The prosecutor’s office and the police continue their unhealthy dance around the Transneft case. Today brought another episode. A brief recap of the previous ones: As part of the case involving Transneft’s "charity", we also reported a crime to the police. Basically: help us, crooks stole the shareholders’ money. The case was assigned to the Central Administrative District’s Economic Crimes Unit (OBEP). The Central Administrative District OBEP issues a very strange ruling refusing to open a criminal case. We sue the Central Administrative District OBEP. The day before the court hearing, where we would have definitely crushed the cops, the cops themselves cancel their own ruling as unlawful. So in court there is no longer anything for us to prove. The police supposedly continue the investigation. A few days later, the cops again issue a ruling refusing to open a criminal case. Almost the same one. We sue the Central Administrative District OBEP again. We have to start all over. The first court hearing was on December 29, and it was postponed for a month because the cops were unable to provide the case materials. Supposedly the prosecutor’s office had taken them. So, today we show up in court. It all started when fil_defense, who didn’t know which courtroom the hearing would be in, went to check with the court office and caught a lady there saying into the phone in a voice trembling with nerves: Yes, yes... Transneft, yes, Navalny... of course we’ll definitely let you know... of course we’ll help, we’ll call back right away... don’t worry. But never mind that. The hearing is delayed for an hour. Then the judge comes out and shows us a fax (!) sent by the prosecutor’s office: we urgently request that the case be postponed. Well, I say that I am categorically against any postponement. The judge postpones the case by one hour. And asks her assistant to inform the prosecutors that either she starts the hearing in an hour, or they explain what exactly is going on. An hour later, another fax arrives from the prosecutor’s office!
They urgently, within the space of an hour, supposedly on their own initiative, reviewed the documents and themselves canceled the very ruling that we were trying to have overturned in court. Accordingly, the court decided against us, because what we were demanding had supposedly already happened. For those who can’t be bothered to dig through this legal nonsense, here’s the simple version: Formally, we got what we wanted and proved that the cops were wrong. But it didn’t make things any better for us. These guys are using the following tactic: a) issue a knowingly unlawful refusal to open a case b) wait for us to hammer them in court c) an hour before the hammering, cancel their own decision d) issue another knowingly unlawful refusal e) wait for us to hammer them again and so on. It’s a pretty effective tactic. It looks like we’re constantly suing, arguing, and doing something, but in substantive terms we haven’t moved forward at all. Time passes. The giant saw that is Transneft, OJSC (Open Joint-Stock Company), keeps methodically sawing through the people’s money. They think we’ll get tired of going to court and give up on this whole thing as hopeless. But we won’t give up)) Below is today’s court ruling