved in any of these numerous so-called "laundromat" criminal cases, which are based on the absentee testimony of German Gorbuntsov, agreed with the investigator, not only is he not involved in these criminal cases, even as a witness. And this is despite the fact that almost at the very beginning of the investigation into shadow banking activities, a document signed on July 22, 2019 by General Sergei Demenishnikov, deputy head of the FSB's "M" department, appeared in the materials of the criminal case. This is a resolution on providing the results of operational search activities.
The document revealed some details of the work of the shadow part of the bank "Novoe Vremya". The bank was founded in 2008 by Ukrainian businessmen, including Valery Razdorozhny. Later, Russians Ivan Stankevich and Dmitry Motorin appeared in the leadership of Novoye Vremya .
So, in the document signed on July 22, 2019, it is recorded that from 2012 to 2019, profits from shadow banking activities, codenamed "Portal", were distributed in this proportion. Razdorozhny received 40%, Stankevich and Motorin received 20% each, and 20% went to the Interior Ministry officer DmitryZakharchenko. Personally, I have no reason to question the information contained in this document.
If only because FSB General Sergei Demenishnikov is a very smart, caustic and meticulous officer. At the same time, a very tough and effective manager. He absolutely wouldn't sign a document with false information.
It was thanks to his business qualities that Demenishnikov was promoted to head the FSB's T Department in 2022. And in the spring of this year, he was appointed head of the FSB Department for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. So, judging by the document signed by General Sergei Demenishnikov on July 22, 2019, Dmitry Zakharchenko did not receive bribes.
He was a full-fledged partner of bankers and received a share from shadow banking activities. In December 2019, this version was followed by the already mentioned fugitive banker German Gorbuntsov. In any case, in an interview with Forbes magazine, Gorbuntsov stated, quote:
"Zakharchenko could receive money not for patronage, but as a full-fledged participant in the cash-in system."
And another quote from the publication of Forbes magazine:
"There was a system that was powerful and complex, directly taking information from bank accounts and not inferior in complexity to banking programs. Hundreds of companies in Russia and abroad, customer access, the complexity of the application system, " Gorbuntsov describes the system in a conversation with Forbes.
According to him, there was a whole network of cash-in sites, whose transactions were conducted through an electronic system. Various banks participated in it. The site served a lot of different streams."
End of quote.
Even Gorbuntsov did not doubt that Zakharchenko did not take bribes. He, as they say, was in the share.
This version, it seems, was initially followed by the investigation. On January 15, 2023, the Kommersant newspaper published a long interview with Vladimir Vazagov, Deputy head of the Main Investigative Department of the TFR in Moscow. Already in the title of the publication, the name of the police officer and the code designation of the system for cashing out and converting money were taken out.
Portal. The publication was called that. Dmitry Zakharchenko opened a portal for the investigation.
And the interview began with such words - How Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko was withdrawing billions to Ukraine. In general, everything seemed to be going to the point that Dmitry Zakharchenkowould become a person involved in a criminal case under Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia for illegal banking activities with a supplement in the form of Article 210 of the Criminal Code for creating and leading a criminal organization. But this scenario did not seem to suit someone very influential.
Someone, apparently, had serious concerns that in this case it would be necessary to understand and establish the origin of deposits of billions found in apartments associated with Dmitry Zakharchenko. And unwinding this tangle, apparently, could lead to very serious people. And to prevent this, apparently, it was decided not to delve into the origin of billions.
Like, let Zakharchenko sit for bribes. Although the plot of the second criminal case itself, in which a police officer received 150 thousand dollars a month for general patronage of shadow banking activities, looks very doubtful. The fact is that on July 9, 2013, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation issued resolution No. 24 "On judicial practice in cases of bribes and other corruption crimes".
This resolution explains in great detail that a bribe is a reward for actions or omissions that an official is obliged to perform even without criminal incentives with monetary offerings. And paragraph 4 of the resolution of the Plenum states:
"...that receiving remuneration by an official for using exclusively personal relationships that are not related to his official position cannot be qualified under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation."
For any federal judge from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court is a document of direct action and strict execution.
