Elections "in accordance with the plan"

Final part of revelations on electoral fraud made by the former vice-mayor of Voronezh.

The first part was published by REM earlier.

The article initially appeared on a small regional website Abireg and later was cautiously republished by national mass media, like www.kommersant.ru. The reasons for such an unexpected confession are rooted in local petty politics and beyond our interest. What is interesting is the description of the internal mechanism of the political and pseudo-electoral system built in the era of late Putin.

- Under what circumstances did you negotiate with Sergei Kudryavtsev?

- He always came to Vaskova’s office, and they talked. Interesting things started there at the time of preliminary voting. Vladimir Netesov [Chairman of the Regional Parliament – Abireg] told me that Kudryavtsev would not go to the primaries because the security services had issues with him. I turned to Khodyrev [Chairman of the City Council – Abireg], because Kudryavtsev is, after all, a city deputy. He said that if there were any complaints, let the law enforcers present them, and we would remove him from the primaries. Naturally, the law enforcers did not make a complaint at that time, and I said to Netesov: “Let him do it”. Incidentally, Kudryavtsev’s daughter worked in the City Administration under Vaskova directly. Kudryavtsev’s daughter was in charge of the voter lists for the 18th constituency. And in the primaries, Kudryavtsev scored a national record number of votes (about 5,200). As far as I know, he bought 6,000 SIM cards in advance [in order to falsify primary results via impersonated voting online, a common scheme for such events in Russia – REM]. Naturally, he got through the primaries. After I fired Kudryavtsev’s daughter, he started communicating closely with Vaskova, they even vacationed at a summer cottage with their families. After that the provocations started.

- From whose side?

- From Vaskova’s side. One day she called me and asked me to come to the house of Yulia Popova, with whom Kudryavtsev lives. Let me remind you that she is the daughter of the Deputy Prime Minister [of the regional government – REM] for social welfare. I, of course, did not go anywhere and asked her not to call me on such business. There were other attempts. For example, Vaskova told me that Kudryavtsev had allegedly transferred a certain amount to her bank card for a service. I took this too as a provocation, because theoretically her words might have been followed by my question, “Why didn’t he transfer it to mine?” There was another incident. I was sitting in my office selecting a hotel in Sochi [a Russian resort town on the Black Sea shore – REM]. I thought that after this election, when the nightmare was over, I would at least take my granddaughter to the sea. As Vaskova realised what I was doing, she told me that Kudryavtsev had allegedly promised to pay for her to stay in a five-star hotel in Turkey after the elections (if everything were OK). I was indignant, I asked her if she was nuts, and told her to send that amount back to Kudryavtsev because “they” [representatives of the overseeing agencies – REM] would come to audit her, snatch her up, and put her in jail.

And then the interesting affair started. Artem Chekmaryov from Motherland [a political party – REM] wanted to run in the 18th district. But due to inconsistencies in his passport data, he was “squeezed out”. So, he did not run as a single-mandate [i.e., individually – REM] but remained a party list candidate. Kudryavtsev found a full namesake of Chekmarev in Voronezh Oblast in order to siphon off Chekmarev’s votes. Two weeks before the election, he [Chekmarev #2 – REM] dies of an overdose. He turned out to be an addict. Of course, he was removed from the list and the votes were [not] siphoned off [Chekmarev #1 was elected – REM].

- According to the police, it was Vaskova who demanded 400,000 from Kudryavtsev. It turns out that she was the organiser of the scheme?

- Let me give a very simple example. I joined the executive authorities in 2015. I came from Rostekhnadzor [the supervisory body of the Government of Russia on ecological, technological, and nuclear issues – REM], I was appointed head of the Levoberezhny District Administration in the city of Voronezh. On the other hand, since 2009 Vaskova had been working as head of the control and organisation department, which deals with electoral matters. Moreover, her mother has been in charge of elections for 15 years. Not only that ... You remember Nikolai Obraztsov [the previous head of the United Russia faction in the City Council, who lost his position due to internal party struggle – REM].

- Yes.

- Vaskova was his campaign manager until 2009. In gratitude for the fact that she helped Obraztsov become a deputy, he lobbied for her candidacy to the post of head of the department of control and organisation of the Levoberezhny district. She was in charge of the elections all the way.

- All in all, a lot of experience.

- “A lot” is not the word for it!

- Was she the decision maker?

- I think she was just a liaison for activities of election commissions.

- So there were instructions from above?

- An election commission is a completely separate body, it is not subordinate to the municipality, and it is not subordinate to anyone. There is a special law “On the election campaign”, it is clearly stated there, and they are independent of anyone at all.

- All right, on paper they are independent. But in reality?

- There are no independent people, we all depend on someone: the governor depends on the president; the president depends on the people. She was a liaison in what way? In terms of organising the electoral process. There are the audio records that make this clear. According to them, she collected this money after the elections had already taken place. If the deputies think that she cheated them, why didn’t they write reports to the law enforcement agencies earlier? All of them wrote complaints simultaneously on February 17 or 18 [of 2021 – REM].

