Klimentyev

Under heavy pressure from the regional administration, Kislyakov, the director of the Navashino Plant, transferred $500,000 to the charter capital of NBD-Bank and placed $2 million there on deposit. "Freezing" money intended for purchasing plant equipment in NBD-Bank accounts was a misuse of loan funds. This was stated in a letter from the Ministry of Finance, which was sent to Nizhny Novgorod after another audit of the enterprise's accounting report. The regional administration was ordered to return this money and put it to its intended purpose. But it was impossible to return the $2 million, because it had gone to redeem bonds of the regional loan, known among the people as "Nemtsovkas." Incidentally, it was the same kind of "sucker scam" as the shares of MMM, Khopr, or Selenga.

Nemtsov was badly frightened then. It was the year of the presidential elections, and for a long time he did not believe Yeltsin could win them. Suppose Zyuganov or Lebed had come to power in 1996. In that scenario Nemtsov would have gone to prison for abuse of office or embezzlement of state funds.^[9] After all, he was guilty of other "exploits" besides the machinations with the "Nemtsovkas." For example, Nemtsov's administration and Prosecutor Shevelev squandered money belonging to the Norwegian company "Russian shipping," in the amount of 14 billion rubles, which lay in the regional administration's accounts.^[9] Moreover, while that money sat there, it accrued interest of 1 billion rubles a year, on which many officials fed. A group of individuals withdrew the money without a court decision and directed it to private financial structures belonging to those very same officials.

For example, I was convicted as a co-owner of the firm "Aroko" because 100 million rubles of "Navashino" money had arrived in its account. But 185 million rubles of the Navashino Plant's money were transferred to the accounts of Garantia Bank, whose co-owner and board chairman at the time was Sergey Kiriyenko. The bank never returned this money, and Kiriyenko was not even brought into my case, because by the time the sentence was handed down he was already prime minister.^[9] Thus, in violation of Article 35 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a forced confiscation was carried out, for which no one has ever been held accountable. No, Nemtsov and the others had something to lose if the truth about the "Navashino millions" had reached a court.

Thus, had the investigation and the court proceeded from the requirements of the law, Nemtsov would have had to answer for $15 million, Brevnov of NBD-Bank for $500,000, and for the $2.5 million that went to Norway I would somehow have answered myself. Incidentally, I was supposed to repay the loan in two and a half years, yet I was accused of embezzlement four months after receiving it.^[9] Imagine that someone lends you money for a year, and six weeks later they come to your home for it together with the militia! What happened next is known to everyone. Prosecutors Fedotov and Shevelev, investigator Denisov, and Judge Popov successfully carried out their assignment.

Moreover, even before the court's verdict, Shevelev and Denisov sold my ship and repair dock, worth $7.5 million in total.^[9] At the time they told me roughly the following: you'll be put away anyway, so at least we'll return something to the state. I don't know what the proceeds from the sale were spent on ($2.5 million for the ship and $3 million for the dock). In response to my inquiry about their further fate, District Prosecutor Zvyagintsev answered vaguely that "the money went for the good of the people." It would be interesting to learn for the good of which people it went and by how much it improved their good.

You may ask me whether I am slandering all these well-known and influential people. But if my words contain malicious lies, why does none of them sue me? True, Boris Nemtsov tried to do so, but nothing good came of this venture for him. On Nemtsov's complaint, in October–November 2000 one of the best Nizhny Novgorod investigators, Konstantin Zakharov, conducted an investigation (case No. 68135). He established that Nemtsov should then have been sitting in the dock next to me, rather than appearing as a witness in my case.

Given this, all of Nemtsov's witness testimony should be annulled, and then much in the case would have to be changed. That is why Regional Prosecutor Fedotov shelved his conclusions, and investigator Zakharov, a competent and determined man, of whom few remain in the prosecutor's office, was fired.^[9] But Konstantin Zakharov is alive and lives in our city. What prevents the Moscow anti-corruption fighters or the ubiquitous journalists from approaching him and learning his opinion on the "Navashino" case?^[9]

As a result of all these foolish and criminal actions, the town-forming enterprise was destroyed, and for seven years it has been unable to recover. In 1995 the Navashino Plant was "ahead of all Russia," and in 2002 it repairs "old galoshes." Under me the plant employed 7,500 people; now it employs 1,500. The average salary then was $300 a month; today it is $50. Perhaps my project, which the court declared fraudulent, really could not have been carried out?^[9]

But then why was it implemented two years later in Astrakhan? Incidentally, the dry-cargo ships built there are sold to the very same firms with which I had signed contracts at the time. In Astrakhan Region they managed to establish production of these merchant vessels. But in Nizhny Novgorod Region today there is only one modern dry-cargo ship, and that only as a model, which is still kept in my office.

By the court's sentence I was found guilty of embezzling $2 million and sentenced to 6 years in a general-regime prison colony.^[9] At the end of this entire judicial marathon, the Supreme Court, under the influence of First Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov, left the sentence unchanged but found me and Kislyakov guilty of embezzling only $50,000.^[9] In the end it turned out that Klimentyev, whose fortune in 1995 was on the order of $100 million, stole $25,000. That is roughly what the copper gates of the Navashino Plant cost. Would you steal 1 ruble if you had 4,000 rubles in hand?

But damage really was done to Nizhny Novgorod Region. The regional budget had to repay the $18 million loan plus $2 million in interest. And overall the region lost about $100 million on this affair, since a promising plant was devalued and the production of dry-cargo ships was disrupted. Thousands of the plant's shareholders, its workers, and the residents of Navashino also suffered as a result of this crime. Prosecutor Shevelev, on the other hand, received an apartment in the city center worth roughly $160,000. The accommodating Judge Popov also improved his living conditions.

I am often asked whether I believe the truth in this case will prevail. Some say that the hour will come when people in the president's circle need compromising material on Nemtsov, and then the Prosecutor General's Office will take an interest in the case of the "Navashino millions." This eternal waiting for the "right hour" is especially repugnant. I believe that if a person has committed a crime, his case should be dealt with immediately. And people who conceal a crime should be held criminally liable for concealing it.^[9] Moreover, this applies not only to Nemtsov. There are also Prosecutor Shevelev and investigator Denisov, who, in my opinion, also broke the criminal law.^[9]

The case against them has been in court for two years. For a whole year it was not heard; then the judge read the documents, clutched her head, and... has not heard it for another year. Imagine, one day of court and a year's break! And no one, neither the chairman of the regional court Vorobyov nor the "independent" Judge Popov, seems to notice. That is why I say that in Nizhny Novgorod Region, as across Russia, there is no independent judiciary. That is why it is so important that at least one person fight against this system, influencing it through publicity and public opinion.

In addition, at the end of 1998 I filed a complaint in this case with the European Court. Only this year has it come to the turn of the court cases from Russia for 1998. Previously the European judges were more interested in human rights violations in Chechnya. But this year they are issuing their verdict on the claims of a group of "Chernobyl veterans," then on one of our businessmen, and after him on my case. At least I was promised that my case will be heard before the end of 2003.

I am almost certain of victory. The point is that I have the right to be present in the court where I am being tried. I wrote a petition asking that I be brought to court, and the court of cassation refused me. That is a violation of the Constitution of Russia and the Covenant on human rights. Second: I have the right to cross-examine witnesses for the prosecution and the defense. The witnesses from Norway, both those who testified against me and those who testified for me, were not examined in court, yet the testimony of the prosecution witnesses was entered into the case file. This is in complete contradiction to the European Convention.

And third: charges must be set out in a comprehensible language. But my case file contains 600 pages in English and Norwegian, which were never translated by the end of the trial. Two years ago the Supreme Court overturned a sentence in a case in which there was a single smudged word in a foreign language.^[9] And in mine it is not a word, not a line, but 600 pages! So I expect a positive result.

What exactly do I expect from the European Court's decision? There is no question of any monetary recovery here. I want the high court to classify the actions of Judge Popov and the court of cassation as a violation of human rights. If that is confirmed, it means the people who sentenced me violated the country's constitution and international law.^[9] The European Court's decision is binding and must be enforced in Russia. Let the chairman of the Supreme Court then file a protest against the sentence in my case.^[9]

Unfortunately, without a decision of the European Court it is impossible to secure the protection of one's rights in our judicial system. It took the Nizhegorodsky District Court a week to take my child away from me during the elections. But two years were not enough for it to hear the case against Prosecutor Shevelev. Then why go to court at all? When a case is decided in their favor, it is heard quickly. When not in their favor, it drags on forever. Judge Popov, who is deputy chairman of the regional court, can reason about human rights and democracy as much as he likes. But when a custom-ordered trial is under way, he violates the defendant's rights with ease.

I think that before replacing officials, you have to change the system they work in. Then many bosses will give up their posts on their own. You give such a boss a program of action, set specific tasks before him, and demand they be carried out exactly on schedule. The first time he fails, the second time he botches it, the third time it is a complete disaster. For that he should face either prison or a fine so large that he pays it off for the rest of his life. Then he will run from his cushy seat as if he had been scalded with boiling water.

But the national television channels constantly confused the names of the regions and credited other people's achievements to the more "hyped" Nemtsov.