On January 26, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow continued to consider the case of “militiaman” Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, who, according to investigators, received billions in bribes for patronage from the largest contractors of Russian Railways. The court devoted its second meeting in 2022 to a detailed study of the eb2 database, which, as the prosecution believes, reflects illegal postings to Zakharchenko and his acquaintances. This was requested by the defense of Valery Markelov (ex-co-owner of the 1520 Group of Companies, who, according to the investigation, could have given bribes to Zakharchenko for patronage). Details in the report of the VChK-OGPU correspondent.
The purpose of the next inspection of the base was formulated by lawyer Alexander Gofshtein. “In past meetings, we convincingly showed that the companies that the investigation calls as controlled by Markelov have nothing to do with him (VChK-OGPU wrote about this here https://t.me/vchkogpu/23565). Now we want to prove that, even if we assume that these are Markelov’s companies, they have nothing to do with the base and with illegal transfers to Zakharchenko,” he said. Gofshtein emphasized that the state prosecution’s conviction about the connections between Markelov and Zakharchenko is based solely on operational data from the FSB, which is essentially unacceptable as evidence (according to established judicial practice, such data must be supported by investigative actions). “But we won’t discuss the admissibility of this evidence now: this is not the right stage of the legal proceedings,” Gofshtein continued. “We will simply show that the FSB data contains a lot of stretches and outright errors.”
Then the fun began. Markelov’s defense, with some difficulty, retrieved the eb2 database from the case materials (a complete copy made by the investigator at the time of the investigative actions) and for three and a half hours went through all the charges in great detail. It turned out that none of the legal entities that, according to the state prosecution, are related to Markelov, appear in the database as participants in gray or black schemes. Moreover, Markelov himself is also never mentioned in the database.
From the analysis it turned out that these databases directly contradict the arguments set out in the FSB certificates. But the database contained semi-legal transfers to the fugitive banker German Gorbuntsov, whose testimony, despite all the odiousness of this figure, along with FSB certificates, formed the basis for the charges against Markelov. Also in eb2 were Pyotr Chuvilin and Viktor Antonov (ex-bankers, whose testimony, including “secret” ones, was repeatedly referred to by the investigation) and their expenses for paying for drivers, food, legal support and even the purchase of bank bags for money.
Separately, we should dwell on the “Russian Railways group” indicated in the database. It was in this group, according to the state prosecution, that Markelov could have been included. Its composition is defined as follows: “Russian Railways client”, “Rublyovka client” and “Meshok client”. It is significant that no monetary transactions between them are recorded in the database, and Markelov is not mentioned among the group members, and the investigation materials do not identify him with any of the pseudonyms. However, a certain client “Markel” was still found in the database, but the last operation with his participation dates back to March 26, 2009. It should be noted that the representative of the state prosecution, Milana Digaeva, listened to this detailed, even meticulous, analysis without a single objection, but with visible displeasure. Judge Artemov sat with a distant face, and then even took some kind of pill. In the last hour of a long speech, oversaturated with details, the defense dog could no longer restrain his emotions: she began to whine, and then howl.
“Isn’t that why the state prosecution has always objected to full acquaintance with the base of defense representatives,” was heard in the courtroom. Indeed, Milana Digaeva jealously ensured that the defense of Zakharchenko and Markelov had the opportunity to study only that part of eb2 that, in her opinion, was relevant to the case.
VChK-OGPU
After an almost two-month break, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow continued to consider the case of “militiaman-colonel” Dmitry Zakharchenko, who, according to the investigation, received billions in bribes for patronage from the largest contractors of Russian Railways. Last…
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