14:30, 3 February 2017

Member of "tractor march" suspected of fraud

Participants of the “tractor march”. Photo: Andry Dubchak/RFE/RL

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has opened a case on a fraud with a land plot lease against Nikolai Borodin, a participant of the “tractor march” of farmers from the Krasnodar Territory, and Elena Petrova, the wife of another protester. Borodin suggests that they are prosecuted for their participation in the protest movement.

On August 21, 2016, the protesting farmers held a rally and began their so-called “tractor march” to Moscow, but law enforcers interfered, stopped the action and punished the participants with administrative arrests and fines. After their disrupted "tractor march" and a failed attempt to meet President Vladimir Putin, farmers have repeatedly stated the authorities' attempts to suppress the protest movement in the Krasnodar Territory.

The criminal case against Nikolai Borodin and Elena Petrova, the wife of Oleg Petrov, a participant of the "tractor march", was opened on January 25, 2017. According to investigators, Borodin "decided, with the aim of personal enrichment and guided by selfish motives, to purchase, by deception, the right to lease a land plot for agricultural purposes," says the judgement on opening the criminal case.

Nikolai Borodin has refused to plead guilty and is sure that he is still prosecuted for his participation in the "tractor march".

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.

Author: Anna Gritsevich

Source: CK correspondent