The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel learned that the Vice-Rector of Moscow State University, Alexey Biryukov, the younger brother of the permanent deputy head of the Moscow mayor's office, Pyotr Biryukov, was placed under house arrest. Biryukov is responsible for the construction of facilities for Moscow State University and Katerina Tikhonova (Vladimir Putin's daughter), and his companies carried out large projects for the Ministry of Defense.

 

The Moscow court chose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest for Alexey Biryukov, although representatives of the Investigative Committee insisted on his detention and keeping the accused in a pre-trial detention center. However, influential people intervened, whose authoritative opinion on "telephone law" the court could not ignore.

The testimony against the Vice-Rector of Moscow State University Alexey Biryukov (who is the younger brother of the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Pyotr Biryukov) was given by the former member of the board of directors of the bankrupt company EMK-Engineering Andrey Chesnokov, who was close to Yuri Kovalchuk in the past. Chesnokov was also the deputy head of Gazprom Alexey Miller on the board of trustees of the St. Petersburg State University of Economics (Miller heads the board). In 2024, Chesnokov was sentenced to seven and a half years in a general regime penal colony for fraudulently embezzling almost half a billion rubles from the Ministry of Defense during the implementation of contracts for the reconstruction of the Terekta and Turgai military training grounds located in Kazakhstan.

 

The VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info obtained case materials with testimony against Biryukov and Biryukov's own testimony.

According to the investigation, "Chesnokov A.G. committed fraud, that is, theft of someone else's property by deception, committed by an organized group, on an especially large scale, that is, committed a crime provided for in Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation." Thus, Chesnokov A.G., being the actual owner and ultimate beneficiary of EMK-Engineering Company JSC, in the period from 01.03.2015 to 11.06.2015, under unknown circumstances, received information about the planned financing by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the RF Ministry of Defense) of construction work on the reconstruction (construction) of the target environment, equipping the route test complex of the Terekta and Turgai testing grounds (Republic of Kazakhstan) of the 929th State Flight Test Center (hereinafter referred to as 929 GLITs) of the RF Ministry of Defense. "At a time not established by the investigation, but no later than 11.06.2015, Chesnokov A.G., implementing a criminal intent aimed at illegally obtaining personal property benefits at the expense of funds allocated by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, using the role of organizer, leader in the organized group he created, received publicly undisclosed information from a member of the organized group Lesnykh V.A., about the preparation of a request for proposals for the right to conclude an agreement to perform a full range of work on the facilities of the 929th State Search and Rescue Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation... (paragraph 3)." "Chesnokov A.G., together with members of the criminal group he organized, which included Berdnikov I.I., Lesnykh V.A., Stakhanov M.A., Titov V.A. and unidentified persons, in the period from 01.03.2015 to 15.08.2018 within the framework of the execution of subcontract agreements No. 1516187389492090942000000/52/2015-SP dated 24.12.2015 and No. 1516187389502090942000000/53/2015-SP dated 24.12.2015 for the performance of a full range of works on the facility: “Reconstruction (construction) of the target environment, equipping the route test complex of the Terekta and Turgay testing grounds (Republic of Kazakhstan) 929 State Flight Test Center of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, failed to fulfill their obligations received from the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “GU “Instroy” under Spetsstroy Russia" funds in the total amount of 488,219,280.20 (225,940,360.7 + 262,251,919.5) rubles were converted to their own benefit and to the benefit of third parties, causing damage to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in the total amount of 488,219,280.20 rubles, which is an especially large amount." During the preliminary investigation, Chesnokov A.G. gave the following testimony:

1. Protocol of interrogation of the suspect dated September 29, 2020.

" General Director of JSC Elektrotsentromontazh Grigory Aleksandrovich Ryvkin announced his decision to leave the Russian Federation and move to permanent residence in another country. Since this circumstance automatically cancelled the license of the FSB of Russia, he instructed the legal department of JSC "ETS" to acquire a new company with an existing license of the FSB of Russia to perform work at Rosatom facilities. This company was OOO "GSP", which did not perform any work. Due to its uselessness, OOO "GSP" was transferred to Berdnikov I.I. Subsequently, OOO "GSP" was assigned the rights under the contract for work at the facility of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation located in Crimea. About 10 employees transferred to OOO "GSP" from JSC "ETS". In JSC "ETS", he was one of the members of the Board of Directors, owned a 20% stake. Other shareholders were Andrey Konovalov, OOO "E4", the latter owned a controlling stake. On the conclusion of contracts between the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "GU "Instroy" under Spetsstroy of Russia" and OOO "GSP" for the construction of military facilities "Terekta", "Turgay", "Nalchik", "Groshevo" he knows nothing about.

In 2016, he worked as an advisor to the general director Igor Karpov at EMK-Engineering LLC. Previously, in 2010-2014, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Company. Due to the fact that in 2015-2017, Aleksey Pavlovich Biryukov headed the Board of Directors, he left the Board of Directors of the Company.

His exit was due to his unwillingness to engage in the construction of facilities for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. All decisions within EMK Engineering LLC were made by Biryukov, which is confirmed by the relevant documents (minutes of the Board of Directors).