- Why do you think such a long period of time has passed?

- Because the deputies were forced to write. That’s all.

- Forced by whom?

- I think when they were given the audio recordings to listen to, they were faced with a choice – it was either you go [to jail – REM] or write [the compliant – REM]. Thus they ended up being the victims.

- Did they write in their statements that you allegedly extorted money from them?

- No, that they brought the money to Vaskova.

Lawyer Andrei Ryabov adds: Some plaintiffs mentioned Yury Nikolayevich [Bavykin] in their statements as well. These are the ones who applied later.

- Again, so much time has passed. They could have come out to the leadership of the party, the region, and said: “Listen, they are extorting money from us.” But that didn’t happen, and there were no claims. The whole accusation against me is based only on their statements and Vaskova’s words. According to her, she pinched some money off the main bulk and shared it with me 50-50. But it is important to take into account one more interesting point. Long before the election, in February 2020, Vaskova was under investigation under Article 290 of the Criminal Code (“Bribe Taking”). One can draw a conclusion from this.

- There was an investigation, but it did not result in a criminal case on the bribe?

- I think she was probably told: “Slander Bavykin and you will be prosecuted for fraud, not bribery. That’s it.”

- Are you in touch with her?

- No, I’m not. I don’t communicate with any of the aggrieved deputies. I don’t communicate with representatives of executive authorities, big bosses either. Even more so, I don’t communicate with Vaskova, because I’m afraid of provocation.

- You don’t communicate with her now, but before the criminal case was opened, what kind of relations did you have with her?

- I assure you, not a romantic relationship. A business relationship. That’s why the version they’re putting out there is completely silly, and I don’t agree with it.

- What do you mean?

- There were rumours that Vaskova was running an election campaign and thought everything would go smoothly, since I’m from the security services.

- So she was counting on your status?

- Of course, she was.

- You do not plead guilty but you have such an intimate knowledge of practices and schemes. So it’s not very clear how you couldn’t have known what was going on in the administration under your leadership. Should you have responded in some way to the wrongdoing?

- Firstly, Vaskova reported directly to the city mayor, he is her immediate employer. Secondly, who supervises the social sector? The deputy mayor for social affairs does, which means that her appointment to the post of deputy head for social affairs without the agreement of the deputy mayor for social affairs and without an order from the city mayor is null and void.

It’s quite simple. Had I wanted to make money, I would have included my relatives in the election commissions – my wife, daughter, mother-in-law, acquaintances, who would have been paid. However, this was not done on my part. Vaskova’s son, mother, ex-husband, female friends took part in the election campaign. That is, they acted as observers, members of precinct election commissions with decisive rights, and so on. This is the first point.

The second point is that if I had wanted to make money, I would have organised the process in a different way. I would have gathered everyone and said: Why do we have to pay money to chairs of precinct commissions? I would have said: Why should we give it, let’s take it. This shows that I was not interested in the money they were dealing in. That is it. If I had had to organise it, I would have done it, but I had never done it. Look at the simplest example. Take Kudryavtsev and his lover Yulia Popova. Do you think he would have gone straight to Kstenin or Gusev or to the representatives of law enforcement agencies and told them that he was being extorted? The next one is Mr. Prytykin. Do you really think he will just give something up? That’s nonsense. Take Mr. Zhukov, the nephew of Liliya Kulakova. Do you really think he would not have gone to the security services without telling them that Bavykin was extorting money? Take anyone, even Lukinov, even Gubina. If they were directly supervised by Netesov, do you really think I would extort money from them? That’s ridiculous.

- But you knew what was going on...

- You think I’m a stupid man for not making money. A lot of people have told me that, yeah.

- I don’t think you are stupid. I’m trying to understand. You know how it all works, but you haven’t got involved, if I understood your point correctly.

- You got it right. I stayed out of those processes. I was about to leave the structure [of executive administration – REM] altogether at the time.

- So, if we sum up the intermediate result: You plead not guilty. Who do you think is the most important organiser of the shady electoral schemes?

- Greed in the deputy’s eyes. That’s what the mastermind is. It is most important for them by any means to get a mandate in order to promote their business interests.

- It turns out that there were no instructions from above? You said that you and Netesov and Khodyrev, for example, had discussed Kudryavtsev’s candidacy.

- Yes, I communicated with all of them.

- Was Netesov able to give any instructions?

- Really? I’m telling you the simplest thing. None of the leaders, none of them, I want to stress it once again, has given any illegal orders. The only thing they demanded was to execute in accordance with the plan that had been approved. The biggest driver here was the MPs’ greed. That is all.

…

Then the former vice-mayor discussed some details of his criminal prosecution and its prospects. Incidentally, he revealed further intriguing aspects of the internal setup of the corrupt administrative machine that bloomed in late Putin’s Russia. These revelations, although no less striking than those shared here, lie beyond our sphere of electoral matters, and the reader is invited to study them on his or her own. – REM

The full interview in Russian is available at abireg.ru (Rus)