Well then, dear readers. We continue our saga. And today we have a small victory. An interim one, but a pleasant one:
*Six people have been named as defendants in the criminal case opened over the alleged theft of funds from Mezhregiongaz, a wholly owned subsidiary of *Gazprom
, according to a ruling suspending the preliminary investigation in the case (a copy is in the possession of Vedomosti); on March 12, charges were filed against them in absentia. They are Mezhregiongaz Deputy CEO Igor Dmitriev, and a department director at *Novatek
Alexander Lyadov (died in 2007), Galina Sheremet, T. Gulyaeva (the former CEO and chief accountant of Trustinvestgaz LLC, TIG), Dmitry Novikov (listed by SPARK-Interfax as TIG’s CEO), as well as I. Kataev (who “passed himself off as the CEO” of the LLC Investm*ent Agency “Intellect and Law”), the ruling states. **The document says they are being charged under Article 201.2 of the Criminal Code (“abuse of authority” resulting in grave consequences, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a ban on holding certain positions for another five years) and Article 165.3, clauses “a” and “b” (“property damage” committed by an organized group and on an especially large scale, punishable by up to five years in prison). ***A source close to the investigation confirmed all six names to Vedomosti, while Gazprom shareholder Alexei Navalny, who has been recognized as an injured party in the case, confirmed the authenticity of the document. Source here Our all-powerful Gazprom people failed to kill the case at an early stage, even though they were swaggering about exactly that. Now charges have been filed against this little gang of looters, and that is already a very substantial development. The charges were filed in absentia because all the defendants suddenly fell ill. Perhaps it’s some devious epidemic (a previously unknown virus that affects only Gazprom employees and their accomplices), but more likely the citizens in question were afraid to show up and get themselves arrested. One way or another, they won’t be able to dodge it like this for long. Incidentally, one of these characters, Dmitry Novikov, has already been placed on the wanted list. To my great regret, no charges have yet been filed against the head of Mezhregiongaz and Gazprom Management Committee member Kirill Gennadyevich Seleznev. For now. I will be appealing this in court in the near future. It would be wrong if this worthy comrade escaped the reward for his accomplishments. That’s the update for you, dear readers, and now I will smoothly move on to the “Acknowledgments” section: Obviously, the investigators did a great job — respect to them To the few media outlets that dared to cover this topic (Vedomosti, Novaya Gazeta, Sobesednik, and online resources) To everyone who helped and continues to help And my main thanks go to Russia’s Humble Blogger. I know for an absolute fact that the Gazprom guys who pride themselves on effectively putting a “block” on negative media coverage about the company were somewhat shocked by how the post “how they steal at Gazprom” Was pushed. Several hundred links. Nearly 100,000 views — more than the actual circulation of most newspapers. It was precisely thanks to LiveJournal that the issue gained real traction, and now it won’t be possible to shut the case down just like that. Law enforcement was pretty stunned by the attention too — some in a good way, some in a bad way. No one believes that this kind of “grassroots buzz from scratch” cost zero rubles and zero kopeks. So thank you very much to everyone who wrote about it and posted links. I hope for your help going forward as well. To see this through to the end, a lot of work is needed, and constant public support is needed too (it may sound silly, but it’s true). The “collapse of the case” can now happen at the prosecutor’s office, and then later in court. So the famous LiveJournal meme, “The authorities are hiding this — spread the information,” is highly relevant in the case of the Gazprom looters. And flash mobs on LiveJournal are useful. Now I know that for sure. The people in the this_is_all_useless_you_won’t_achieve_anything_you’re_wasting_your_time camp can go take a hike.