Kovalev Valentin is the State Counselor of Justice of Russia, Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation, Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, Academician of the International Slavic Academy.
Childhood and youth
Kovalev Valentin Alekseevich was born on January 10, 1944 in Dnepropetrovsk. His father's name was his mother - Kovaleva Polina. All their lives they were simple workers, and the son was attracted to jurisprudence from his youth.
Valentin Kovalev graduated from the law faculty of Moscow State University in 1973. In 1975, he completed his postgraduate studies there, and a year later he defended his Ph.D., and in 1986, his doctoral dissertation. Also behind him is the Graduate School of Government at Harvard University.
He began working at a metallurgical plant at the age of fourteen. He served in the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has the rank of colonel of the internal service.
Teaching activity
From 1976 to 1986 he was engaged in scientific work and teaching at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union. From 1986 to 1991 he was a professor at the Higher School of Law. From 1991 to 1993 he was a professor at the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. In 1992, he was appointed general manager of the Legal Center for International and National Security. He held this position until 1993. He was a member of the party until August 1991.
First steps in politics
On December 12, 1993, he was elected a deputy to the State Duma in the federal district on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (number fourteen). He was in the faction of the Communist Party. On February 17, 1994, Valentin Kovalev became one of the four deputy chairmen of the State Duma.
In December 1994, he became the head of the State Duma headquarters for the situation that was associated with armed conflicts in Chechnya. He was also a member of the Supervisory Commission for the negotiation process with the Chechen Republic. At the end of the same month, he was appointed chairman of the commission on human rights in this republic. His deputy was S. Kovalev (namesake), who was in Chechnya at that time.
The latter always insisted on the need for the presence of regular troops on the territory of this republic. He stated that the commission had no facts about the violation of the rights of Chechen citizens by the Russian military. Repeatedly drew public attention to the violation of the rights of the Russian population of Chechnya. Valentine, on the other hand, had somewhat different views on the situation and insisted on the withdrawal of troops.
Minister
On January 5, 1995, Kovalev was appointed Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation. The Prime Minister then was on January 10, 1995. He was expelled from the Communist Party faction, motivated by joining the "anti-people government." On August 14 of the following year, Valentin Kovalev was re-appointed Minister of Justice. On December 26, 1996, by decree of B. Yeltsin, he was approved as a member of the Interdepartmental Commission of the Russian Federation for Council of Europe Affairs.
In March 1997 he became a member of the commission on the problems of the Chechen Republic. On July 23 of the same year, he was removed from this commission. This event did not affect his political career, and he retained the post of Minister of Justice in the reorganized government.
Scandal and resignation
On April 16, 1997, Valentin Kovalev, whose biography is inextricably linked with politics, joined the Commission for the interaction of state and executive authorities of the constituent entities of Russia during the legal reorganization.
In June of the same year, the Sovershenno Sekretno newspaper published an article by L. Kislinskaya entitled “The minister is naked.” There were presented footage of a videotape recorded in a sauna, which was controlled by the Solntsevo criminal gang. The footage reflected Kovalev's meetings with girls of easy virtue. The journalist claimed that a video cassette with compromising evidence was found at the banker A. Angelevich during a search. The latter was an economic adviser to Kovalev.
After the article was published, Chernomyrdin recalled Valentin Alekseevich from his trip abroad. On June 21, 1997, Valentin Kovalev, whose photo is presented in this article, sent a petition to the president for his temporary release from ministerial duties. Boris Yeltsin on the twenty-fifth of June granted his request. Already on July 2, Kovalev was relieved of his post, and on July 20 he ceased to be a member of the Security Council.
Continuing a career
In 1999, Kovalev was appointed chief specialist of the Guild of Lawyers of the Russian Federation. In February of the same year, he organized the Civic Solidarity Society. It included the party of Kovalev himself, the RPSD and about fifty other unions and organizations. According to Valentin, the purpose of "Civic Solidarity" was the presidential and parliamentary elections.
Arrest
On February 3, 1999, former Minister of Justice Valentin Kovalev was arrested. He was accused of embezzling public funds. It turned out that he became the first millionaire official in the country, although he had never been engaged in business. After some time, Kovalev's associate, the president of Montazhspetsbank, A. Angelevich, was also arrested. He was accused of financial transactions and money laundering together with Kovalev.
The investigation established that the former minister bought a large estate in the elite village of Sukhanovo (Moscow region). Its price is about six hundred thousand dollars. On the accounts of Kovalev, two hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars were found in one bank and another one hundred and sixty in another. The funds were not declared. In addition, in the spring of 1998, a search was conducted in Valentin's apartment, and a pistol with cartridges (unregistered) was seized. Later it turned out that the pistol was a prize - it was a gift from General Starovoitov (director of FAPSI).
Court
On February 4, 1999, Kovalev decided to go on a hunger strike, demanding a transfer from Lefortovo. However, he was transferred to Matrosskaya Tishina. In January of the following year, in order to familiarize the accused with forty volumes of the criminal case, he was extended the period of detention.
The former minister stated that he was subjected to frequent beatings, physical and moral bullying. On April 3, 2000, he was released from the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.
In August of the same year, the prosecutor's office prepared an indictment, and Kovalev's case was taken to court. In October 2000, the politician sent the country's Prosecutor General Ustinov materials that related to the activities of some officials. And in February 2001, Kovalev filed a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity, which was satisfied. On February 27, the court rejected the request to send Kovalev's case for additional investigation.
On September 13, 2001, hearings began at the Moscow City Court. The prosecutor demanded to condemn the politician for nine years. The court established the facts of embezzlement of state funds in the amount of one billion twenty-nine million rubles. On October 3, 2001, the court sentenced Valentin to nine years probation with confiscation of the land and apartment. He was also deprived of the rank of counselor of justice and the opportunity to hold positions for three years.
After the trial
On November 28, 2001, at a press conference, Valentin Kovalev announced his intention to address the public and demand a return to the "bathing scandal", which served as a pretext for his resignation from the post of Minister of Justice. According to him, he issued a decision to send video materials with "bathing adventures" to the prosecutor's office in order to initiate a criminal case on violation of Valentin's rights.
