In the spring of 2021, a video appeared on the Internet where hunters killed wolves with particular cruelty.

The public was shocked by scary footage when men on a snowmobile crushed a still living predator, and then had fun when, just before death, the animal tried to defend itself, biting the muzzle of a gun.

Later it turned out that among the participants in the hunt were the deputy of the regional Duma of the Kurgan region from the "United Russia" Denis Khakhalov, the huntsman, whose hunting ticket was canceled, and high-ranking officials of the Department of the Investigative Committee for the Kurgan region.

Against the background of a loud scandal and resonance in the federal media, the huntsman and the organizer of the illegal hunt were dismissed from office.

Deputy Khakhalov was first expelled from the United Russia party, and a few days ago, according to media reports, he unexpectedly filed a petition to withdraw his deputy mandate.

It will be considered at the next meeting.

The Kamyshlovsky interdistrict investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the Sverdlovsk Region opened a criminal case under Art.

258 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("illegal hunting"). 

It was possible to expose illegal hunting largely thanks to Alexei Sanochkin, who for 22 years was in charge of the hunting supervision sector in the northern territorial zone of the wildlife supervision department of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Kurgan Region.

And on July 12, Sanochkin was unexpectedly fired.

Several disciplinary sanctions were the official reason.

Now Alexey plans to file a lawsuit, wants to appeal against his dismissal and entry in the work book.

The former inspector spoke about his intentions in an interview with RT.

Inconvenient questions

- How did it happen that you were fired?

- I and my sector began to reveal facts about illegal hunting in the Kataysky district of the Kurgan region.

At my disposal were photos and videos confirming our guesses.

This was all organized by the huntsman of the Society of Hunters of the Kataysky District, Ermek Suleimanov, a former traffic police officer.

He had no right to hunt: he had a criminal record, a hunting ticket was canceled, and for 8 years he was forbidden to carry and keep weapons.

In the Department of Natural Resources, in which I worked and represented previously, he is listed as a federal forest inspector and inspector of fire supervision in forests. In addition, it was found that during the period of 2020 and 2021, he illegally caught 20 roe deer in 12 illegal hunts, and illegal deforestation was carried out in its jurisdictions and there were repeated arson attacks in May of this year, in order, as I understand it, to hide the traces of crimes. This man caused damage to the state for more than 5 million rubles. But after the scandal, he was fired from his job as a gamekeeper.

During the audit, we also found out that he organized a hunt for high-ranking officials from the Investigative Committee of the Kurgan Region and the deputy of the Regional Duma, Denis Khakhalov.

The checks that I conducted in relation to the huntsman and the deputy did not allow the leadership to be carried out, but thanks to the media, the situation gained a public outcry.

In the Kurgan region, there is a large corruption factor related to the hunting economy, but for some reason the local law enforcement agencies and the Department of Natural Resources were not interested in understanding the situation and they decided to simply fire me.

- Tell us more about those episodes of illegal hunting.

- One was on January 5, four people were present and a female elk and a calf were killed.

At the hunting site, we found the skins, heads and limbs of animals.

Then they began to understand and it turned out that high-ranking officers from the Investigative Committee were hunting.

They had only one permission to shoot an adult moose, which was issued with violations.

On this fact, a criminal case was initiated against unidentified persons under Article 258 of the Criminal Code (“illegal hunting”), but the investigation was soon suspended. 

And on February 6, Suleimanov again organized an illegal hunt, but this time for wolves.

Deputy Khakhalov took part in it.

But the fact is that the day before they were hunting moose, and apparently wolves came to this bone, which they began to crush with a snowmobile, and some of them were shot.

They also did not have permission for this hunt.

Perhaps no one would have known about this if they hadn't bragged about hunting footage among themselves and hadn't posted these videos on social networks.

  • Denis Khakhalov

  • © Kurgan Regional Duma

Thus, they reached me.

Then we decided that we would conduct an inspection, write statements to the police and do everything that was required of us.

But there were no replies to our statements, although the authorities should have taken some measures and investigated it. 

"Became objectionable"

- How was your dismissal arranged?

- I began to ask questions of my management, but they, apparently, became uncomfortable for them and they tried to get rid of me.

They began to remove me from inspections, they limited me in access to our database, which contained information about hunters.

I saw that I became objectionable because I continued my work.

After that, checks began in my regard, the results of which I did not know.

And checks on the fact of illegal hunting of the employees of the Investigative Committee were carried out by the same people who hunted.  

On July 12 at 8 am I was summoned to the Investigative Committee of the city of Shadrinsk, where my manager was waiting for me with a work book and a dismissal order, which was immediately written.

The reason was written dryly: for repeated penalties.

