Visit of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov to Tomsk: who should prepare for…

Tomsk elites are wondering whether they will be able to avoid high-profile resignations in the regional administration and in the region’s law enforcement system after the visit of the Prosecutor General scheduled for July 6. But there are many candidates for being overtaken by the “punishing hand”.

There are still no conclusions in connection with the scandal in the Tomsk Federal Penitentiary Service, where facts of systemic extortion of money from convicts were revealed, as well as the organization of drug trafficking under the “roof” of the correctional institution.

Tomsk entrepreneurs complain about arbitrariness on the part of law enforcement agencies. According to business ombudsman Boris Titov, the level of pressure on business in Tomsk is one of the highest in the country.

Violations in the implementation of national projects were the subject of a prosecutor’s inspection a year ago. Even then, violations of the timing and financing of the construction of a new cancer clinic, which has not yet been built, were revealed. Will those responsible for disrupting the “national project” answer?

Residents of the city have been picketing for a month now and bombarding the prosecutor’s office with appeals due to the fact that the authorities approved the construction of the Supervost residential microdistrict near the city cemetery without providing the area with transport accessibility.

At the same time, the mayor of Tomsk, Ivan Klein, has been under investigation and trial for the second year, who was accused of obstructing the construction of another microdistrict, also not provided with transport accessibility. An entrepreneur who invested in the purchase of land stated that the mayor intentionally caused him damage, and this was enough to initiate criminal proceedings against the mayor. Thanks to the openness of the line of defense, the case became resonant, and working methods of the Tomsk Investigative Committee, actively “recruiting” witnesses from among the accused and convicted persons.

Also, the Tomsk Investigative Committee became famous for the fact that the deputy head of the Investigative Committee, Colonel Arefyev, was placed in a Moscow pre-trial detention center for receiving a bribe on an especially large scale.

The desire to “put on lipstick”—to restore order and improve the intersection where the regional prosecutor’s office is located—is a weak attempt by the authorities to divert the eyes of the head of the supervisory authority from local problems.

Over the past couple of years, there have been plenty of scandals in the sphere of public administration and in law enforcement agencies of Tomsk. Therefore, there is someone in the region to “stress” on the eve of the visit of the Prosecutor General.

Almost a year ago, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Dmitry Demeshin already issued warnings to the deputy governors of the Tomsk region about the inadmissibility of violating the law. This was the public result of his visit to Tomsk – other conclusions were not announced then.

Now Igor Krasnov personally goes to Tomsk. And the Prosecutor General will not “warn”.