Employees of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve have their sentences commuted

The City Court of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky revised the verdict in the high-profile case of employees of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Previously, scientists were found guilty of theft of government funds aimed at eliminating environmental damage, and they were sentenced to from 3 to 5.5 years in prison. The verdict caused a resonance: colleagues and local authorities called the accusation absurd, pointing out that the coast was indeed cleared of tons of Soviet man-made waste. Now, when reconsidering the case, the new judicial panel assigned the scientists a suspended sentence of 2.5 to 5 years. Lawyers call the commutation of the sentence “a won battle in a legal battle that has not yet been won” and intend to seek acquittal for the environmentalists.

On Thursday, the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky City Court re-examined the case of the theft of government funds allocated for cleaning the Kronotsky Nature Reserve from Soviet man-made waste. Let us remember that until the middle of the 20th century, geological exploration work was carried out in this area, and military units were also located. Because of this, the land was contaminated with tons of oil products, abandoned equipment and rusty machinery. In 2015, the state allocated money for cleanup; the tender was won by the Ecology company. A year later, the management of the reserve reported that more than 1 thousand tons of garbage and barrels with fuel and lubricants residues, as well as soil contaminated with oil products, had been removed from the territory of the specially protected natural zone.

However, in 2018, the director of Ecology, Vitaly Drozd, was detained on suspicion of extortion and fraud, and this situation had nothing to do with the reserve. Having made a deal with the investigation, the businessman stated that he allegedly stole budget money in collusion with scientists. The investigation concluded that Ecology won the tender illegally, and the cost of waste removal work was inflated several times. Moreover, according to investigators, public money was wasted – hundreds of tons of garbage were allegedly simply buried on the territory of the reserve. The reserve’s deputy director, Alexander Ilyin, a retired FSB colonel, also made a deal with the investigation. Vitaly Drozd and Alexander Ilyin pleaded guilty to theft and received suspended sentences in 2020. Other employees of the reserve were charged with embezzlement in the amount of 454.6 million rubles, the theft of which the contractor admitted. Under investigation were Deputy Director for Science and Tourism Roman Korchigin, Head of the Scientific Department, Candidate of Sciences Daria Panicheva, Deputy Director for Finance Oksana Terekhova and Deputy Director for General Affairs Nikolai Pozdnyakov. The former director of the reserve, Tikhon Shpilenok, who had died by that time, was declared the leader of the organized crime group.

The process caused a wide public outcry.

Governor of the Kamchatka Territory Vladimir Solodov spoke in support of the reserve’s employees. And the regional Ministry of Nature insisted that the defendants were “not an organized crime group, but employees of the best nature reserve in Russia who were doing their job.”

More than 60 environmental organizations and associations asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to take the matter under personal control. However, in July 2022, the reserve’s employees were found guilty of embezzlement using their official position, organized by a group, on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code). The environmentalists were given real sentences – from 3 years to 5.5 years in prison. The court also satisfied the prosecutor’s claim in the amount of 454.6 million rubles. and a claim by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation in the amount of 16.8 million rubles.

The reserve’s employees were taken into custody, but then they filed an appeal. Attached to it were the results of a study of the territory of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which, by order of the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Alexander Kozlov, was carried out by specialists from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Volgograd University. Scientists have not found traces of the burial of hundreds of tons of garbage in the protected area, which were announced by the investigation. As a result, the case was sent for review by another judicial panel. Consideration of the appeal began at the end of 2022. Since February 2023, environmentalists have been transferred under their own recognizance.

During the debate, the state prosecution itself asked to replace real sentences with suspended sentences. As a result, on Thursday the court sentenced the environmentalists to a suspended sentence of 2.5 to 5 years.

But they intend to appeal this verdict. And about. The head of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, Vsevolod Yakovlev, said that colleagues “support their comrades, without doubting their competence, honesty, integrity and responsibility.” Lawyer Alexander Andreev said that “they have already begun to prepare” appeals: “The court’s decision is a won battle in a legal battle that has not yet been won, but this is a significant step towards justice. A tremendous amount of work has been done by the defense.”

Mikhail Kreindlin, a member of the Expert Council on Nature Reserves, told Kommersant that the environmental community is happy with “the official decision allowing environmentalists to remain free.” He added that “replacing a real sentence with a suspended sentence is already a serious victory.” But Russian environmentalists, he said, hope that the reserve’s employees will be able to achieve an acquittal.

Polina Yachmennikova