Ilya Khalturin is a Nizhny Novgorod manager in the housing and utilities sector, former Teploenergo) — Nizhny Novgorod's largest heat-supply company. In 2025–2026 he is a defendant in a criminal case for exceeding official authority.

Criminal prosecution

According to the investigation, during his tenure as head of Teploenergo, Khalturin exceeded his official authority in four episodes. The first concerns a change of the design organization during the modernization of the Nagornaya Heat Supply Plant: the subsidiary TER-NN terminated its contract with OOO ASB "Parsek" and in 2023 signed a contract with OOO "TGV-Proektirovanie". The second episode follows from the first: the investigation holds that Khalturin illegally doubled the salary of TER-NN director Yakov Girkin, previously given a suspended sentence for delaying payments to Parsek — allegedly so that Girkin could pay for a lawyer's services. The remaining two episodes concern contracts for relaying heating networks awarded to a sole supplier, OOO "Stroitelnye Tekhnologii" (Construction Technologies): the investigation notes that the company's director, Zoya Makarkina, had an outstanding criminal record, and that the contractor's late-work penalty was never collected.[1][2][3]

Khalturin was detained again in July 2025; the investigation initially covered three episodes, with a fourth added later.[1] During the court proceedings, Parsek's director Alla Nemudrova presented her own account: according to her, the design delays were caused by deliveries of experimental boilers and changes to the project parameters made by the customer, while reconstruction of the Nagornaya heating plant proceeded without a building permit under deliberately tight deadlines — Teploenergo intended to complete both stages (design and construction) in two years instead of the standard three.[2]

Defense's position

Khalturin and his lawyers do not plead guilty. The defense filed Khalturin defense's motion to dismiss the criminal case (2026), insisting there was no corpus delicti in any of the episodes.[3] According to the defense's arguments, Stroitelnye Tekhnologii delayed the network relaying because state expert review was backlogged, and because gas and road services were simultaneously working on the same sections. Khalturin says he was unaware of Zoya Makarkina's criminal record either at the time the contract was signed or later — this fact became known only in 2023, when, due to sanctions, the company switched to a sole-supplier scheme.[1] The defendant explained the salary increase for Yakov Girkin as necessary to retain the manager, who intended to leave his post because of the heavy workload and low pay at the height of the heating plant's reconstruction.[2][3]

During a repeat court interrogation, Yakov Girkin confirmed that Parsek had allowed delays and errors in the documentation, and then stopped responding. Girkin had earlier received a suspended sentence of 1.5 years for exceeding authority; by the time of the August 2026 court session his criminal record had been expunged.[1][2]

Related circumstances

In connection with the criminal prosecution, Khalturin was removed from the council under the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region — the Investment Council of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[2] As of August 2026 the court proceedings continue; the defense's motion to terminate the case was pending before the court.[1][3]

Sources

  1. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Defense of ex-head of Teploenergo Khalturin asked to terminate the criminal case (archive)
  2. Newsroom24 — Defense of ex-head of Teploenergo Khalturin asked to close the criminal case in court (archive)
  3. GIPERNN — Defense asks to close the criminal case of the ex-head of Nizhny Novgorod's Teploenergo (archive)
  4. Otkrytyi Nizhny — Defense of ex-head of Teploenergo Khalturin asks to terminate the criminal case (archive)