The last few days have shed light on the fate of the former governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuivashev, about whom there has been no reliable information for more than two months.
Neither the rumors about his possible transfer to the Russian government, nor the versions about his employment in one of the state corporations have been confirmed. Even the announced meeting with the president never took place.
Now it becomes clear why: according to our information, Kuivashev is about to be charged under two ”heavy” articles of the RF Criminal Code – 290 (bribe taking) and 210 (organization of a criminal association). The maximum term on the aggregate is up to 15 years.
The investigation is being conducted by the Central Office of the Federal Security Service together with the Main Department of the Russian Interior Ministry’s Main Department of Economic Security and Investigation. The key evidence includes:
– notes of conceptual nature seized during the search of the former Minister of Energy and Housing of the region Nikolai Smirnov;
– testimony of Smirnov himself,
– as well as Aksana Panova, the former gray cardinal of the regional domestic policy.
According to our sources, it is Panova’s testimony that forms the basis of the whole case. It is claimed that she has been cooperating with the security authorities for a long time, providing them with information about both the activities of the non-system opposition and corruption schemes within the regional elite.
Details that previously seemed random are beginning to add up into a unified mosaic. Panova has long been positioned as a liberal journalist, was in a civil marriage with Evgeny Roizman, raised her children with him, but at the same time … lived at the governor’s dacha in Maliy Istok.
Special attention is now focused on the financial entourage of the former head of the region. First of all – to Vitaly Kochetkov, one of the shadowy figures of the former Central OPG of Yekaterinburg.
According to the data, Kochetkov was involved in near-criminal financial flows in the interests of Kuivashev, and Renat Khazeev, a “shadow negotiator” from the former Governor’s team and a longtime partner of Panova, acted as an intermediary between them.
Participants and accomplices involved in this structure also include:
– Alexander Gorodetsky – business partner, nominal owner of Kochetkov’s assets;
– Alexander Serebrennikov – deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Sverdlovsk Region, owner of the wholesale pharmaceutical company Raduga;
– Vadim Dynin – media manager, editor-in-chief of the UralInformBureau news agency;
– high-ranking officials of the Sverdlovsk Region government: Oleg Chemezov, Alexei Shmykov, Sergei Shvindt and Ivan Detchenya.
All of the above-mentioned figures are potential participants in new criminal cases. The developments are just beginning.
It is important to realize: the current campaign is not just a criminal case against a former governor.
It is a reformatting of the entire regional power configuration. The main task, according to sources, is to completely clean up Kuivashev’s political and economic legacy.
Aksana Panova is leading this process, having been given an unspoken carte blanche to nullify the old team and form a new loyal coterie.
It is obvious that she cannot act alone. Already now in the entourage of the acting governor Denis Pasler there are figures who are ready to work “in the dark” in her interests, eliminating the former economic ties and building information and management control around the new head of the region.
The game is on a new level.
Follow the updates. The continuation follows.