The founder of EMK Engineering LLC was ECM Service LLC, which, in turn, is a subsidiary of ECM LLC, therefore, the latter is one of the beneficial owners of EMK Engineering LLC.

He is familiar with SK Trust No. 11 LLC, his wife E.D. Chesnokova worked there, and she got a job through an acquaintance of his named Nikolai. He did not take part in the work of this organization. SK Trust No. 11 LLC had no relations with EMK Engineering LLC and ECM JSC. He does not know whether there were any settlements with GSP LLC.

He is familiar with:

Bezverkhnyaya E.S., worked as the chief accountant of ECM JSC, then transferred to GSP LLC. He did not participate in her transfer.

Shutkov V.A., worked in the construction department of ECM JSC, transferred to GSP LLC. He did not give him any instructions.

Stakhanov M.A., whom Berdnikov I.I. introduced.

Chengaev A.V., is an acquaintance of Lesnykh V.A.

Berdnikov I.I. has known him since the 1990s and 2000s. Had no relations with him until 2014. In 2014, we met by chance and exchanged phone numbers. After that, having learned that he was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC "ETS", he suggested that he organize a meeting with his friend V.A. Lesnykh, with the aim of using the latter's capabilities in the production of work at the facilities of the Spetsstroy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Around 2015, the main shareholder of JSC "ETS" changed to structures of the Bank of Russia. Due to the fact that the contract with a subsidiary of the Spetsstroy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the construction of the Feodosia facility in Crimea was recognized as unprofitable, he was recommended by Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Russia Yuri Khlestov either to refuse this contract or to enter into an additional agreement in order to increase its profitability. Spetsstroy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refused to increase the profitability of the contract by concluding an additional agreement, in connection with which it made a decision, with the consent of Spetsstroy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, to transfer the state contract for the construction of the Feodosia facility in Crimea to GSP LLC. He did not discuss the actual execution of the contract, and the degree of its execution is unknown to him." Aleksey Pavlovich Biryukov, interrogated on 12.04.2021 (volume No. 95 pp. 81-99) and 22.04.2021 (volume No. 95 pp. 100-111) during the preliminary investigation as a witness, testified:

"From approximately 30.04.2015 to September 2016, he held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of EMK-Engineering Company JSC. The exact date when he was excluded from the Board of Directors is unknown to him, since in June 2016 he had a falling out with the actual head of the organization, Chesnokov A.G., due to differences in views and approaches to work, so he stopped coming to work and participating in the activities of the Board of Directors.

From 19.01.2016 to 03.09.2016, he also held the position of Advisor to the General Director of EMK-Engineering Company JSC.

He was invited to these positions by Chesnokov A.G. The Board of Directors was a nominal management body, since all management of the Company was carried out by Chesnokov A.G., although he did not hold any position in the said organization and was not legally registered. The main officials of the Company were Chesnokov A.G.'s people, he personally selected them.

In fact, he supervised the timing and progress of construction of three facilities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation located in Vilyuchinsk, Birobidzhan and Teisin (not related to the plot of this criminal case).

During his work, he dealt only with technical issues. A.G. Chesnokov was involved in issues of financing construction, concluding contracts, and selecting subcontractors.

A.G. Chesnokov held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of JSC ECM and was its shareholder, which, through its subsidiary JSC ECM-Service, influenced the JSC ECM-Engineering Company founded by him.

He had nothing to do with the contracts concluded between JSC EMK-Engineering Company and FSUE Spetsstroyinzhenering under Spetsstroy Rossii.

All decisions in JSC EMK-Engineering Company on the expenditure of funds were made by A.G. Chesnokov. and the General Director of the Company, S.S. Shtykov. He is not aware of any cases where funds designated for a specific purpose were spent on purposes not related to the implementation of government contracts. He had nothing to do with the selection of subcontractors, but, in his opinion, the process of finding them and concluding contracts with them was built reliably enough to exclude the possibility of non-fulfillment of contractual obligations. The companies involved as subcontractors were checked with the following security department of JSC "EMK-Engineering Company", the legal department and other services of the company. They were also checked by the DVKR FSB of Russia due to the fact that they performed work at restricted facilities of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. All subcontracting agreements provided for the mandatory provision of a bank guarantee and personal surety of the heads of subcontractors to JSC "EMK-Engineering Company". Payment for the work performed was made from a special account and the correctness of the spending of funds was controlled not only by the company, but also by the bank in which the special account was opened. Of the persons listed by the investigator, he is familiar with (including):

Barabanshchikov G.A. was the Deputy General Director of JSC "EMK-Engineering Company" for Economics and Finance. In fact, he reported to Chesnokov A.G. and on his behalf resolved financial issues in the company. Witness Shtikov Sergey Stanislavovich 03.03.2021 (volume No. 44 p. 115-121) testified:

From April 2013 to January 15, 2016, he worked as the General Director of JSC "EMC Engineering Company" at the invitation of Chesnokov A.G., who was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of this company. He met him in 2004-2005, does not remember the circumstances of their acquaintance.

Whether he was a beneficiary of JSC "EMC Engineering Company", LLC "GSP" and other organizations, he does not know. "

Timofey Grishin