He stressed that the decision was supported by an expert examination proving that the video cassette contained signs of editing. The prosecutor's office concealed these materials, Valentin Kovalev is sure. The politician accused the Deputy Prosecutor of the Russian Federation V. Kolmogorov of this.
Valentin Kovalev - the first star of an erotic thriller
The former head of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, Valentin Kovalev, sentenced to nine years in prison (with a suspended sentence of five years), despite the ridiculousness of the punishment, turned out to be the only post-Soviet minister whose criminal case was brought to court. Never before has a Russian court passed a sentence on an official of such high rank. Employees of the Investigative Committee (IC) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation confirmed: the case of Valentin Kovalev might not have gone to trial if it were not for the publication in the newspaper Sovershenno Sekretno (1997. No. 6) of my article "And the minister is naked", illustrated by a printout of a video of sexual comfort of the Minister of Justice in the bathhouse of the "Solntsevskaya" organized criminal group with prostitutes paid for by the same criminal structure.
It was after our publication that Kovalev was relieved of his post by decree of the President of Russia. Trying to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the public, Kovalev filed a lawsuit. We won and proved that he was captured in the bathhouse.
But it's not about the bath. The former Minister of Justice was convicted of repeated theft of property entrusted to him on a large scale, committed as part of an organized group (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as taking bribes (Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), that is, he was convicted of crimes falling under the concept of "corruption", about the fight against which our deputies talk so much.
The investigation gathered strength for a long time before initiating a criminal case against Valentin Kovalev. But, as soon as the wheel of justice began to spin, terrible pressure began on witnesses (many defendants in the criminal case said goodbye to their lives against their will), and then, in February 1999, the former Minister of Justice was arrested and taken first to Butyrka, and then to Matrosskaya Silence. A few months later, the new leadership of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (the resignation of the previous one is directly related to the criminal cases of Kovalev and his assistant banker Angelevich) began, in today's fashionable language, to "press" the investigative team. “Guys, you made the whole world laugh by imprisoning the Minister of Justice,” Sergey Novoselov, then head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, said exactly this phrase. However, the scandal around the voluptuous lawyer could no longer be hushed up, and the matter went to court. Slowly, many influential defenders dissociated themselves from him, in particular the ubiquitous Boris Berezovsky, as well as his friend and rival Vladimir Gusinsky.
The former minister of justice, who was firmly entrenched in the nickname "bath minister", as one of the investigators assured me, entered the history of modern Russia forever. By his example, many understood that a blow to corrupt officials should only be dealt below the belt. Indiscriminate filming of the sex pleasures of high-ranking civil servants began. In Smolensk, for example, they filmed the bathing fun of a senior investigator for especially important cases of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia who arrived on a business trip with local youngsters. The video sequence plus the statement of one of the Lolitas about the alleged rape knocked the capital's "important" out of the saddle. As expected, history repeated itself later in the form of a farce, when a porn series appeared on television with the participation of the Prosecutor General of Russia himself. Or, as it is fashionable to say now, a person who looks like the Prosecutor General.
The apotheosis was the trial, at which Valentin Kovalev demanded that, it would seem, his comrade in misfortune, Yuri Skuratov, refute the information set forth by the Prosecutor General in the book of memoirs "Dragon Variant".
Kovalev disliked Skuratov for the fact that it was he who reported to Boris Yeltsin, who drew attention to our publication, about the affairs of the Minister of Justice. In general, Valentin Alekseevich behaved absolutely inadequately. At first, he told everyone that his arrest was the revenge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the fact that he personally decided to take away the structure of GUIN from the police headquarters, although the transfer of all penitentiary institutions to the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation became one of the conditions for Russia to join the European Union. Then he suddenly declared that he had compromising information on the Prosecutor General, for which he put him behind bars. Not without fantasies: allegedly on the eve of the resignation, Kovalev was supposed to speak (probably somewhere in the League for the Defense of Sexual Reforms) with a super-report on corruption.
No one has ever seen the super report. But Kovalev's diary was confiscated, in which he scrupulously documented his sexual adventures. From the diary it followed: having acquired the first love experience at the age of fifteen, the former minister until the spring of 1998 (it was then that the diary was seized) had connections with seventy-five women. The former member of the Russian Security Council described in detail where, when, how many times, in what way; he gave the ladies marks on a five-point system and especially liked to note when the partner "wanted more." Needless to say, he "met" most of the girls when he was the Minister of Justice, because, knowing about his inclinations, people who wanted to please supplied already paid prostitutes. And who says that a bribe is necessarily money? By the way, out of the three young ladies who merrily splashed with him in the jacuzzi, he "credited" two and also strictly gave them grades.
While in prison, Kovalev complained about his health, but categorically did not want to take tests, assuring that this "violates his bodily integrity." In general, the investigators already wanted to send him for a compulsory psychiatric examination, but General Novoselov said his weighty word. Indeed, what if Valentin Alekseevich were declared insane, then all the bills adopted by the Ministry of Justice at the time when Kovalev was in charge would be subject to cancellation, and the documents signed by him would be declared invalid. Imagine what would have started then!
And what a monstrous, bloody picture of the life of criminal Russia in the late 90s would have been drawn if all the criminal cases, one way or another connected with the names of the banker Angelevich and Minister of Justice Kovalev, were combined into one? It would no longer be a criminal case, but a super-thriller, where all three main plots of interest to mankind are organically intertwined - love, money and death.
"Fallen" Angelevich
She first wrote about Arkady Angelevich and his two friends in the fall of 1996, even before she became a columnist for the Top Secret newspaper. The publication was called "Three comrades were friends." Indeed, they were friends. But in September 1993, one of his comrades, the head of the DIAM bank, Ilya Medkov, was shot dead from a rifle with a telescopic sight. Arkady Angelevich, a friend of the deceased, became the manager of all the loans of the late banker, as well as his property, including DIAM-Bank. This seemed strange to many, since shortly before the murder, Ilya and Arkady quarreled over a large sum, and Medkov even wanted to report Angelevich to the police.