Allegedly, disciplinary sanctions were imposed on me within a year for the fact that out of 190 court cases on violation of environmental legislation from my sector, 5 administrative cases were terminated due to insufficient evidence.

It happens, these are working moments.

And thanks to the investigations of our department, the police officers opened a lot of criminal cases and my sector had good indicators: we detected 3-4 times more violations than other areas.

Moreover, in relation to employees from my sector, checks also began, and my dismissal became indicative for everyone - they say if someone is also so principled, they will face the same fate.

- How did it happen that pre-investigation checks on the fact of illegal hunting are carried out by those who themselves participated in it?

- This is a corruption factor and it seems to me that they had no right to carry out inspections in which they themselves figured.

Despite the fact that we tried to raise this issue through higher authorities, to whom I tried to inform about the conflict of interest in the actions of the employees of the Investigative Committee for the Kurgan Region, my appeals were sent back.

The same structures that answered that everything is fine, it just baked our inspector's head.

I turned to the Prosecutor's Office of the Kurgan Region, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, and the police.

"I was a romantic"

- Alexey, tell us about yourself.

- I was born in the Sverdlovsk region, at the age of 17, when I came to study in Kirov and entered the agricultural institute, I was not at all interested in money, I was a romantic and it was just a spiritual impulse.

From childhood I was taught to take care of nature, all my life I serve my homeland: after my studies, I served in the army, and then went to work as a game manager in the Department of Hunting Economy and began working as a state hunting inspector and an inspector for nature protection in the Kurgan region.

Our specialty is very rare and we have always been appreciated.

It was my responsibility to control and monitor compliance with environmental legislation.

- In 2017, as far as I understand, your leadership changed.

What changed in the work then?

- We have had a cardinal change of leadership in the hunting supervision department.

Until that time, there were real specialists with proper education, with high experience, who were laid off.

And they were replaced by retired security officials who are not at all competent in matters of ecology and hunting.

I was one of the last specialists from the old team, specializing in hunting biology, who remained in the hunting management bodies.

You see, what concerns the environment, ecology and public nature management is a very delicate, specific industry where you need to make informed decisions and specialists should work, not retired policemen. 

- What are your plans now?

- At the moment I am preparing statements of claim for filing in court, since I was dismissed for negative reasons.

I do not have a very good record in my work book, which I want to appeal.

I understand that I will not be allowed to work, even if I recover, but still I would like to continue my work in my department.

I do not have a lawyer, so I write a statement of claim myself, look at legislative acts and regulations.

By and large, I am still an official and I hope that I will justify everything legally correctly.

Now I have to appeal the orders for unlawful disciplinary action, and then I will appeal the order to dismiss.

- Have you encountered similar situations before?

- Over the 22 years of my work, I have had different things and not always everything was smooth.

Many facts were revealed and people exposed in illegal hunting.

But my previous leadership defended their specialists.

It happened that senior colleagues were summoned to high-ranking officials, but they were principled and responsible, always defended our rights and defended their employees.

For example, the story with Inspector Krasikov that happened recently.

This is my colleague and I personally worried about him.

Such situations arise for all inspectors who honestly and fundamentally defend the law and they are all on this brink: either initiate a criminal case against them, or against poachers.

A person should be sure that when he reveals such facts, he is protected.

I want to note that the leadership defended him in that situation and they were in the same direction.

For me, it turned out the other way around - my leadership does not support me.

"Business of Life"

- Would you like to return to work?

- Of course, this is my life's work and I have been doing this since my youth. I have always worked at a high level and therefore I no longer want to repurpose. Many specialists have come out from under my wing, whom I have taught something and who work throughout the field. I had the best performance both in my sector and in the department as a whole. It would be understandable if I was fired if I violated labor laws, committed disciplinary offenses, and skipped work. I would like the central office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation to deal with this fact, and not our regional office, so that they conduct an independent check on these facts. I would like this to exclude the corruption component, which may be in the Kurgan region.

- Have you yet regretted that you did not become silent in that situation?

There is no doubt that there would be no complaints against you.

- This does not suit me.

They write and say about me: someone responds negatively and these are the people whom I once punished, but I am a controlling body, I don’t give out gifts.

But there are also those who treat me positively.

We have declared that everyone is equal before the law and it will be wrong if I punish the villagers for dumping garbage in the wrong place, but I will keep silent about the illegal hunting of high-ranking people.

I have no regrets, because I acted according to my conscience and do not go with my eyes downcast.

During the investigation, when I was dealing with documents, making inquiries, submitting applications, I received threats. Khakhalov and Suleimanov called me, the latter threatened me with physical violence, and a deputy once told me that I would be fired, and kept his word.