Five judges of a Rostov court are under investigation for bribery.

The head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has requested the consent of the High Qualification Collegium of Judges of the Russian Federation to prosecute five judges of the Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, including Elena Kobleva, who was arrested in 2024.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," the High Qualification Collegium of Judges of Russia (HQCJ) consented to the arrest of the former chairperson of the Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, Elena Kobleva, and in July 2024, the Moscow City Court remanded Kobleva into custody. She is accused of accepting a large bribe (Part 5 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, a Rostov businessman paid Kobleva 500,000 rubles in exchange for a decision to return his boat and seized fishing nets. In November 2025, the Supreme Court changed the jurisdiction of Kobleva's case, and the trial was transferred to the Kuban Regional Court.

The High Qualification Collegium of Judges (HQCJ) of Russia will again consider Alexander Bastrykin's appeal regarding the criminal prosecution of Elena Kobleva, former chairperson of the Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, and four of her colleagues.

The defendants concern Artur Maslov, the current judge of the Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, who is suspected of bribery (Part 5 of Article 290 of the Russian Criminal Code), as well as former judges of the same court, Oleg Batalshchikov, Natalya Tsmakalova, and Elmira Ponomareva.

Batalshchikov and Tsmakalova, as well as Maslov, are suspected of accepting bribes, while Ponomareva is suspected of giving a bribe (Part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code), according to the agenda of the meeting on the VVKS website. Investigators are aware of two instances of bribery against Batalshchikov and five instances against Tsmakalova.

Bastrykin's new request regarding the criminal prosecution of Elena Kobleva also concerns bribery: investigators suspect her of accepting bribes as part of an organized group on a large and especially large scale (Parts 5 and 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code), as well as of knowingly issuing unjust sentences and obstructing justice (Articles 305 and 294 of the Criminal Code). Kobleva, according to the request of the head of the Investigative Committee, is named in nine instances of bribery and three instances of obstruction of justice.

The commission plans to consider Bastrykin's appeal regarding all five judges on December 8.