Privalov Vladimir — former Deputy Head of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration for economics and finance (2011–2015), convicted of bribery. In 2021 he was sentenced to eight years in prison; in 2024 he was released on parole.[1]

Career in the city administration

Before entering municipal government, Privalov held senior positions at Nizhnovenergo and other energy companies. In March 2011, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod administration, Oleg Kondrashov, appointed him his deputy for economics and finance, tasking him with tripling the revenue side of the city budget.[2] In September 2015, Privalov was removed from office and came under investigation.[2]

Criminal cases

The first case concerned the sale of a block of shares in the municipal TEK-NN — an enterprise whose balance sheet included two boiler houses, 11 heating substations, and more than 40 kilometers of heating networks. The shares were sold in 2014 at an understated price. In May 2017, a court found Privalov, former deputy director of the Department of Economic Development Vadim Kraynov, and the appraiser Vladimir Kozlov guilty of causing damage to the city treasury of 173.5 million rubles. Privalov, who did not plead guilty, received a five-year suspended sentence; his accomplices received three-year suspended sentences.[2]

The second case was opened by the Investigative Committee in April 2018 on the complaint of Moscow entrepreneur Mamuka Losaberidze, a former rugby player who had gone into the funeral services business. According to him, in 2011 a group of investors was planning to build a crematorium in Nizhny Novgorod; Kondrashov named the price of the "entry ticket" to the funeral services market as 5 million rubles plus 1 million rubles every month. The money was passed through intermediaries, the entrepreneurs Sergey Muravlyov and Yuri Grishin. In total, according to investigators, 17 million rubles were handed to officials in exchange for help in gaining control of the municipal funeral services enterprise and for the allocation of a land plot for a crematorium at the Nizhegorodskoye Cemetery.[2][1] By that time Kondrashov had left Russia and had been placed on an international wanted list; according to available information, he had been in the United States since 2018.[2][3] Privalov did not plead guilty, calling the case fabricated at the initiative of the then mayor, Oleg Sorokin.[2]

On July 27, 2021, the court sentenced Privalov to eight years in a strict-regime penal colony and a fine of 170 million rubles.[1][2] In the same case, two entrepreneurs received sentences for acting as intermediaries in the transfer of bribes, along with fines of 17 million rubles each.[2]

Release

In 2023, Privalov's sentence was replaced with forced labor; he was transferred to a Federal Penitentiary Service labor center at the Lindovskaya poultry farm in the settlement of Spasskoye (Bor).[1][3] On February 29, 2024, the Bor City Court ruled to grant him conditional early release. The information was confirmed by the joint press service of the courts of general jurisdiction of Nizhny Novgorod Region.[3]

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Vladimir Privalov, convicted of bribery, released on parole — Kommersant Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  2. Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Sentence of former deputy head of the Nizhny Novgorod administration Vladimir Privalov, July 27, 2021 (archive)
  3. Newsroom24 — Former deputy head of Nizhny Novgorod Vladimir Privalov released on parole — Themis (archive)
Materials from articles used (1)

Consideration of appeals against the sentence of Oleg Kondrashov (2026)