A former judge claimed that Zolotareva's bribe was staged.

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Former Zheleznodorozhny Court judge Georgy Bondarenko, accused of bribing Rostov Regional Court Chair Elena Zolotareva, stated that he staged the bribe to determine whether she was being monitored.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in 2023, Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin asked the High Qualification Collegium of Judges to approve the initiation of criminal proceedings against Rostov Regional Court Head Elena Zolotareva, her deputy Tatyana Yurova, and the chair of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court. Rostov-on-Don's Georgy Bondarenko. The commission authorized the criminal case, after which Moscow's Basmanny Court ordered the arrest of Zolotareva and Yurova. Bondarenko was stripped of his powers and position and also sent to pretrial detention. The appellate court refused to transfer them to house arrest. The accused judges refused to plead guilty.

Georgy Bondarenko, the former head of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Rostov-on-Don, stated that he did not give a bribe to Rostov Regional Court Chair Elena Zolotareva, but merely staged the transfer to determine whether she was being monitored, Kommersant reported on November 23.

According to Bondarenko, who is accused of giving 400,000 rubles to Zolotareva to reduce the sentence of Volgodonsk resident Mger Oganisyan, convicted of causing grievous bodily harm, he suspected Zolotareva was being monitored as early as the summer of 2022. He allegedly suggested that she stage the bribe. In Bondarenko's office, he handed Zolotareva a stack of blank paper and a note reading, "They'll come to you." However, law enforcement officials did not document the bribe that day.

In September 2023, Albert Romanov, the Chechen leader's representative in the Kaliningrad region, was taken into custody. Investigators suspect him of acting as an intermediary in the transfer of bribes to Elena Zolotareva, chairperson of the Rostov Regional Court. On November 17, the court granted a motion to suspend proceedings in his case due to the signing of a contract with the Ministry of Defense and his transfer to the SVO zone.

The criminal prosecution of Rostov judges will not lead to a mass review of the sentences they handed down, but convicted persons can challenge them in the Qualification Collegium of Judges, according to lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot."