The mayor of the city of Pechora, Valery Serov, was detained in the Komi Republic, said State Duma deputy from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Oleg Mikhailov. This information was later confirmed by the Investigative Committee.
Serov was detained in a criminal case of receiving a bribe on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). Under this article he faces 8 to 15 years in prison. A similar case has been filed against First Deputy Mayor Andrei Kanishchev, the Investigative Committee clarifies.
According to the investigation, Serov and Kanishchev, “acting by a group of persons by prior conspiracy,” received a bribe from an individual entrepreneur “for providing the opportunity to carry out work on municipal contracts for repairs, improvement, arrangement of facilities and public places in the city.»
The investigator petitioned for Serov's arrest. Kanishchev is already in a pre-trial detention center on another criminal case — about causing grievous bodily harm (Part 1 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code). Last summer, the vice-mayor wanted to climb onto the stage on the main square of Pechora during a fire show — Viktor Fateev, who was working at the event, tried to stop him. As a result, the official hit the sound engineer twice — he fell off the stage and hit his head. Fateev later died in the hospital.
As State Duma deputy Oleg Mikhailov notes, today the mayor of Pechora was planning to go to fight in Ukraine. Before this, the parliamentarian told the publication “7×7” that deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation objected to this business trip of Serov — in their opinion, in this way he wanted to avoid criminal liability in cases of corruption related to municipal contracts.
About that the mayor signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense became known on September 19. “The Pechora District Council made a decision and approved the leave of the head of the district, the head of the administration, Valery Serov, from October 1 in connection with the conclusion of a contract on voluntary assistance in carrying out the tasks assigned to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” the municipality reported to TASS. Baza notes that yesterday Serov transferred authority to one of his deputies.
112, Baza and Shot wrote about Serov’s detention. Telegram channels clarify that in the morning investigators and riot police officers came to the mayor’s apartment, Serov is going to be taken for questioning to Syktyvkar. According to Shot, searches in the Pechora administration took place in the spring — then investigators studied documents on contracts.