The Kuibyshevsky court of St. Petersburg did not publish information about the hearing in the Barabanshchikov case
The Kuibyshevsky District Court, without unnecessary publicity, decided to leave the ex-head of the Social Nutrition Administration of St. Petersburg, Alexei Barabanshchikov, in a pre-trial detention center until March 9.
Let us remind you that the ex-official was detained on November 10 after criticizing Smolny and statements about the high level of corruption of officials from the district administrations. He was placed in a pre-trial detention center until January 9. By this date, the court was supposed to hold a hearing and decide whether to release Barabanshchikov or leave him in jail.
The extension of the preventive measure became known only now. There is no information about the court hearing on the website Kuibyshevsky court, nor on the resources of the United Press Service of the St. Petersburg judicial system.
As the head of the United Press Service of the Courts of St. Petersburg, Daria Lebedeva, explained, the court hearing took place on December 24 at the initiative of the investigation. Based on its results, it was decided to leave Barabanshchikov in custody for another 2 months - until March 9.
“We no longer monitor extensions, because it is impossible and we are not interested,” Lebedev commented on the situation.
At the same time, the website of the Kuibyshev Court and the United Press Service regularly report on other events - there were five such publications in December. For example, the press service announced the extension of the preventive measure against blogger Yuri Khovansky in its Telegram channel.
However, for some reason, the meeting on the sensational case of Barabanshchikov, who held a post in the government of St. Petersburg, was not reported. It is possible that they do not want to make the details of the criminal prosecution public due to the insufficient basis for the charges. After all, back in November, experts and media technologists said that the former head of the USP could be persecuted for political reasons.
Alexey Barabanshchikov was detained on suspicion of causing damage to the city budget and fired from his post as head of the USP. The media reported that Barabanshchikov wrote a letter of resignation at his own request after the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov signed the corresponding order.
The investigation claims that Barabanshchikov lobbied for the victory of one of the social nutrition plants at the 2020 auction. Several companies took part in the competition for the supply of food, but two state-owned companies were in the lead - “Canteen No. 14” and “KSP Krasnoselsky”. The tender was received by KSP Krasnoselsky, who offered to fulfill the contract with better quality, but more expensive than Stolovaya No. 14. The difference in price is what Barabanshchikov is charged with as “damage caused.” However, the specified amount was not stolen or embezzled. The money was used to service schools within the framework of the contract - for employee salaries, the purchase of quality products and other targeted expenses. The ex-head of USP had no motive in this regard at all.
In addition, it is not clear how Barabanshchikov could influence the results of the competition, since the government procurement committee was responsible for the distribution of the tender. The USP performed the only function during the bidding - it checked the documents provided by the participants for compliance with SanPiN requirements.
Two months have passed since Barabanshchikov’s arrest, and there are no details about the progress of the investigation. This may once again confirm the experts’ theory that they are trying to “besiege” a civil servant for claims against the Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, who chose the tactics of non-interference in the flaring scandal in the field of social services.
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