And then Arkady quarreled with the third comrade - Dmitry Bureichenko. He was very different from his friends. If Angelevich and Medkov started their careers with trading in the Pragma cooperative (and DIAM, that is, dear Ilya Alexandrovich Medkov, generally with scams with fake Rossiya checks), then Dmitry is from Lubyanka. In 1991, he promptly left the KGB for commerce and became chairman of the board of Pragmabank, and then of Unity Bank, from which about two hundred million dollars disappeared. Later, detectives suspected Bureichenko of embezzlement. It was the money, the lion's share of which, as the detectives assure, passed from Bureichenko to Angelevich, and became the cause of their quarrel. After that, Dmitry disappeared and is still on the run somewhere abroad. Most of Bureychenko's property passed to his faithful friend - Angelevich.
The case of Arkady Angelevich, who was born in Moscow in 1962, a citizen of Russia and Israel, with a residence permit in Germany, chairman of the board of directors of JSCB "Montazhspets-bank", was separated into a separate proceeding from the criminal case of his friend Dmitry Bureichenko. The reason for its initiation on February 29, 1996, was the statements to the police by the clients of the bank "Edinstvo", who reported that their deposits were stolen, the bank ceased to exist, and the chairman of the bank's board disappeared.
So, the investigation came to the conclusion that the criminal activity of Arkady Angelevich was expressed in the following.
Theft of 130,000 US dollars - funds of JSCB "Montazhspets-bank", transferred by LLP "Astek" to this bank as debt repayment. This plot is simple: the banker receives from the debtors a part of the required amount, which he appropriates himself, the other part, having drawn up fictitious contracts, he appropriates together with Bureichenko.
Theft of real estate worth 6 million US dollars, transferred to JSCB "Montazhspetsbank" by creditors CJSC "Latrek" and LLP "Delta". The scheme is the same. Of the enterprises and real estate available to the debtors, Angelevich chose the Ivushka, Saigon, Gesser, Meshchera restaurants, the Bonaparte casino, as well as the country house of the general director of the debtor firms. Restaurants Angelevich issued to his proxies. No return of the debt to JSCB "Montazhspetsbank" was issued.
Theft of 5,767,102,900 rubles - funds from the bank "Edinstvo" (issued as a return of a loan from CJSC JV "Norfreez"). The loan was returned in the form of one hundred and ten South Korean-made cars. Most of the car has been sold, the money has been appropriated.
Theft of two buildings and funds of the bank "Unity" for a total of 40,154,899,410 rubles using forged documents. As a result, Angelevich became the owner of the buildings on Upper Radishchevskaya Street and Middle Pervomaiskaya.
Theft of 7,117,259,015 US dollars - funds of the bank "Edinstvo" using fictitious assignment agreements (assignment of claims for debt collection). These machinations were carried out after the murder of Ilya Medkov. Attached to the file is a general power of attorney issued to his mother for possession and disposal of the entire inheritance of the late Ilya. According to the testimony of Medkov's mother, after the death of her son, Angelevich and Bureychenko became the leaders of the DIAM and DIAM-bank association, who forced her to withdraw from the membership of other firms owned by her son.
Theft of 168,100 US dollars - monetary funds of JSCB "Montazhspets-bank" to pay off accounts payable.
It is curious that part of the debt was returned in the Karusel bar (it was in this "sun point" on Tverskaya-Yamskaya that the famous sauna operated, where Ayagelevich arranged for Kovalev to shoot). The loan repayment scene was also recorded on video equipment.
Another interesting touch to the portrait of the banker Angelevich. During a search conducted during his arrest, several dozen pieces of jewelry were seized. At the same time, it was established that earlier Angelevich had applied to the Berlin police with a statement about the theft of jewelry, estimated by him at 250 thousand dollars, from an apartment he rented. When comparing the list of "stolen" with "found" in the safe of a Moscow apartment, it turned out that almost all the jewelry was intact. On the fact of a false denunciation against Arkady Vladimirovich, criminal prosecution was initiated in Berlin (there is no data on the decision taken).
By order of Angelevich, the JSCB "Montazhspetsbank" donated 200 thousand dollars to a fund headed by Minister of Justice Kovalev. Immediately after that, I received from him a certificate of adviser to the Minister of Justice. On September 13, 1995, Angelevich organized a visit by Kovalev and his assistant Maximov to the sauna of the Karusel casino, where prostitutes paid in advance (not by the minister, of course) were present. It was the banker who kept the cassette at his house. Later, Angelevich said: "Someday there will be a difficult moment, and the minister will help." And also that he "holds Kovalev in his fist." Arkady Vladimirovich, who considers himself the smartest, richest, with the best connections, generally liked to collect compromising evidence on the people with whom he interacted, therefore, in his bank, many rooms were equipped with hidden eavesdropping and recording equipment.
...Despite the fact that "home-made preparations" did not help during the investigation, the very best refused patronage, Arkady Vladimirovich had a lot of tricks and, of course, money in reserve. After a two-day stay in a common cell, where seventy people slept in turns, he tried to open his wrists. From the medical unit I got into a four-bed room with "intelligent" neighbors. He played for time, trying to rewrite it by hand when getting acquainted with his multi-volume case. At some point, I decided to "surrender" all high-ranking patrons.
But the main miracles began in court. At first, the public prosecutor, prosecutor Khorkova, suddenly began to act as a defender, stating that she did not agree with the investigation. Curiously, Deputy Prosecutor General Mikhail Katyshev, who signed the indictment, agrees, but she, the district prosecutor, does not. Our court has never seen such a "rampant democracy".
Then it was the turn of the judge of the Presnensky Court Elena Filippova. Of the six charges, only one remained - about embezzlement of 368 thousand dollars. In all other cases, the court considered that the accusations were not confirmed, and when assessing the data on the identity of the defendant, the investigation adopted an accusatory bias. And in general, the participation of banks in charitable foundations does not contradict the law, so the issue of the video cassette with compromising evidence on Kovalev confiscated from Angelevich is beyond the scope of the present investigation, etc. etc.
They say that it took Angelevich 2.5 million dollars to "collapse" the case...
As a result, Arkady Vladimirovich received four years without confiscation of property with serving in a general regime penitentiary. But right there, in the courtroom, he was released: he had already spent three and a half years in Butyrka, and half a year was "knocked off" by the timely amnesty. And although soon the Constitutional Court of Russia recognized a number of its provisions as "inadequate", those who had already been released were not returned back.