Police officer Dmitry Zakharchenko was engaged in crimes in the housing and utilities sector, then in the fishing industry and agriculture, then in the construction complex, then in the fuel and energy sector. That is, he never had anything to do with banking and could not provide general patronage to crooked bankers. I repeat, according to information obtained by FSB operatives, Dmitry Zakharchenko was a full-fledged partner of bankers.
And, following the norms of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia of July 9, 2013, the court was obliged either to stop the criminal prosecution of Zakharchenko for bribes, or to return the case materials for further investigation. But the courts of both the first and appellate cassation instances ignored the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia. Speaking about Dmitry Zakharchenko, it is impossible not to say that he is a very intelligent, erudite, educated person.
He graduated from high school with a gold medal. He entered Kuban State University. Moreover, he studied and received diplomas simultaneously at two faculties-economic and historical.
In 2001, immediately after graduating from university, Zakharchenko joined the tax police in Rostov-on-Don. At the same time, he continued his postgraduate studies at Kuban State University. In 2005, when he was 27 years old, Zakharchenko defended his PhD thesis in economics.
By the time he defended his candidacy, Zakharchenko had already transferred from the tax service to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He started his police service in Rostov-on-Don in 2003. And shortly after defending his dissertation on April 28, 2005, Senior Lieutenant Dmitry Zakharchenko was transferred to operational work in Moscow in the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In 2006, he was awarded the title of Police captain. In 2008, he was promoted to Major of Police. In 2013, he graduated in absentia from the Law Faculty of the North Caucasus Academy of Civil Service.
Just in time to receive a law degree, the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia on awarding Dmitry Zakharchenko the rank of lieutenant Colonel arrived in time. Two years later, in 2015, when the officer turned 37, he was promoted to the rank of police colonel ahead of schedule. By that time, Dmitry Zakharchenko had settled down in Moscow.
I made friends and already worked very closely with bankers. He turned out to be very useful to financial bigwigs, thanks to his knowledge and extraordinary thinking. The aforementioned German Gorbuntsov also told me about this.
In August 2022, I met a fugitive banker in London and recorded a long interview with him, in which he told me about the circumstances of Zakharchenko's acquaintance, that Zakharchenko was very useful to the banks controlled by Gorbuntsov.
Excerpt from an interview with German Gorbuntsov (2022)
- How did Zakharchenko appear?
- Razdorozhny calls, says, Ger, I'm with one person, he will be very interesting to you, let me come to you. Well, come on in. He came in and introduced me to Zakharchenko. Zakharchenko introduced himself as the head of the construction department. I had no idea that Zakharchenko...
- But then you and Dad Zakharchenko flew to Switzerland to open an account ...
- Yes, I flew, but it was not later, it was in the process.
- That is, in principle, we have already worked with him in full growth. And why did you work with him if you didn't have anything to do with the same site, as you say?
- There's a catch in every question. No problem, I said, I'll answer all your questions. It's just that you know you're stumped, and you're stumped, so everything's fine. I'm a little unaccustomed to complex conversations. Retirement lifestyle.
- But we've been preparing for this conversation for three years.
- What's the point?" The point is that Zakharchenko was very useful for the banks, because he sat with Motorin for hours and studied. Motorin became Stankevich's mate later. At that time, he was our deputy chairman, who was responsible for the correctness of positions. He taught Motorin how to answer queries correctly.
Half of the requests came from people who were not authorized to send them. He taught me how to figure out where the contract is, where to look for a criminal case.
- Did you work closely with Zakharchenko?
- We talked to him occasionally. Motorin worked with him. Motorin was with him for hours. They sat and studied.
- And why then did you open an account for your father or give a company on the Creep, and not Motorin?
- Because in the bank, 80% of requests and checks simply went away. These relations have proved very useful for the bank.
- That goes without saying...
- When Motorin told me that Dima asked me to open an account for him in Switzerland, I said, let's fly.
- Couldn't he have flown himself?
- No, I couldn't. It was necessary to fly in and be met there. He didn't have any money there. To open an account in Switzerland, you need to have a recommendation and a relationship with the bank.
- Did Motorin and Stankevich not have such relations?
- No.
- Just you?
- Of course.
I would like to remind you once again of the decision of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Russia of July 9, 2013, to look at Dmitry Zakharchenko's interaction with bankers through the prism of paragraph 4 of this decision. Literally.
