St. Petersburg lawyer came to defend Boris Shalimov.

The Amursky regional prosecutor sent a criminal case to court with regard to Boris Shalimov, a regional council deputy and head of the Skovorodinsky district administration. Shalimov is accused of misappropriating the property of another, exceeding official authority, and illegal participation in business activity, Judge Andrei Ilinykh is assigned to lead the court proceedings. One more lawyer has come to the aid of the accused, Vladimir Garnin, of the Naryshkin law offices in St. Petersburg.

As "Tvyordnyy Znak" wrote, in March 2004, the prosecutor filed a criminal case against Boris Shalimov, the head of the Skovorodinsky district administration, on a specification of illegal distribution of financial resources. Mr. Shalimov was free on bail, and his case left the district and became a federal investigation in November. On February 4, 2005, the accused was detained in Saint Petersburg, and after four days a special escort delivered him to the Blagoveshchensk correctional institution, the first time in the modern history of the Amursky region for a highly placed government detainee. Shalimov is presently in the company of two cell-mates in a special cell with a carpet and television set.

According to the prosecutor's version of the story, the district chief used more than 700,000 rubles of the local budget for purposes other than they were intended (150,000 for personal purposes, and 600,000 to train district administration staff in Scientology at a center that distributed the doctrine of Ron Hubbard.) According to the indictment, Shalimov is accused of using an official post to misappropriate property of others with which he was entrusted, exceeding official authority and illegal participation in business activities (arts. 160, 285 and 289 of the Russian Federation Criminal Code). On the last specification in this criminal case a local company was involved, "Nika," whose founders include Boris Shalimov.

Yesterday the regional prosecutor announced the investigation was complete and so he was giving the case to the Skovorodinsky district court. As "Tvyordnyy Znak" managed to find out, the judge examining the case will be Andrei Ilinykh.

As Shalimov's Blagoveshchensk lawyer, Gennadiy Samodurov, told "Tvyordnyy Znak" yesterday, the defense is not going to submit anything new to the court, but intends to call attention to the error and incorrect interpretation of the separate incidents during the preliminary investigation. So, Mr. Samodurov has doubts about the investigator's assertions that "Shalimov, with criminal intent to misappropriate funds, prepared and assigned the Skovorodinsky district budget in a district council project." Besides that, the defense was outraged by the selected measure of suppression. "There's no sense in keeping him under guard now," said Gennadiy Samodurov. "The inquiry has not even answered the question of whether the investigation stopped when it left the region. Just the approach of the law enforcement agency to this case carries an electoral character."

In the opinion of local political experts, the criminal prosecution of the Skovorodinsky district chief is connected to his fairly strained relationship with governor Leonid Korotkov of the Amursky region. For example, investigatory actions with regard to Boris Shalimov began after he started telling everyone about his achievements. The head of the Vdobavok district criticized Leonid Korotkov's actions, and even sent a letter to the RF president and informed him about "significant breaches of legislation" in the region. Mr. Shalimov's advocate said he dis not really agree with that sort of opinion, and he preferred not to answer a question about the presumed role of the governor in the criminal investigation.

Yesterday Boris Shalimov's defense received one more reinforcement when attorney Vladimir Garnin, of the Naryshkin law offices in St. Petersburg, came to his aid.

Ivan Kvashnin, Blagoveshchensk.

http://www.kommersant.ru
March 17, 2005

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Region gets the old governor.

On Thursday the list of appointed governors empowered Amursky regional head Leonid Korotkov, who became the fifth regional leader, as the country's president confirmed his post in local parliament. The sixth on the list to be selected according to the new plan of regional chiefs was the head of Khanta-Mansiysky autonomous district Alexander Filipenko.

The people's deputy in the Council of Amursky Regional Deputies for this session on Thursday was Leonid Korotkov, in his position of regional governor, who the President of Russia selected as candidate to act as head of the region. According to an Interfax correspondent, 21 deputies expressed support for his candidacy in the secret ballot, seven were against, and one abstained. In all, 29 of the 30 deputies of the regional council took part in the ballot.

Korotkov's candicacy at the regional council session was proposed by the deputy plenipotentiary of the president in the Far Eastern Federal District Konstantin Pulinkovskiy. The one who was not able to take part in the election of the regional governor according to the new plan was Boris Shalimov, the deputy who was arrested.

[...] http://izvestiya.ru
February 25, 2005

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