The investigation into the case of Tatyana Kazakova has been completed

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in Irkutsk Region has filed final charges against Listvyanka mayor Tatyana Kazakova under several articles of the Criminal Code, including obstructing electoral rights, embezzlement, abuse of power, and large scale fraud. Soon she and her lawyers will be shown the case materials, after which it will be sent to the regional court. Kazakova has been in pretrial detention since March 2008, and this case is already the fifth criminal prosecution of a mayor in Irkutsk Region.

The Investigative Directorate of the RF Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee for the Irkutsk Region on Wednesday brought final charges against the mayor of the settlement of Listvyanka, Tatyana Kazakova.
T. Kazakova is charged under Part 2, clauses a, b, c of Article 141 (obstructing the exercise of electoral rights using an official position by a group of persons acting by prior conspiracy), Article 289 (illegal participation in entrepreneurial activity), Part 3 of Article 160 (embezzlement of another’s property entrusted to the accused using an official position), Parts 2 and 3 of Article 285 (abuse of official powers committed by the head of local self-government, resulting in grave consequences), Part 4 of Article 159 (fraud on an especially large scale) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In the near future, Tatyana Kazakova and her lawyers will be familiarized with the case materials, after which it will be transferred to the regional court.
As a reminder, the head of Listvyanka was detained on March 28, 2008, at the Irkutsk airport upon returning from a business trip to China. The operation involved officers of the FSB Directorate for the Irkutsk Region and the investigative directorate of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation for the Irkutsk Region.
In 2008, the mayor of the settlement of Listvyanka was charged under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with “exceeding official powers,” “illegal participation in entrepreneurial activity,” “fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale,” and “obstructing the exercise of electoral rights or the work of election commissions.”
On September 25, 2008, the Irkutsk District Court granted the investigation’s motion to extend Tatyana Kazakova’s detention in custody for another four months, until January 27, 2009.
All this time, the mayor of Listvyanka has been held in Irkutsk SIZO-1.
Tatyana Kazakova was elected mayor of the Listvyanka urban settlement in March 2006. Before that, she founded and headed the “Baikal Visa” association, which brings together a network of hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and retail markets in Irkutsk and on Lake Baikal.
Kazakova is already the fifth mayor in the Irkutsk Region to face criminal prosecution.