Press Release, 27.10.2017

Sergei Mitrokhin, Chair of the Moscow branch of Yabloko and head of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre of the Yabloko party, demanded that the Tushino Interdistrict Public Prosecutor’s Office obtain an order for demolition of illegal buildings located in the landscape reserve “The Valley of the Shodnya River in Kurkino” in Moscow and open the territory for free public access. Despite the decision of the court, a mansion of Major General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Anatoly Petukhov is still located in the landscape reserve.

In 2009, the Tushinsky District Court found it illegal to lease a land plot of 3,688 square meters in the landscape reserve “The Valley of the River Skhodnya River in Kurkino” for a 49-year lease to Major General Anatoly Petukhov, ex First Deputy Head of the Main Department for Combating Organised Crime (GUBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. In 2013, Sergei Mitrokhin, along with activists of Yabloko, conducted a public inspection in the reserve. He handed to the Russian Investigation Committee the information on illegal transactions with the reserve land, concluded by former head of the North-West District of Moscow Viktor Kozlov and Major General Petukhov. According to Yabloko’s Anti-Corruption Policy Centre, the acts on the transfer of land were signed personally by Viktor Kozlov.

According to the investigation conducted by Transparency International-Russia and released on 20 October, 2017, Major General Petuhov had invested over USD 38 million in real estate in Florida, USA, since 2010. It also follows from the investigation that Petukhov still owns a private house in Kurkino in a specially protected natural reserve area.

The lawyers of the Anti-Corruption Policy Centre note that the court’s decision on the illegality of transferring the plot of land belonging to the reserve has not yet been implemented. According to the law, the general’s mansion must be demolished, and obstacles to citizens’ access to the territory of the reserve be eliminated. Also the issue about the offenses of district head Kozlov and other officials who agreed on the transfer of the reserve area and construction on its territory still remains open.

Yabloko forwarded appeals to the official instances, including the Public Prosecutor’s Office, demanding to inspect and demolish the mansion illegally constructed in the reserve by Major General Petukhov.

Sergei Mitrokhin is planning a new public inspection on the territory of the reserve in order to find out what other buildings occupy the specially protected natural reserve area.