“I motivate my grandson from behind bars”: the head of the Olympic team is not allowed out of jail

“He paid his wages”

The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow recently extended the term of detention for the head of the Russian team at the Olympics in Sochi, the ex-director of the Training Center for Russian National Teams, 70-year-old Alexander Kravtsov. In total, he has been in a pre-trial detention center for three years on charges of fraud in the employment of athletes. Neither petitions from members of 60 (!) sports federations, nor letters from eminent athletes (among them the legendary skier Larisa Lazutina, whom he trained for many years) helped.

Alexander Kravtsov was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs, and it is very difficult for people from the world of sports to get used to this spectacle. Weightlifters, skiers, skaters, snowboarders, bobsledders – representatives of various sports observe his criminal prosecution, regularly write about him on social networks, and come to court. How do they even know him? As the head of the Center, in the process of preparing athletes for competitions, he solved a lot of issues (from wages to the issuance of sports equipment and certificates). And most importantly, everyone remembers him as the head of the Russian Team at the Olympics.

There were few athletes at this meeting on the next extension of the measure of restraint. For three years, they seem to have reconciled that neither their petitions nor their presence change anything (this became especially obvious after the appeal of the hero of Russia, five-time Olympic champion Larisa Lazutina to the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, in which she asked not to keep a person in a pre-trial detention center who has done so much for outstanding biathletes and skiers). So if they do, it’s more likely out of inertia.

For three years in the pre-trial detention center, Kravtsov began to walk worse – this is the result of the developed polyneuropathy of the extremities. But the sports hardening in him has not gone anywhere: in the cell and on the walking yard of Butyrka, he does push-ups and stretches. And he teaches this to his young neighbors. The coaching spirit in him cannot be defeated by any bars. Even his grandson Dmitry, through a narrow opening in the “aquarium” of the courtroom, he gives instructions, motivates.

The grandson is a two-time world champion (in duel shooting and carbine shooting). Dmitry just returned from the next competition, took first place among juniors. His coach is mother Elena Novikova. She is the daughter of Kravtsov and one of the main defendants in the criminal case. She is also present in the meeting room, with a bracelet on her leg (she is under house arrest). Kravtsov was charged with employing his daughter at the Training Center for Russian national teams as a practical shooting coach, and she, accordingly, that she allegedly illegally received a salary. Neither Elena nor her father agree with this, they consider the accusation absurd. Moreover, it is customary to support sports dynasties all over the world. And then it turned out that Lena’s fault is that she is the daughter of her boss. The investigation at the first stage also wanted to charge Kravtsov with the fact that he paid the salary of his youngest daughter Evgenia (world champion in biathlon) and son-in-law Sergei (he was part of the Russian ski team at the World Cup, where he became a winner or prize-winner). But they were not charged. But Elena’s daughter is there, moreover, she passes as an accomplice in embezzlement. Small, thin, but strong at the same time, she came to the court dressed in a sporty way. In addition to her, the former Deputy Minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Gennady Aleshin, the former anti-doping coordinator of the All-Russian Federation of Athletics Robert Popov, the son of the chief accountant of the CSP Denis Frolov, are also in the dock. All of them, about the version of the investigation, also illegally received a salary at the Center.

But the main defendant, of course, is Kravtsov (and he is the only one in custody). “Kravtsov, for selfish purposes, paid wages free of charge,” is a phrase from the case file. What was the greed, the investigation did not specify. There are many more sessions ahead of the court. According to lawyers’ forecasts, the process will drag on at least until the end of the year. “Kravtsov could come to meetings from home, like the rest,” asks the defender. But the judge on duty read out about the fact that he could hide from the investigation, that he would put pressure on the victims (and there are none in the case, by the way). The miracle didn’t happen. Alexander was handcuffed and taken to “the most athletic prison” – the Butyrka pre-trial detention center (once it was a place of detention for football players Kokorin and Mamaev, now for coach Kravtsov). And his grandson Dmitry went to prepare for the next competition. The grandfather in handcuffs gave him the mood for another victory.