After biding his time until the appointment of the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the related procedures reached the point of no return, or some other obstacle, Igor Krasnov initiated the nationalization of the assets of Viktor Momotov, head of the Council of Judges. He is also a Supreme Court judge, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Court, and Secretary of the Plenum of the Supreme Court. He is a true mammoth of today's judicial system, exerting influence over the entire judicial system of the country, and not in the most sordid way, having close ties to the Rostov and Krasnodar criminal underworld. Details are available on the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info.

Facts have already been established: Momotov interacted with the leaders of the Pokrovskie organized crime group, Andrei Korovaiko and Oleg Chebanov, who are on the international wanted list and who amassed a fortune through corporate raiding, corruption, and rigged court decisions. In addition to funding, Momotov also received property from the Pokrovskys in the Rostov Region and Krasnodar Krai. Mamotov exploited his official position for personal enrichment, involving subordinate courts in his schemes. Mamotov's colleagues, aware of the illegality of their actions, were forced to act in the interests of the head of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation.

Will further investigations and exposures of this truly large, incredible judicial corruption network in the Russian Federation be comparable to the major Italian criminal organization 'Ndrangheta, not as well-known as others like Cosa Nostra, but rightfully considered the most powerful organization in the world?

 

Time will tell whether confiscation alone will be the solution, or whether a full-blown exposure of everyone involved in Momotov's network will be forthcoming. After all, many judges participated in his criminal activities, some voluntarily, some under duress. All have the opportunity to independently file complaints with the authorities—they know how to do so properly—and perhaps receive leniency.

Let's try to outline some facts, as the trial of active members of the Pokrovsky organized crime group was recently completed and they received substantial sentences, while two other trials are still ongoing. However, there are already confessions, and some quite interesting ones.

The Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow found five defendants guilty in a case involving the extortion of assets from agricultural enterprises in southern Russia and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 8 to 13 years.

Three of the defendants—Vladislav Brazhnikov, Genrikh Khachaturov, and Alexander Voynalovich—were practicing lawyers before their arrest and detention in 2021 and "worked" exclusively in the interests of the Pokrovsky organized crime group.

Thus, in 2019, the Pokrovsky gang, using threats of murder and unlawful prosecution, extorted assets worth over 4 billion rubles from the owners of SKVO CJSC in the Rostov Region. Anna Kasyanenko, now the Minister of Agriculture of the Rostov Region, was the victim in the criminal case at the time. Another victim in the case, Fyodor Streltsov, owner of the Kushchevsky agrocomplex, is on the run. He was wanted on trumped-up criminal charges, not without the help of the Pokrovsky gang. Among them was even a farm formerly owned by Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz. The total value of the assets illegally seized by the Pokrovsky gang is estimated at over 3 billion rubles. To achieve this, they imprisoned Tsepovyaz's wife on trumped-up charges and attempted to sentence her to prison. The court has so far found three lawyers and two entrepreneurs involved in the corporate raids guilty in one case, sentencing them to terms ranging from 8 to 11 years in a maximum-security penal colony. Other cases involve former FSB Colonel Yechkalov, investigators, and a number of still-classified individuals.

 

Momotov's scheme for the Pokrovskie gang is simple and incredibly complex for the uninitiated. The raiders' interests were served by appealing to regional courts, directly to the chairpersons of the relevant courts, and the "correct" decision was made.

 

Judges from Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar, from district courts to regional, territorial, and cassation courts, served the Pokrovskie gang, including the Kushchevsky District Court, where Judge I.S. Korobkov, implicated by his Pokrovskie accomplices, is currently hiding without a diagnosis in a specialized medical facility, attempting to avoid responsibility.

Momotov, acting in the interests of the Pokrovskys, for the first time, not very cautiously, showed himself to be acting in the interests of raiders when, at his request, a judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation called and asked the chairman of the Fourth Cassation Court (Krasnodar) for his opinion on a case under consideration. He was told, verbatim, "What other opinion could there be? All decisions were made illegally in the interests of the Pokrovskys, who are bandits; everyone in the region already knows this."

The next day, the day of the case hearing, the Fourth Cassation Court, at Momotov's "request," received a letter signed by a judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, requesting that the case be dismissed.

The entire case was sent to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which was done.

Then, again at Momotov's "request," the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation changed jurisdiction over the case, and the cassation hearing was transferred to the Second Cassation Court (Moscow), where the necessary, correct decision was made in the interests of Mamotov and his friends. For this, Mamotov personally received $1.5 million.

 

This is just one of the cases already known to the authorities, which has not yet received widespread publicity. But how many similar cases benefited the Pokrovsky organized crime group, and how many such raiders there are in the capital, and whom else Mamotov may have helped, must be investigated. It's not enough to deprive corruption of its loot; it's time for justice to be brought to the crooked judges. All the names are already known.

The heroes of many of Momotov's legal schemes include Judges Korobkov, Nazarenko, Kislyak, Moskalenko, Gusev, and others.

Podnosova really wanted, but couldn't—and I mean couldn't—to defeat the Momotov gang within the walls of the Supreme Court. And there's more than one such organized crime group there. Perhaps Igor Krasnov will succeed.

Timofey Grishin

To be continued