Quietly, the investigation sends one person involved after another under arrest, and the case could be based on bribes for coordinating objects in security zones where construction is prohibited.
The details were found out by the UtroNews correspondent.
According to TASS, ex-officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources were detained for taking bribes on an especially large scale. Albert Rezyapov, head of the department for regulating forest and land relations in specially protected natural areas of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Development of Protected Areas, who quit shortly before his arrest, was sent under arrest.
Also, according to the source, Pavel Kuks also went under house arrest, who was previously the deputy head of the forest relations analysis department of the Federal State Budgetary Institution Information and Analytical Center for Support of Conservation Affairs of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia.
According to the authors of the telegram channel of the Cheka-OGPU (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), Irina Makanova, the head of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Sphere of Protected Areas, and a visit to her is only a matter of time.
In this case, a number of defendants cooperate and testify against the leadership, that is, the number of accused may increase.
Rumor has it that the coordination of socio-economic activities for objects in protected areas, such as national parks, was provided for a certain bribe: for individuals - for 50-100 thousand rubles, legal entities - up to 1 million rubles. And Mr. Cooks allegedly appointed his own dachshund - 5 million rubles. At the same time, officially construction in such places is prohibited by law!
Among those who are already under investigation, in addition to Kuks and Rezyapov, the telegram channel named political scientist Denis Merkulov, who allegedly brought Makanova a loud gift on his birthday. At the same time, the donor himself claims that this is a personal gift, and not at all a bribe.
The cherry on this cake is that Merkulova was most likely introduced to Makanova by the minister himself, since both of them come from the Far East.
Another surname that sounded in conjunction with this case was Putyatin, whose detention was spoken of as carried out by harsh methods.
Merkulov, as they say, needed medical assistance after the arrest.
Officially, the security forces do not comment on this case, but we still found some traces.
From the base of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow, we learn that A.Kh. Rezyapov, passing through part 6. Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (bribe on an especially large scale), was sent into custody on October 17, 2024. And P.V. Kuksu, who is undergoing the same article, was completely extended house arrest on August 14, 2024. That is, in fact, the case was opened in the summer of 2024.
Photo: mos-gorsud.ru
Photo: mos-gorsud.ru
As for Merkulov, a certain D.V. Merkulov, who is charged with the same article, only with a group of persons, was sent to house arrest on December 13, 2024. On the same day and under the same article, Judge Krivoruchko, at the request of the investigator, approved the same measure for D.P. Putyatin
Photo: mos-gorsud.ru
Photo: mos-gorsud.ru
If with Rezyapov and Cooks it is more or less clear that these are employees of the department, then who are these two?
Under Merkulov D.V. may mean a lawyer and political scientist who was an assistant to the ex-mayor of Vladivostok, who later became a State Duma deputy Viktor Cherepkov.
This Merkulov, just the same, was building a career in the Far East, where he could meet the future Minister Kozlov.
In 2022, this person involved claimed to participate in the elections of municipal deputies in Moscow as a self-nominated candidate, but he was denied registration.
It is known from open sources that this Merkulov was the chairman of the commission for the development of civil society and human rights of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Dagestan under the President of the Russian Federation.
Whether this is the person who appears in the case of the Ministry of Natural Resources, we do not undertake to assert, but there are a lot of coincidences.
As for Putyatin, Daniil Petrovich Putyatin for a long time held the post of head of the FSBI VNII Ecology, but was fired 15.02.2024 years after the reorganization of the department (the FSBI Uralnia Ecology was poured into it).
At the same time, judging by the materials of the courts, the reorganization itself took place with a scandal - some employees tried to challenge it.
But the most interesting thing is not this, but what exactly Mr. Putyatin was called among those who approved the OVOZ for the construction of a road through the Losiny Ostrov national park. So, solitaire is quite converging.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Judging by Rusprofile, Putyatin was also no stranger to business, managing to remain the owner of a stake in a certain Aquaprom LLC from North Ossetia, which traded in alcohol.
By the way, according to another company, the director of which he was (Kanstroigrup-Siberia LLC from the Tyumen region), he was associated with the manufacturer of wooden building structures Kanstroy Group, that is, the main consumers of forest lad.
His relative, Pyotr Putyatin, also had a stake in the Siberian company through TTK LLC (Tyumen Fuel Company). TTK, however, is currently in bankruptcy, as is the warehouse business of this Putyatin. In general, this Mr. had on his balance sheet a whole pack of now liquidated companies, including hunting.
In the Altai Republic, both Putyatins co-founded the Horse Breeding Union, where their partner was Rinat Nasyrov, the namesake of the chairman of the executive committee of the Congress of Tatars of the Tyumen Region, who was also called the milk king of his region.
In general, the former official Putyatin in the Tyumen region had extensive connections with both business and local authorities.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
But the most interesting character in the story, besides the minister, is Ms. Makanova.