Someone, perhaps, will begin to talk about the supposedly "weak" position of the investigation. But there is one "but": immediately after the announcement of this very scandalous verdict, Judge Filippova resigned, but rather soon returned and very quickly lifted the arrest imposed on Angelevich's French villa (to pay off debts).
Arkady Vladimirovich is cheerful and full of new plans. Informed sources said that now he is buying shares of RAO UES through nominees and may become a monopolist in the Moscow energy market. That's when he shows himself. However, he still has good connections.
Case of the Minister of Justice
Criminal case No. 142124 was initiated on April 28, 1998, based on materials isolated from the case of Angelevich and Co. on the fact of embezzlement by the leaders of the Fund for Public Protection of Civil Rights of large amounts of money. During the investigation, other crimes were also revealed: illegal possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition, coercion of witnesses to give false testimony, blackmail.
Where did it all begin?
In December 1993, Valentin Kovalev, a lecturer at the Correspondence Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was elected to the State Duma and soon became deputy speaker. Using his official position and, as has now been established by the court, "out of selfish motives, under the noble pretext of protecting rights and freedoms," he creates his own fund. Many well-known people were drawn into it: Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Trofimov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee (later Minister) Kalashnikov, Secretary of the State Duma Shlepenkov, lawyer of the Moscow City Bar Association Govallo. The elected board of the fund appoints the director (on the recommendation of Kovalev) - Andrey Maksimov. And on January 5, 1995, Kovalev received a public position - Minister of Justice. At the same time he manages the fund. Maksimov becomes the minister's official assistant. "Cashier" of the fund was formed at the expense of contributions. Among the "donors" are KB "Montazhspetsbank", OJSC "Lukoil", "Moscow Trust Bank", the group "ONEXIM Bank", 000 "Rial", CJSC Russian Sugar". The fund's money (without any reporting) was spent only by Kovalev. And all his "noble" activities were actually reduced to collecting applications from citizens and supplying several tons of sugar from a sponsor to penitentiary institutions... At the expense of the fund, Kovalev published his book "Two Stalin's People's Commissars", but the circulation was never realized - unlike "Diary This book didn't interest anyone.
Kovalev, Maksimov, and the fund's chief accountant, Valentina Kuchina, began to create fictitious firms (registered using lost passports of Russian citizens) that allegedly worked for the fund. It was a "black" cash desk, from where the money was stolen.
In addition, the fund paid for air tickets on the routes Moscow - Zurich and Geneva - Moscow to Kovalev's wife and daughter, a monument on the grave of Kovalev's mother. Allocated four thousand dollars "travel allowance" Maksimov, who visited Iran, paid for the trips of Kovalev and Co. to tropical countries.
In June 1996, a former employee of the Ministry of Justice, Kuchina, became the general director of the fund and, at the direction of Kovalev, developed an active commercial activity. In particular, she issues a loan of 50 thousand dollars on behalf of the fund to the firm "Fort and Co." When the firm owed $20,000, Kuchina, on behalf of Kovalyov, demanded that the debt be repaid in the amount of $200,000. As soon as the preliminary investigation began, Kovalev instructed Kuchina to communicate with witnesses, develop a false position with them and mislead the investigation. Then Kuchina demanded to confirm that the amount of the debt was exactly 200 thousand dollars. In the means of pressure on witnesses, the lady did not limit herself - she said that she would accuse them of joint theft and report their scams to the investigation. Kuchina warned one of the witnesses that if she testified against her and Kovalev, she would “regret” it, she frightened another that he was in trouble, since Kovalev is omnipotent. At one time, Kuchina was helped by a fund employee Yevgeny Vasin (his corpse was discovered on January 5, 1999).
In total, the members of the criminal group from October 15, 1994 to April 28, 1997 stole 1,029,996,000 rubles, of which Kovalev personally embezzled 740,614,000. He did not hesitate to "take" from the fund both in "little things" (3-4 thousand dollars) and in a big way (50-70 thousand dollars). And Kuchina monthly brought him to the Ministry of Justice "additional payment" to his salary - 10 thousand dollars each.
Inspired by the example of her boss, Kuchina herself began to engage in theft. During the investigation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation received a confession from Roman Liskin convicted of fraud, who worked at ITAR-TASS. He stated that in February 1996 he twice gave Kovalev a bribe of 20 thousand dollars for enrolling in the staff of advisers to the Minister of Justice. There were bribes in the form of apartments, land plots. Not surprisingly, the minister soon became a dollar millionaire.
Of course, he stated that "the criminal case was fabricated for political reasons." His answers during interrogation about the weapons and ammunition found are interesting. He received a PM pistol and 16 cartridges for it from an unfamiliar general when he went on a business trip to Chechnya. “I consider it unethical to talk about my merits, which served as the basis for issuing weapons to me,” Kovalev noted at the same time. When asked why weapons are not registered in accordance with the law, he said: "It is not difficult for me to answer this question: the system of legal arguments is obvious. But I will not do this for reasons of principle - there is no need to justify."
In fact, the gun was given to him by a friend - the director of the FAPSI Alexander Starovoitov. And although Kovalev never served in the FAPSI system, the general gave him weapons as an award "For Merit in the Development of the Communications System." Given the close relationship of both generals to Rato-Bank, where they kept their huge "savings", one can only guess what connections were meant. The criminal case on the fact of possession of weapons and ammunition was terminated at the stage of preliminary investigation, since Kovalev "voluntarily gave" both the pistol and the cartridges.
At the preliminary investigation stage, another episode was also terminated - on the fact of receiving a house in the form of a bribe in the elite village of Sukhanov. One of the witnesses in the case, Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Loginov, spoke about the transfer of a "charitable" contribution of 200 thousand dollars to the Kovalev Foundation.
In 1993, Loginov became president of the Russian Sugar production association. In 1995, through his partner Ganykin, he met Otdelnov, co-owner of the Flora-Moscow Design Bureau, who invited him to take part in the creation of the Kovalev Foundation. Since in the practice of the Russian Sugar Association there were cases of non-payment for the products they received, the idea of the fund - protecting the rights of citizens - interested Loginov. He willingly responded to Kovalev's proposal to donate 200 thousand dollars to the fund. Ganykin hinted that Kovalev would render them "services".