"...receiving remuneration by an official for using exclusively personal relationships that are not related to his official position cannot be qualified under article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation."
Whatever one may say, even from the testimony of German Gorbuntsov, it directly follows that Dmitry Zakharchenko received remuneration from bankers for using his personal business qualities, and not his official powers. Another important point.
Dmitry Zakharchenko often flew abroad. The materials of the criminal case contain information about the flights of a police officer, for example, in April 2014. On April 5, 2014, Zakharchenko flew from Vnukovo to Tel Aviv.
On April 13, 2014, Zakharchenko left Vnukovo for Munich. On April 28, 2014, Zakharchenko flew to Dubai. These were clearly not tourist trips.
If only because each time Zakharchenko returned just a few days later. And then he flew abroad again. It is strange that neither the investigation nor the court had a question about how the lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who has access to the secrecy of form No. 2, calmly crossed the border.
The fact is that, according to article 24 of the "Law on State Secrets", persons who have access to classified information are restricted from traveling outside of Russia. A foreign passport for secret carriers can only be issued in agreement with the FSB. Moreover, in the spring of 2014, after the return of Crimea to Russia, trips of Interior Ministry officers outside the country became even more complicated.
Senior officers were given permission to leave personally by the Minister of Internal Affairs or his deputies. But these difficulties did not prevent Dmitry Zakharchenko at all. What else is important? Dmitry Zakharchenko's April 2014 trips to Israel, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates came at a time when the main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry was gathering thunderclouds and the thunderbolts of a grandiose scandal immediately broke out.
On February 14, 2014, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against high-ranking employees of the department. On February 21, 2014, the head of the department, Lieutenant-General Denis Sugrobov, was dismissed by a decree of the President of Russia. On February 25, 2014, he was arrested. Head of the Department, General Boris Kolesnikov.
Throughout March, arrests of officers from the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry continued. On May 7, 2014, Denis Sugrobov was also arrested. Later, all those arrested were found guilty of creating a criminal community, numerous facts of abuse of office by inciting bribes and illegal lobbying for the commercial interests of companies under their control.
And what about Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, who also served in this very main Department of economic Security and anti-corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia?But nothing. In the midst of the arrests of his colleagues in April 2014, he quietly flies to Israel. He returns and immediately flies to Germany.
Returns and goes to the United Arab Emirates. What does Dmitry Zakharchenko do in Tel Aviv, Munich and Dubai? In the materials of the criminal case, as well as in the two sentences against Dmitry Zakharchenko, there is no answer to this question. But two independent sources, one connected with the Interior Ministry and the other with the FSB, told me that Dmitry Zakharchenko may have opened bank accounts during these trips.
And huge sums of money could have been transferred to these accounts in Western banks operating in Tel Aviv, Munich and Dubai. Perhaps even significantly higher than the almost 9 billion rubles in ruble equivalent found in September 2016 in apartments associated with Dmitry Zakharchenko. I suspect that this money is still deposited in Western bank accounts.
I assume that the operatives and investigators who conducted the investigation of the Zakharchenko case are well aware of this. That is why the Ministry of Defense does not sign a contract with Dmitry Zakharchenko. And he can't go to the front.
The risk is too high that the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will run away from the front line and show up somewhere in the west. Of course, there is an option to give at least a semblance of legality to the refusal to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. But to do this, it is necessary to cancel the verdict in the second criminal case on bribes of 150 thousand dollars a month from 2007 to 2016, which allegedly received Zakharchenko.
And give a new impetus to the investigation of the role of the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the creation and operation of the so-called "portal" at the bank "Novoe Vremya". And since three of Zakharchenko's accomplices, the organizers and leaders of this crime, Valery Razdorozhny, Ivan Stankevich and Dmitry Motorin, are outside of Russia, put on the international wanted list, Dmitry Zakharchenko can be officially informed that due to the risk of his flight from the front line and his connection with accomplices through the portal, the Ministry of Defense cannot conclude an agreement with him. the contract. But alas.
Such a scenario is unlikely, because in this case we will have to investigate the origin of "cubic meters of money" found in apartments associated with the former colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs almost 10 years ago, in September 2016. We have no choice but to continue to follow the development of events and keep an eye on the fate of former Interior Ministry Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko.
