knew no boundaries
The court, following a claim by the Prosecutor General’s Office, seized assets worth 41 billion rubles from ex-State Duma deputy Sergei Sopchuk, who is hiding abroad. Among the property were three border crossings on the border with China.
Sergey Sopchuk began his political and entrepreneurial career in Primorye, was a regional deputy, and from 2002 to 2006 headed the local parliament. Was the governor then Sergey Darkin. In 2007, Darkin appointed Sopchuk vice-governor. After Darkin’s resignation, Sopchuk managed to be elected to the State Duma, where he sat from 2016 to 2021. However, as soon as the politician lost his immunity at the end of his parliamentary term, he immediately became involved in a criminal case.
Tasty summit
The first time Sergei Sopchuk came under investigation was in 2006. True, as a victim, not an accused. Then it became known about a daring attempt on the life of the vice-governor of the Primorsky Territory. The killer ambushed the official as he got into his official car near his home in the morning. Sergei Sopchuk was wounded on both hands. The crime was not solved.
Local media discussed the incident lively. In particular, they recalled that Sopchuk tried to lobby the interests of certain companies in the fishing industry, which is thoroughly riddled with crime. It was also said that he took control of logistics in the areas bordering China. But the most plausible versions were those that connected the assassination attempt with preparations for the APEC summit scheduled for 2012. Indeed, it later turned out that the total amount of government spending on preparing for the summit amounted to 680 billion rubles, 5 times higher than the original estimate. At the same time, part of the funds was transferred from the federal budget to the disposal of regional authorities – they were intended for the construction of an airport, roads, a bridge across the Golden Horn Bay, etc. Sopchuk was in charge of housing and communal services, as well as property and land relations. Therefore, he probably played an important role in resolving many issues related to preparations for the summit.
There were also scandals: a few weeks before the summit, hastily built road facilities began to collapse – the damage from this amounted to almost 2 billion rubles. However, the claims have already fallen on Sergei Sopchuk’s successors in power. He himself left the post of vice-governor in 2008 and stated that he would work “in the real sector of the economy of Primorye.”
Whether the businesses controlled by Sergei Sopchuk were able to participate in the development of federal funds during the preparation for the 2012 APEC summit remains anyone’s guess. But by some coincidence, after 2011, former official Sergei Sopchuk found more than 4 billion rubles to invest in the gold mining company Terney Gold.
Meanwhile
Companion in action
The Prosecutor General’s Office arose claims against Sergei Sopchuk regarding Terney Gold three years ago, as soon as he lost his deputy mandate. According to the prosecution, from 1997 to 2021, while holding leadership positions in the parliament and administration of Primorye, as well as being a State Duma deputy, Sopchuk illegally took part in the activities of a number of commercial structures, in which he was the actual owner and manager (formally, the share in the company was registered in the name of the deputy’s sister Lyudmila Stukova). The co-defendant in that case was Vasily Usoltsev – colleague of Sergei Sopchuk from work in government bodies. Usoltsev was a deputy of the State Duma of two convocations, and then worked in the administration of Primorye. In 2012 he became assistant to the governor Vladimir Miklushevskywho replaced Sergei Darkin, and in 2014 took over the post of vice-governor. In this position, Usoltsev oversaw issues of finance, economics and business development, industry, transport, road infrastructure, land and property relations.
In conjunction with Sopchuk, however, Usoltsev turned out to be the weaker link. In 2017, after the resignation of the governor, he lost his powers and immediately became involved in several criminal cases (like a number of other key people from Vladimir Miklushevsky’s team). The investigation accused Usoltsev of receiving large bribes, but in the end the case ended in a sentence in the form of a fine for illegal business activities – it turned out that the defendant was engaged in business as an official. In 2020, Usoltsev was already tried for laundering illegally obtained income, as a result he received a suspended sentence. And in 2022, the court seized 340 million rubles from him, received in the form of illegal income. But the main thing is that a year earlier the Prosecutor General’s Office achieved the seizure of the gold mining company Terney Gold from the ownership of persons and structures behind which Vasily Usoltsev and Sergei Sopchuk actually stood.
Realizing which way the wind was blowing, Sopchuk left Russia in 2021 and fled, presumably, to the UAE. Meanwhile, at home, a criminal case was opened against him regarding illegal business, he was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia.
Impoverished by 41 billion
Now the Prosecutor General’s Office has drawn attention to a number of other assets associated with Sopchuk’s name. These are Poltava Terminal LLC, Poltavka Truck Crossing Administration LLC and Nizhne-Leninskoye River Checkpoint LLC. All of these companies own or operate the logistics infrastructure at three border crossings with China. The business press, citing the FSB, reported that Sergei Sopchuk is suspected of having transferred several infrastructure facilities at border checkpoints into private ownership.
Formally, the former deputy did not own the border terminals. One of the named companies was registered to a Czech legal entity, the other was registered to a certain Elena Kozlovskayabut the third belonged to the above-mentioned sister of Sergei Sopchuk Lyudmila Stukova. However, the Prosecutor General’s Office convinced the court that the true beneficiary of these businesses was Sopchuk. According to prosecutors, he derived income from these enterprises and at the same time worked in government. Therefore, it was decided to seize property from these companies – land plots, buildings, vehicles. The court agreed with these arguments. Thus, the total value of assets seized in cases against Sergei Sopchuk (including the Terney Gold company and the Mayak recreation center) is more than 41 billion rubles.
The question remains how objects such as border crossing terminals could end up in private ownership. But based on the grounds of the claim, the court did not consider it. It is still unclear whether a corresponding criminal case will appear.
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