Which? In the spring of 1995, "Russian Sugar" received a hundred million loan from the Ministry of Finance under the guarantees of the Ministry of Agriculture. The loan was never repaid, but later this did not prevent the president of Russian Sugar, Loginov, from becoming deputy minister of agriculture. It was from this loan that 600 thousand dollars were spent on the construction of a cottage for Kovalev. The Minister of Justice was capricious: he had already twice turned down the magnificent cottages that were offered to him. But he really liked Ganykin's house, where the minister celebrated his housewarming. On December 23, 1996, Ganykin was blown up in his VOLVO car.
The construction manager, Blitshtein, testified to the investigator and said that Kovalev's cottage was built by the Ladex company, whose owners are Loginov and Ganykin. The land plot on which the house was located was also transferred to the property of Kovalev free of charge.
Nevertheless, the episode about Kovalev receiving the house as a bribe was stopped at the investigation stage.
But there were other facts of receiving bribes in the form of apartments and other land plots. In August 1995, the leaders of the Moscow Department of Cash Collection (MUI) turned to Maksimov with a request to assist through Kovalev in bringing his Swiss debtor to justice. Maksimov went to Switzerland and fulfilled the request. Kovalev, having learned that the head of the MUI manages sixteen sites in the Odintsovo district, demanded that two of them be given to him and Maksimov. As a result, Kovalev and Maksimov became owners of plots worth $12,500 each. Then Kovalev helped exempt the collectors from paying taxes, for which Maksimov was given a three-room apartment (for $33,000) free of charge, and Kovalev was given a five-room apartment (for $52,000) in a house on Aviamotornaya Street. The minister registered this apartment for his daughter. Maksimov's actions are aggravated by the fact that the criminal group that committed the crime in the form of a bribe included a person who held a public position, that is, Kovalev. The investigation was able to prove the bribes from the fraudster Liskin, which Kovalev placed on his accounts at Angelevich's bank.
An interesting story happened recently with Liskin - as soon as he was transferred from the colony to a free settlement, he disappeared.
Now about the personality of Kovalev. "He never hid his desire to go abroad for residence - it turned into an obsessive desire for him," witnesses assure. He always lied convincingly. In 1996 he wrote the book "Crucifixion of the Spirit", where he called himself an academician, although he was not one.
As the investigation noted, “the facts of the socially immoral behavior of Kovalev, a politician and civil servant, entering into disorderly, including group relationships with prostitutes, are proven by the testimony of witnesses, Kovalev’s personal notes in his diary, and the conclusions of a forensic examination dated January 6, 1998 on the identification of Kovalev’s personality on "bath" film. Witnesses testified that it was they who paid for the girls in the bath (and this happened often).
During the investigation, Kovalev, according to witnesses, behaved inappropriately. He said that he "was in the Kremlin, that he was encouraged and that he would soon return to big politics at the highest level." During a search of Kovalev's home, ninety copies of documents constituting a state secret were found.
This is short about crime. Now let's talk about punishment. The case against Valentina Kuchina, who was described by witnesses as "greedy, greedy, living at the expense of men she knows," was dismissed at the investigation stage due to non-rehabilitating circumstances (after all, she actively helped the investigation). Valentin Kovalev was deprived of the honorary title of Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation and the class rank of State Counselor of Justice of the Russian Federation, Andrey Maksimov - the class rank of First Class Counselor of Justice. Both are deprived of the right to hold positions in law enforcement and justice agencies that give them power. Maksimov was sentenced to six years in prison (conditionally). I wouldn't be surprised if someone gets a suspended sentence of life in prison soon.
Education and work
Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, Graduate School of Public Administration. D. F. Kennedy of Harvard University (USA), Doctor of Law, Professor.
He worked at a metallurgical plant and in the design bureau of rocket and space technology.
From 1976 to 1986 he taught and was engaged in scientific work at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 1986 to 1993 - professor at the Higher School of Law and the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. From 1992 to 1993 - General Director of the Legal Center of the National and International Security Fund.
Political activity
In December 1993 he was elected to the State Duma of the first convocation on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, from January 1994 to January 1995 he was one of the four deputy chairmen of the State Duma, from December 1994 he headed the headquarters of the State Duma on the situation related to the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic , was a member of the Supervisory Commission for the organization of the negotiation process with the Chechen Republic and the chairman of the joint tripartite commission on human rights in Chechnya.
January 5, 1995 was appointed Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation. On January 10, 1995, he was expelled from the Communist Party faction in the State Duma for joining the government without the consent of the faction.
On July 2, 1997, he was dismissed from the post of minister after compromising materials were shown in the media. Earlier in the newspaper "Sovershenno sekretno" an article by Larisa Kislinskaya "But the minister is naked" was published. The article said that in the safe of the banker Arkady Angelevich, who was arrested on April 17, a videotape was found where Kovalev was filmed with three prostitutes in a sauna. The entry was dated September 13, 1995, in addition to Kovalev, it featured a figure close to him Andrei Maksimov. The footage was then shown on television.
Kovalyov's criminal case
In February 1999, Kovalev was arrested on charges of embezzling funds from a public fund under the Ministry of Justice when he was a minister, as well as illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. In August 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation approved the indictment and sent a criminal case to court on charges of taking bribes and embezzlement of funds.
As stated in the materials of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, more than 1 billion non-denominated rubles were stolen from the Fund for Public Protection of Civil Rights created by Kovalev in 1994, of which more than 740 million were transferred to his personal accounts. In addition, “the materials of the criminal case established that Kovalev, holding the post of Minister of Justice in 1995-1997, repeatedly received large bribes, both in money and in apartments and land plots.”
On October 3, 2001, by the decision of the Moscow City Court, he was sentenced to 9 years of imprisonment on probation with a probationary period of 5 years. Kovalev and Andrey Maksimov were found guilty of embezzlement of entrusted property and repeated receipt of large bribes.
Ranks
- Colonel of Internal Service
- State Counselor of Justice of the Russian Federation
- Academician of the International Slavic Academy; Vice-President of the international organization "Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation"
- Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation
Family and hobbies
Married, has a daughter.
