They wanted to take away Putin’s gift from a Tambov farmer

On July 2, 2010, an off-site meeting of the Presidium of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation was held in the Tambov region with the participation of Vladimir Putin himself, at that time the head of government. There were members of the cabinet of ministers, governors of several regions, in general, the entire government beau monde.

The car you need!

During the event, Tambov farmers unanimously asked Vladimir Putin for rain – there was a terrible drought in the region. To which the then prime minister replied that the heavenly office was not in his line.

And then, in front of all honest people, under the flashes of photo and television cameras, Vladimir Putin solemnly handed over a certificate for the TERRION ATM 3180 agricultural tractor to the leader of agar production, Tambov farmer Vladimir Krivoshein. The assembly is Russian, but from foreign components. According to experts, the car is what you need, there were no analogues in the domestic market. By the way, Vladimir Putin himself could not resist and sat behind the wheel of this car.

Of course, the happy farmer thanked for such a valuable gift and appreciation of his modest merits, and promised to further strengthen the country’s food security. He sat down on a brand new tractor and left for his farm. It was a hot summer, there was a lot of work in the fields, and the tractor as a gift came, as they say, very much to the yard …

Even the Tambov authorities promised Vladimir Vasilyevich to provide a preferential loan for 40 million rubles. For the construction of a dairy farm – an old and cherished dream of a peasant. In tandem with such a tractor, you can move mountains!

As a result, the authorities forgot about the farmer and the promised loan. On the wave of popularity, Krivoshein bought 20 cows with his own money, kept them in a barn for a couple of years, but when he realized that you could not dream of 40 million, he sold the cows. He switched to crop production – growing sunflower, winter and spring crops.

But back to Putin’s gift.

Vladimir Vasilyevich opens a thin bundle of documents. The certificate of registration of the machine, in which the owner is not listed as he, Krivoshein, but as a branch of CJSC Agrotechmash, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery.

The act of acceptance and transfer of equipment No. 135 dated July 2, 2010, that is, from the very day when Vladimir Putin handed the certificate to the farmer. He is quite short. “We, the undersigned…” – and further that the representative of the CJSC conveys, and Vladimir Krivoshein accepts a new tractor. Two signatures and two seals.

And here is another document, because of which all the fuss has risen.

Agreement dated April 4, 2011 (almost a year after the memorable event) on the transfer of the vehicle to the farmer for free use, for a period of 12 years. The contract can be extended by agreement of the parties, or after 12 years the farmer is obliged to return the car safe and sound to the company.

It says that this was done through the mediation of the administration of the Tambov region “as part of the encouragement of peasant farms in the region, as well as to conduct a resource test.”

Not a word about the fact that the farmer received the equipment in the most solemn atmosphere from the hands of Vladimir Putin, and not for temporary use, but as a gift.

— How to understand all this? I ask Krivoshein.

Actually, the agricultural equipment was handed over to the farmer without any documents, only a small certificate of acceptance and transfer. Only months later, after long ordeals and trips to the Agrotekhmash plant, the papers were issued. But not the property of the farmer! The farmer tried more than once or twice to rewrite the equipment for himself – after all, this is a gift from Putin himself! Krivoshein did not succeed in meeting with the management of the plant: they “departed”, “left”, “got sick”, “come tomorrow” …

And now the plant is trying to take the tractor from the farmer in court. According to the documents, it is issued not as a gift, but for free use. The farmer, in turn, is not going to give up, because “gifts are not gifts”, and filed a counterclaim.

“The administration of the Tambov region and the regional Ministry of Agriculture cannot help in any way and do not want to know anything about the tractor,” the farmer continues his story.

The Tambov branch of the Agrotekhmash plant was declared bankrupt a couple of years ago and fell under bankruptcy management. Many villagers in the region are even satisfied with this circumstance. The fact is that he produced equipment from components that came from Europe. It was an ordinary screwdriver assembly, and it fed more Western farmers than domestic ones.

The bankruptcy trustee collects the bankruptcy estate, this is his main task. So it came to the “gift of Putin.” Indeed, according to documents signed by Krivoshein, this is factory property. “Without this tractor, my farm will go bankrupt,” explains Vladimir Vasilyevich. – Today, such equipment costs 7-8 million rubles, where can I get them? You can buy through agroleasing, but they require a down payment of 30%, I do not have such funds. And the area is already starting to laugh. Say, Putin gave, and took away the plant; worked – and that’s enough … “.

Papers are missing

Formally, the tractor, judging by the agreement on the transfer to gratuitous use, still belongs to the plant, although it is in the process of bankruptcy. But there are nuances here.

According to Krivoshein’s lawyer, the contract is not backed up by the act of acceptance and transfer of the tractor, and it is in no way tied to 2010. That is, this document has never been executed anywhere.

The opinion of a lawyer, of course, is debatable. As follows from the act of July 2, 2010 and the agreement on the transfer of the vehicle for free use of April 1, 2011, the same tractor appears in these documents, with the same numbers. There is another important fact. The activity of the peasant farm of Vladimir Krivoshein was terminated in December 2015 by decision of the members of the peasant farm. Should the farm then return the tractor to the owner plant? Maybe. But in this regard, in the same agreement, the parties determined that the farm has the right, without the consent of the plant, but with obligatory notification, to transfer the tractor for use to third parties.

On the other hand, there is reason to believe that the solemn event that happened on Tambov land 12 years ago was, after all, a donation. There are numerous witnesses to this: the then Deputy Prime Ministers of the Russian Federation Viktor Zubkov and Alexander Zhukov, ministers Tatyana Golikova and Andrei Fursenko, governors and representatives of Rosagroleasing.

Of course, they cannot be called as witnesses to the Umetsky District Court of the Tambov Region, where the case is being heard. But there are witnesses and smaller ones.

– Employees of the administration of the Tambov region, employees of the regional Ministry of Agriculture and journalists, who were at that moment at the ceremony, are talking about the donation in court, – the farmer’s lawyer explains. – In addition, the tractor was given to the farmer immediately and an act of acceptance and transfer was signed.

It is clear that, according to the logic of events, the notorious tractor is nothing more than a gift in recognition of the farmer’s merits. The visit of Vladimir Putin was widely covered by the media, and the whole country saw how warm this event was. The whole country, so to speak, can go to witness.

But all these are emotions, and according to the law, the transfer of any expensive equipment must be supported by a certificate with a seal, which clearly states that this is a gift. But there is no such document.

Which, in turn, is easy to explain. At the event, where the first persons of the country are present, there is no time for some paper subtleties and acts. The receiving party must show the goods in person so that everything complies with the regulations and etiquette. What can be references, squiggles, seals? The whole country sees and hears it!

But this time it didn’t work out. The bureaucratic system easily outplayed the leader of the farmer after Putin left the Tambov region. And now look, fistula … A bankruptcy manager came to the plant, and his main task for creditors is to collect the bankruptcy estate: everything that according to the documents belongs to the enterprise.

If there was a note in some piece of paper that this was a gift (and even from Vladimir Putin!), Of course, no one would encroach on this tractor. But history did not leave such a record. Although she carefully preserved in her television archives a report on those solemn, pathos events.

Lawyers may have fair questions about documents from both sides. It’s up to the verdict of the court, he must put an end to it somewhere.

“The current harvest promises to be good,” sighs Vladimir Krivoshein. – I have wheat at 40 centners per hectare, this year I sowed it on 140 hectares. Sunflower was also a good crop, no less than 20 centners per hectare. Only now, without a tractor, I’m unlikely to carry out the mowing …