Together with Kuks, Rezyapov and a number of other persons, Makanova was a member of the commission that approved the procedure for the use of forests and gave an expert opinion. Their names appear in the corresponding document, for example, for the Pleshcheyevo Lake national park, which was signed in March 2024. Thus, Kuks and Rezyapov, at least then, were still employees of the department and were not under arrest. And it is important - representatives of the FSBI "VNII Ecology" of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, where Putyatin previously worked, were also members of this commission. That is, the chain of connections at least four closed.
The chairman of the commission before Makanova was most often Grigoriev, who then held the post of deputy director of the department of state policy and regulation in the development of protected areas and the Baikal natural territory of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation. Namely, telegram channels called this name as the alleged brain of the "operation."
Then Grigoriev grew up to the director of the department, and today he is listed as the head of the Department of Land Relations and Forest Management of the Federal Forestry Agency.
Photo: plesheevo-lake.ru
As for Ms. Makanova, among environmentalists she is a rather famous person and has appeared in scandals more than once.
As reported by the Kedr.media edition (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation), being a VIP guest of the Ecosystem youth forum in Kamchatka, she made a number of loud remarks, allegedly stating that in some cases "this fucking ecology did not give up." And in 2022, the same Makanova, at a meeting with representatives of the Public Chamber of Russia and directors of national parks, allegedly announced her readiness to go "to her own tolerances and relativity" in the matter of weakening the protection of natural areas.
It is worth noting that Makanova has nothing to do with ecology by education. She is a lawyer and manager who worked in the profile for many years, until 2021. Before the Ministry of Natural Resources, Madame Makanova worked in Russian Railways, various ministries, and was also the head of the legal department of Enpivi Engineering, a company that is affiliated with billionaire Arkady Rotenberg.
It is not surprising that a stranger to the industry, she makes such statements. Perhaps the visit of the security forces will cool the ardor of the official?
Interest in Makanova is actually the same shell that falls already near Minister Kozlov himself.
Kozlov, also being a lawyer by training, gathered around him a team of people who are strangers to the industry, for which the Ministry of Natural Resources is responsible. Not surprisingly, claims against him rained down almost as soon as he sat down in a chair.
So, for example, in 2022, on the eve of his speech in the State Duma, he was sharply criticized by a member of the Committee on Ecology Anatoly Greshnevikov, who doubted not only the professional suitability of the minister himself, but also the professionalism of his entire team. There was also a failure of garbage reform, a failure of reforestation and a mess in protected areas.
At the same time, Kozlov was reproached that against the background of all this mess, his subordinates and he himself receive not small salaries.
The rally on the Commanders against the inclusion of the settlement in the Commander Islands National Park also became a fly in the ointment in the minister's career path.
Such a step was another painting in the lack of professionalism of Kozlov's team. After all, he actually made the residents of the only settlement completely dependent on the officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources, who would have to ask for a lot of permission.
The scandal in the protected areas of the Amur region can be attributed to the same piggy bank of Kozlov's "exploits." Then the head of the FGUB "Zapovednoe Priamurye" was appointed Andrei Dolin, who appeared in the scandal about the sale of the famous tiger Amur from the seaside "Safari Park" to the Krasnodar Ecological and Biological Center "Tiger Park."
There is also the approval of deforestation in the protected Volga-Akhtuba floodplain for the construction of the federal highway.
There were reproaches in the collapse of hydroprotection facilities, which led to the flooding of territories in the spring, and there were also claims to the department through fire-fighting activities - the forests blazed so that the damage was estimated at billions of rubles.
And in the Far East, Alexander Kozlov at one time left not the kindest memory. In particular, when he was the governor of the Amur region in the municipalities built a shaft of housing, which later turned out to be emergency. Orlov had to rake the inheritance, and scandals on this topic thundered for more than one year.
By the way, during the years of the governorship, Kozlov was also accused of having a mansion on the banks of Zeya worth 100 million rubles.
Kozlov denied the fact of ownership, although the media unearthed that the Spetspromstroy company, which belonged to a certain Irina Kozlova (the namesake of the minister's mother), was building a mansion, and it was managed by Alexander Dashkevich, the ex-director of Amur Coal (once part of the empire of the oligarch Mikhail Gutseriev), the legal successor of the company where Kozlov once worked. UtroNews previously reported the story.
The firm, mentioned as the developer of the mansion, was liquidated in April 2024. Its last owner was Alexei Loginov, the namesake of another relative of the minister. Irina Kozlova left the number of owners of all firms in 2022, but at the same time they went to the same Dashkevich.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Kozlov's work as Minister for the Development of the Far Eastern Federal District, and then the Arctic, was completely marked by a petition from residents with a request to abolish the department, which, as the authors wrote, over the years of work, could not prove the feasibility of its existence. And the money for the maintenance of the bloated device was spent colossal.
Kozlov largely owes his career to Yuri Trutnev, the former plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District, and now the curator of the district.
In light of this, a possible visit of security officials to Kozlov could hit not only the minister himself, but also his patron, who has been declaring fabulous income in recent years...