He is fond of classical literature, classical music, winter sports.
Chief Specialist of the Guild of Russian Lawyers since January 1999; former Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation (1995-1997); was born on January 10, 1944 in Dnepropetrovsk; Graduated from the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, Graduate School of Public Administration. D.F. Kennedy of Harvard University (USA), Doctor of Law, Professor; worked at a metallurgical plant and in the design bureau of rocket and space technology; 1976-1986 - taught and was engaged in scientific work at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs; 1986-1993 - professor at the Higher School of Law and the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation; 1992-1993 - General Director of the Legal Center of the National and International Security Fund; in December 1993 he was elected to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the first convocation on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, from January 1994 to January 1995 he was one of the four deputy chairmen of the State Duma, from December 1994 he headed the headquarters of the State Duma on the situation, connected with the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic, was a member of the Supervisory Commission for organizing the negotiation process with the Chechen Republic and the chairman of the joint tripartite commission on human rights in Chechnya; January 5, 1995 was appointed Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation; On January 10, 1995, he was expelled from the Communist Party faction in the State Duma for joining the "anti-people government" without agreement with the faction; in July 1997 he was relieved of his post as minister; has the rank of colonel of the internal service and the rank of State Counselor of Justice of the Russian Federation, 1st class; academician of the International Slavic Academy; vice-president of the international organization "Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation"; in February 1999, he organized the public association "Civil Solidarity"; author of about 200 scientific papers on the problems of jurisprudence and the book "Dossier of repressions"; was arrested on charges of embezzlement of public funds (February 3, 1999) and sentenced by the decision of the Moscow City Court to 9 years of suspended imprisonment with a probationary period of 5 years (October 3, 2001); Honored Lawyer of the Russian Federation; married, has a daughter; enjoys classical literature, classical music, winter sports. In June 1997, he was temporarily suspended, and on July 2, he was dismissed from the post of Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation due to the appearance in the media of video materials discrediting the minister. As head of the Ministry of Justice, he considered one of the main problems of regional legislation. On the basis of an expert review by the Ministry of about 26,000 normative acts at the regional level, he stated that about a third of them contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In 1996 alone, according to the former minister, the prosecutor's office, on the proposal of the Ministry of Justice, protested more than two tens of thousands of normative acts adopted by the subjects of the Federation. In this regard, V. Kovalev considered it necessary to adopt a special law on the responsibility of senior officials for violation of the current Constitution, including criminal liability, if the consequences of the adopted unconstitutional regional laws would be "difficult" for the Russian Federation. After his resignation, he headed the movement "Lawyers for human rights and dignity". In early 1999, he initiated the creation of a new public association - "Civil Solidarity". In February 1999, he was arrested on charges of embezzling funds from a public fund under the Ministry of Justice when he was a minister, as well as illegal possession of weapons and ammunition. In August 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation approved the indictment and sent to court a criminal case on charges of Kovalev in instructing bribes and embezzling funds. According to the investigation ("Izvestia", 02.08.2000), more than 1 billion non-denominated rubles were stolen from the Fund for Public Protection of Civil Rights established under the Ministry of Justice. for a period of 5 years. According to the court decision, a land plot in the Moscow region and an apartment in Moscow were also confiscated from Kovalev, and 40 thousand dollars, as received in the form of a bribe, were turned into state revenue. Kovalev was also deprived of the class rank of counselor of justice and the right to hold positions in law enforcement agencies for three years.
Born January 10, 1944 in Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine), Russian. Parents - mother Kovaleva Polina Alekseevna (1907-1989) and father Kovalev Alexei Ivanovich (1905-1986) were workers.
In 1973 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov.
In 1975 he graduated from the graduate school of the Faculty of Law of Moscow State University, in 1976 he defended his thesis on the problems of judicial evidence ("The English system of judicial evidence", defended on 01/16/1976, Moscow State University). In 1986 he defended his doctoral dissertation on special problems of legality ("The Crisis of Legality in Modern Bourgeois Criminal Procedure", approved 11/27/1987).
Graduated from the Higher School of Public Administration. D.F. Kennedy of Harvard University.
He began to work at the age of 14 - at a metallurgical plant and in the design bureau of rocket and space technology. He served in the Soviet Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Colonel of the Internal Service.
From 1976 to 1986 he taught law and was engaged in scientific work at the Academy of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 1986 to 1991 - professor at the Higher Law School and from 1991 to 1993 - professor at the Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow. In 1992-93 - General Director of the Legal Center of the National and International Security Fund.
He was a member of the CPSU until its ban in August 1991.
December 12, 1993 was elected to the State Duma for the federal district, on the list of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), the 14th number on the list. He was a member of the Communist Party faction.
On January 17, 1994, he was elected one of the four deputy chairmen of the State Duma - as part of the coalition list (except for Kovalev: Mikhail Mityukov - first deputy chairman of the State Duma, Alevtina Fedulova, Alexander Vengerovsky, on June 10, 1994 Artur Chilingarov was re-elected).
Since December 1994 - head of the State Duma headquarters for the situation related to the armed conflict in the Chechen Republic, and a member of the Supervisory Commission for the organization of the negotiation process with the Chechen Republic. In the last days of December 1994, he was appointed chairman of the joint tripartite commission on human rights in Chechnya (Temporary Monitoring Commission for Observance of the Constitutional Rights and Freedoms of Citizens), which included representatives of presidential structures and chambers of the Federal Assembly. Sergey Kovalev, the Commissioner for Human Rights, who was in Chechnya at that time, was appointed as V. Kovalev's deputy in the commission (without his consent to this).
Kovalev constantly argued the need for the presence of troops in Chechnya. Repeatedly stated that the commission has no facts of violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens by Russian military personnel; noted only violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population of Chechnya by Dudayev's formations.
On January 5, 1995, he received the post of Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation in the government of Viktor Chernomyrdin (this post has remained vacant since December 7, 1994, when Yuri Kalmykov left him).
January 10, 1995 was expelled from the Communist Party faction for joining the "anti-people government" without agreement with the faction.
On December 28, 1996, by decree of the President of the Russian Federation, he was approved as a member of the Interdepartmental Commission of the Russian Federation for Council of Europe Affairs.
