Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the early termination of powers of the governor of the Penza region" Ivan Belozertsev, who was previously arrested in connection with a bribery case.

The corresponding document was published on the Kremlin website.

"To dismiss Ivan Aleksandrovich Belozertsev from the post of governor of the Penza region in connection with the loss of confidence in the president of the Russian Federation," the decree says, which came into force on the day of signing.

On March 22, the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov did not rule out that the president would sign such a decree "taking into account the current events."

The Kremlin spokesman also stressed that Vladimir Putin is aware of the detention of the head of the region, since he received the relevant reports.

On the same day, the United Russia party suspended Ivan Belozertsev's membership and removed his name from the Presidium of the Penza regional branch.

Ivan Belozertsev was appointed Acting Governor of the Penza Region in May 2015.

In September of the same year, he won the election for the head of the region, his candidacy was supported by 86.04% of voters.

On September 13, 2020, Belozertsev was re-elected to this post - he gained 78.72% of the votes.

  • Ivan Belozertsev

  • RIA News

  • © Press Service of the Basmanny Court

After the publication of the presidential decree, it became known that early elections for the governor of the Penza region would take place on a single voting day, September 19, 2021.

“Thus, at the moment, on a single voting day, in nine regions, high officials will be elected in direct elections, in three regions they will be elected by deputies of the legislative bodies of the respective regions,” RIA Novosti quoted CEC member Yevgeny Shevchenko as saying.

At the same time, on the eve of RBC, citing sources, reported that the main candidate for the post of interim head of the region is the head of the Federation Council committee on federal structure, regional policy, local self-government and Northern affairs, Oleg Melnichenko.

Recall that the Governor of the Penza Region Ivan Belozertsev, the head of the BIOTEK group of pharmaceutical companies Boris Shpigel, his wife Yevgeny, the director of OJSC “Pharmacy” Anton Koloskov, as well as the deputy head of the Penza Region representative office in Moscow Fedor Fedotov and an employee of the representative office Gennady Markov were detained on March 21 ...

They were charged with committing crimes under Part 5 of Art.

291, part 6 of Art.

290, art.

291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (giving a bribe, taking a bribe, mediation in bribery).

According to the investigation, from January to September 2020, Belozertsev received bribes from Spiegel, his wife and Koloskov through intermediaries in the form of money and other valuables in the amount exceeding 31 million rubles.

Bribes were transferred in exchange for providing the BIOTEK group of companies with competitive advantages when concluding government contracts.

In addition, a TASS source in law enforcement reported that Spiegel handed over to Belozertsev a Mercedes-Benz V250D as an illegal reward, presented a Breguet wristwatch for 5.75 million rubles, and about 500 million rubles were found in the governor's house during a search.

The newspaper "Kommersant", in turn, reported that the Accounts Chamber from the moment Belozertsev took office as governor of the Penza region revealed numerous violations in state institutions of the region in the amount of 2.9 billion rubles.

“In the municipalities of the region, about 400 violations were revealed in more than a hundred organizations and departments.

The most serious - by more than 1.5 billion rubles.

- were discovered during the implementation of federal targeted programs, ”the publication says.

In this regard, the investigators decided to check literally all the financial and economic activities of the governor of the Penza region, the newspaper noted.

On March 22, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested Belozertsev for two months.

At the same time, the official did not admit his guilt.

In the evening of the same day he was taken to the IVS on Petrovka.

"Ivan Belozertsev did not express any complaints about the conditions of detention, he asked me to give him some book to read, the TV is not provided for by the internal regulations in the IVS," said special correspondent of RT, a member of the Moscow POC Boris Klin, who visited the detention center with a check.

In addition, a similar preventive measure in the form of detention until May 20 was assigned to other defendants in the cases, including Boris Shpigel.

At the same time, he was sent to the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. 

“Spiegel has serious health problems.

And since only under Matrosskaya Tishina there is a prison hospital in Moscow, the entrepreneur will be sent there, "a spokeswoman for the Basmanny Court press service told TASS.