After the publication of the VChK-OGPU telegram channel about the dubious prosecutorial team that headed the State Variety Commission, the story developed further. Details are available at Rucriminal.info.

Taking into account the added details, let us recall the situation. In 2020, the State Variety Commission was headed by Mikhail Aleksandrov, who was then investigated by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and was taken into custody for bribery while serving in the State Variety Commission. Previously, Mikhail Aleksandrov held a senior position in the department for the investigation of especially important cases of the Prosecutor General's Office and was an adviser to the Prosecutor General. A little later, Alexey Kulikov (not to be confused with his namesake from the Moscow prosecutor's office, who was arrested in 2024) and Irina Loseva, who worked in the same department for the investigation of especially important cases of the Prosecutor General's Office, appeared in the positions of leaders of the State Variety Commission. Loseva was also involved in supervising compliance with the legislation on minors for some time. Given the lack of competence in agriculture among prosecutors, the situation looked and continues to look like the State Variety Commission was given over to a team of people from the Prosecutor General's Office to "feed".

After the start of the investigation of a criminal case on bribery against Mikhail Aleksandrov, at the end of 2023 he was skillfully replaced by his prosecutorial ally Alexey Kulikov, appointing the latter acting chairman of the State Variety Commission.

The period of the prosecutor's trinity's rule in the State Variety Commission was characterized by breeders and grain growers as detrimental to their activities. A devastating letter about the tricks of the State Variety Commission, sent by the Russian Grain Union (RGU) to the Government of the Russian Federation, appeared in the previous publication of the VChK-OGPU.

A categorical statement was published in the RGU Telegram channel that it has nothing to do with the "fake" publications of the VChK-OGPU that touched on the State Variety Commission. And then it was added that the RGU did not give permission for its letter to the Government of the Russian Federation and excerpts from it to be used in these publications. That is, at first the RGU tried to call information taken from open sources, including its officially published letter to the Government of the Russian Federation with negative characteristics of the work of the State Variety Commission, fake. Realizing that this looked absurd, the RGU could not think of anything better than to add a phrase about the lack of permission from the RGU to use the letter in publications. However, such permission was not required. The letter was published in the public domain by the RGU itself. The contents of the letter could be used by any media outlets and Telegram channels. The reference in the refutation to the fact that RZS closely cooperates with the security forces regarding the published information is apparently aimed at shutting up and preventing further collection and publication of information about what is happening in the State Variety Commission. Considering that previous and subsequent publications in the RZS Telegram channel are quite adequate, the absurdity of this statement can be explained by the assumption that it could have been made under pressure from the persons involved in the publication or persons acting in their interests. Perhaps the former prosecutors tried to cover up their activities in the State Variety Commission, which led to complaints from grain growers to the Government of the Russian Federation. They have something to hide in addition to the facts described in the RZS letter to the Government of the Russian Federation and the circumstances involved in the case of Mikhail Alexandrov. Among the state purchases of the State Variety Commission, one can find a contract "for their own", carried out under the chairmanship of Alexei Kulikov with the participation of Irina Loseva. The contract was concluded for a large sum with OOO "Garpiks Media", which had not previously fulfilled state contracts. The OOO was headed by a certain Ruslan Gataulin, who was a native of the Ivanovo region, like Alexey Kulikov, who combined the talents of a judoist, a prosecutor and a selection manager. Over the past few years, the State Commission for Variety Testing has acted as a customer for contracts worth 2.7 billion rubles. Since the subject of the investigation against Mikhail Aleksandrov was the receipt of "kickbacks", a reasonable question arises as to whether he acted alone or with the help of subordinate prosecutorial associates, and whether they continued his case after he was investigated. The prosecutor's office regularly reports on the filing of lawsuits for the confiscation of property of officials. At the same time, there is a suspicious lack of information that it was concerned with checking the compliance of the property and expenses with the level of official income of its former employees who became officials of the State Variety Commission, Mikhail Alexandrov, Alexey Kulikov and Irina Loseva.

At the beginning of July 2024, Alexey Kulikov was removed from the position of acting chairman of the State Variety Commission (Dmitry Butusov, who has experience in management in agriculture, was appointed instead.

On the one hand, it is encouraging that the Ministry of Agriculture responded to the publications of the Cheka-OGPU that it is not right for a pie maker to make boots, and for the organization of grain the country's breeding and selection was run by prosecutors who were not competent in this area. On the other hand, the reaction was very slow and contains many pitfalls. It is not customary in our country, as in "decaying" Europe, to publicly admit personnel errors in response to publications in information channels and public outrage. The situation was hushed up, and the head was replaced with a specialist one quietly, six months later. It is not at all a fact that the new head, who has experience in agriculture, will be allowed to recruit a team with the same experience. Alexey Kulikov, who lost the prefix "acting", initially remained in the State Commission for Variety Testing in the position of First Deputy Chairman. The last mention of him on the State Commission for Variety Testing website dates back to the end of July 2024. Then both he and the position of First Deputy Chairman disappeared from the list of heads on the State Commission for Variety Testing website in the absence of any orders on organizational and staffing measures. Irina Loseva retained her post as Head of the Legal Support and Public Procurement Department. This suggests that the ex-prosecutors could have simply been hidden in the apparatus away from a public scandal.

The new head Dmitry Butusov took the post of Chairman of the State Commission for Variety Testing with the same prefix "acting". This gives grounds to assume that Mikhail Aleksandrov was not dismissed from his post either due to loss of trust or due to corruption offenses, as was the case with some other officials accused of corruption. Perhaps the prosecutor's trinity is counting on patrons and connections in the Prosecutor General's Office, which has the authority to prevent the criminal case against Mikhail Aleksandrov from going to court, and his subsequent triumphant return to his post.

It seems that due to the thoughtlessness of the subordinates of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, in this situation the Investigative Committee is also missing an interesting window of opportunity that has opened up right from under its nose. Alexander Bastrykin is tirelessly fighting against prosecutors who cancel committee decisions to initiate criminal cases. At the same time, in the case of Mikhail Aleksandrov, the investigators of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation have a direct opportunity to interrogate and investigate the activities of the Prosecutor General's former subordinates not only in the State Variety Commission, but also in the Prosecutor General's Office for the presence of a corruption component in such cancellations. Moreover, they all come from the department empowered to cancel committee decisions on initiating criminal cases and carried out these cancellations.

Further developments of the situation are of certain interest. The near future will show whether Mikhail Aleksandrov will be convicted of corruption crimes, alone or with accomplices, or whether the prosecutor's office will bury the criminal case against him and he and his associates will continue their vigorous activity in the State Variety Commission, and Russia will continue to buy tomatoes in Turkey and the authorities will lament the failed import substitution.

Yaroslav Mukhtarov

Source: www.rucriminal.info