Since March 1997 - Member of the Federal Commission on Chechnya (withdrawn from the Commission on July 23, 1997).
He retained his ministerial post in the government of Chernomyrdin-Chubais-Nemtsov, reorganized in March-April 1997.
On April 16, 1997, he became a member of the Commission under the President of the Russian Federation for the interaction of federal executive bodies and state authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the course of constitutional and legal reform in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
In June 1997, in the newspaper "Sovershenno sekretno", an article by Larisa Kislinskaya "But the minister is naked" was published. It featured video footage of Kovalev's encounters with naked women in a sauna run by the Solntsevo gang. Kislinskaya claimed that the videocassette was confiscated by the police during a search of the banker Arkady Angelevich (under investigation, he worked for V. Kovalev as an adviser on economic issues).
Immediately after the publication of Kislinskaya's article, Chernomyrdin recalled Kovalev from a foreign business trip. June 21, 1997 Kovalev sent a statement to the President of the Russian Federation, in which he asked to be temporarily relieved of his duties as Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation. On June 25, his request was granted.
July 2, 1997 dismissed from his post. July 20, 1997 relieved of his duties as a member of the Security Council.
In early 1999, he was appointed Chief Specialist of the Guild of Russian Lawyers.
In February 1999, he organized the public association "Civil Solidarity". The association included Kovalev's party "Lawyers for Human Rights and a Decent Life", the Russian Party of Social Democracy of Alexander Yakovlev and about 50 other parties, unions and organizations. The purpose of the association, according to Kovalev, is the parliamentary and presidential elections.
February 3, 1999 was arrested on charges of embezzlement of public funds. Former Minister of Justice of Russia Valentin Kovalev is famous for being the first high-ranking official to be filmed with a hidden camera in a gangster bath, where he steamed with women of easy virtue. After the arrest of the former federal minister on February 3, it turned out that Valentin Kovalev was claiming another article in the unwritten Book of Russian political scandals. Valentin Kovalev, who did not work for a single minute in the field of commerce, officially became the first millionaire official in Russia - in dollar terms, of course. In the course of the investigation, not only the schemes and levers that a high-ranking official can use for personal illegal enrichment became clear. It also turned out that the mentioned schemes can be unraveled, and an official from inaccessible political heights can be lowered into a pre-trial detention center. Which is very important to us.
During the arrest, the head of the infamous "Montazhspetsbank" Arkady Angelevich was seized with a red-skinned certificate of adviser to the minister Kovalev. Checking the documentation of the named bank revealed a payment of 200 thousand US dollars, addressed by the bank to a certain "Foundation for the Public Protection of Civil Rights", organized personally by Valentin Kovalev.
Some print media reported about embezzlement in this fund in the article "Secrets of the KGB's deposits" (July 6, 1998). Let me just remind you that on June 30, 1998, the general director of the fund, Andrey Maksimov, was arrested, who was also an assistant to the Minister of Justice Kovalev and the performer of one of the episodic roles in a bath porn film. The audit showed that only about 10 percent of the funds spent by the fund were used for statutory purposes. The remaining 90 percent was spent on completely non-statutory activities, including trips of the minister, his relatives, assistant and some "useful" people to Slovakia, Switzerland, Iran, Australia, exotic Indonesia, etc. At the same time, very expensive real estate was purchased for personal use.
In the elite village of Sukhanovo near Moscow, Valentin Kovalev purchased an estate with a total market value of close to $600,000. On 33 personal accounts of Kovalev in Montazhspetsbank, which belonged to Angelevich, 255 thousand dollars were found, which were not indicated in any tax declaration. Another $160,000 of the same amount was found in Rato-Bank, notorious for its excessively close relationship with FAPSI, the intelligence agency responsible for government communications. In addition, in May 1998, a search was carried out in the apartment of Valentin Kovalev, and an unregistered PM pistol and ammunition were confiscated from the former minister. The pistol turned out to be an award, it was presented to Kovalev by the director of the FAPSI - General Starovoitov "for his services in the development of communications." Given the close relationship of both to Rato-Bank, it is not difficult to guess what kind of "connections" the intelligence general had in mind.
Even being retired, Valentin Kovalev tried to use all his possibilities to stop the criminal case on embezzlement from the Fund for Public Protection of Citizens' Rights. From sources close to Boris Berezovsky, it became known that the disgraced minister personally asked for help from him, and such help was promised to Kovalev. Kovalev turned to good acquaintances in the presidential administration, and in the Ministry of Internal Affairs - in general, he pressed on all the pedals. But something stuck in the mechanism of domestic corruption. February 3, 1999 Deputy. Katyshev, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, signed the arrest warrant, and the former chief lawyer of the country was taken into custody in the house at the address: Ogareva, 6. Kovalev, apparently, did not expect such a development of events, and already after the arrest he was eager to call the Prosecutor General's Office and sort it out ... On the same day, Valentin Kovalev was placed in pre-trial detention center No. 2 ("Butyrki"), where both Arkady Angelevich and Andrei Maksimov had been waiting for him for a long time.
The arrest of my client is illegal, - says the lawyer of the former Minister of Justice Anatoly Kucherena, who does not exclude the political background of the arrest. - During the search, confidential documents relating to the presidential campaign of Boris Nikolayevich were confiscated from Valentin Alekseevich. These documents have not yet been returned to Kovalev, although they have nothing to do with the criminal case under investigation.
Investigators flatly refuse to comment on this lawyer's statement. But other documents, no less confidential, suddenly surfaced. One of the ladies who had an intimate relationship with the former minister now claims that the latter kept a diary from a young age, in which he entered in detail his adventures with persons of the opposite sex - more than fifty episodes in total. Including the episode with the specified lady. The adventures are described in a diary with details that would make Bill Clinton blush. For example, the former minister evaluated his girlfriends in a purely Soviet way - according to a five-point system ...
At the moment, in addition to possession of unregistered weapons, Kovalev is charged with literally the following:
"... Being the president of the Foundation for the Public Protection of Civil Rights ... being sent by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to Switzerland and intending to take his family members on a trip abroad, Kovalev ordered the economic department (HOZU) of the Ministry of Justice of Russia to pay at the expense of the ministry with the condition of the subsequent return of money to them, the purchase of air tickets for Aeroflot flights Moscow - Zurich and Geneva - Moscow for his wife - Kovaleva E.N. and daughter - Kovaleva A.V. 6,234,000 rubles.
In July 1996, Kuchina (an official of the fund), by agreement with Kovalev and Maksimov, in order to steal money, drew up a payment order to transfer from the account of the "Fund for Public Protection of Civil Rights" to the account of Grifon LLC, registered as nominees on lost passports, 650 million rubles allegedly under a joint commercial activity agreement. On the basis of this order (N 364) dated July 22, 1996, signed by Maksimov, the money was transferred to the account of Grifon LLC in the Falcon bank, where Kuchina received in cash the currency equivalent of the transferred amount in the amount of 120 thousand US dollars, appropriated by the participants in the theft . In August 1996, Kovalev received 50 thousand US dollars from Kuchina in his office in the Ministry of Justice ... ".
The lawyer and his client have already filed a number of motions. In particular, Kovalev: "I consider the fact of placing the former chairman of the interdepartmental commission of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on combating crime and corruption in the Butyrka prison, overcrowded with people accused of ordinary crimes, suffering from AIDS, syphilis and tuberculosis, as an act of intimidation." Kovalev himself, according to the prison administration, refused to take the tests required when he was placed in the pre-trial detention center: "This violates my bodily integrity," the communist doctor of law Kovalev wrote directly in his statement addressed to the head of the pre-trial detention center.
February 3, 1999 was arrested on charges of embezzlement of public funds. The arrest was connected with the activities of the Foundation for the Public Protection of Civil Rights, created by Kovalev when he was a minister. The co-founder of the fund was Sergei Kalashnikov (at the time of Kovalev's arrest, the Minister of Labor and Social Protection). The Fund cooperated with the financial and industrial group "Capital" and the bank "Khodynka", owned by Ziyavutdin Adzhiev. Kovalev was charged with embezzlement of 50 thousand dollars.
On February 4, 1999, Kovalev went on a hunger strike, demanding that a lawyer be allowed to see him in the Butyrka prison and transferred to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. He also sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, in which he stated that he was healthy and voluntary death was excluded for him (Kovalev). A few days later he was transferred to Matrosskaya Tishina.
In January 2000, Kovalev's detention was extended in order to familiarize the accused with 48 volumes of his criminal case.
According to Kovalev, in prison he was repeatedly beaten, morally and physically abused, and psychotropic drugs were used against him. All this was done with the aim of breaking him and forcing him to sign the testimony necessary for the investigation. (Power, March 6, 2001)
In July 2000, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation completed the investigation of the criminal case and charged V. Kovalev with "repeated theft of property entrusted to him on a large scale, committed as part of an organized group, repeated receipt of bribes on a large scale."
In August 2000, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office approved the indictment in the criminal case against Kovalev. On August 28, 2000, Kovalev's case was brought to court.
In October 2000, Kovalev sent to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation V.Ustinov materials relating to the activities of a number of Russian top officials, including materials on two criminal cases. initiated in connection with the financial crisis on August 17, 1998.
In February 2001, the court satisfied the claim for the protection of honor and dignity, filed by Kovalev against the former Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, Yuri Skuratov. In particular, Skuratov's statement that the dacha in the Leninsky district of the Moscow region was presented to Kovalev by the president of the Russian Sugar company was recognized as untrue.
On February 27, 2001, the Moscow City Court rejected the request of Kovalev's lawyer to send his case for additional investigation. On March 6, Kovalyov's lawyer, Nikolay Ivanov, filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against the decision of the Moscow City Court.
On April 23, 2001, Kovalev's daughter Anastasia testified at the trial that during the investigation into her father's case, she herself was persuaded to commit suicide. After the search, one of the operatives left her father's carbine with the words: "This is for you." (Kommersant, April 24, 2001)
On September 13, 2001, the trial of Kovalev began in the Moscow City Court. The state prosecutor demanded that he be sentenced to 9 years in prison to be served in a strict regime colony. During the judicial debate of the parties, a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office asked the court to find Kovalev guilty of repeated theft of property entrusted to him on a large scale, committed as part of an organized group (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as of accepting bribes (Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). (RIA Novosti, September 13, 2001)
On October 3, 2001, the court sentenced Kovalev to 9 years of suspended liberty with a probation period of 5 years and confiscation of a land plot in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow region and an apartment in Moscow as acquired by criminal means. The verdict stated that in 1994, as deputy chairman of the State Duma, Kovalev created the Foundation for the Public Protection of Civil Rights. In 1995, having become the Minister of Justice, Kovalev continued to manage the fund and manage its funds, which came as voluntary contributions from various enterprises and organizations. According to the court, Kovalev allegedly spent these funds on work with deputies and on election campaigns. In fact, fictitious contracts were concluded with commercial firms, to whose accounts large sums were transferred. This money was cashed out and divided among partners. The investigation and the court established the facts of embezzlement of the fund's funds totaling 1 billion 29 million rubles. The court also deprived Kovalev of the class rank of counselor of justice, as well as the right to hold positions in law enforcement and justice agencies for 3 years. (Gazeta.ru, October 3, 2001)
On November 28, 2001, at a press conference, Kovalev announced that he intended to appeal to the public with a demand to return to the circumstances of the "bathing scandal" with his participation, which served as a pretext for removing him from office. "It is futile to appeal to the public before you have chosen all the possibilities of state bodies. I appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office orally and in writing, and repeatedly," Kovalev said. According to him, the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation issued a decision to send video materials that recorded the "bathing adventures" of the minister to the Prosecutor General's Office in order to initiate a criminal case on violation of Kovalev's rights. The former minister stressed that the decision was accompanied by the results of an examination: specialists from various departments came to the conclusion that "there are signs of electronic editing in this video cassette." Kovalev expressed confidence that the Prosecutor General's Office "concealed these materials" and blamed Vasily Kolmogorov, Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, for this. "I insist that a decision be made on the basis of these materials, that this story be continued, and that the decision be made by the prosecutor's office," Kovalev said. (Interfax, November 28, 2001)
