Boris Titov put in a word for Vsevolod Opanasenko

The business ombudsman doubted the qualification of the computer transaction of the T-Platform company.
21.10.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
As Kommersant learned, Boris Titov, the Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights Protection under the President of Russia, addressed Vladimir Putin with a letter in support of the shareholder and general director of T-Platforms Vsevolod Opanasenko. One of the largest entrepreneurs in the field of IT technologies is accused of inciting the official to abuse the contract for the supply of a large batch of computers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The estimated damage is estimated at about 300 million rubles. The business ombudsman notes that the contract was concluded in accordance with the law, and also believes that the actions of Mr. Opanasenko were incorrectly qualified, which made it possible to arrest the latter, and doubts the validity of the conclusions of the examination carried out by the investigation.

In his address to the head of state, Boris Titov notes that T-Platforms JSC has been operating in the Russian market since 2002 and is a developer of supercomputers and a provider of a full range of solutions and services for high-performance computing, as well as “the company participated in the implementation of the most important for the state projects. "

A criminal case was opened by the Investigative Committee of Russia in March this year. As Kommersant said, investigators were interested in the contract for 357 million rubles concluded between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and T-Platforms JSC in November 2016. According to the agreement, the ministry was to receive 9348 automated workstations (AWS) on Baikal-T1 processors, which were planned to be used, among other things, for conducting theoretical exams for the right to drive a car as part of the Federal Traffic Safety Information System. The executor’s website stated that “hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens will annually pass exams for obtaining driver’s licenses using the Tavolga Terminal AWP, so this project will help promote domestic radio-electronic and microelectronic products in the civilian segment.” The delivery should include a terminal with a Russian processor, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. It was planned to equip the police units of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk and Rostov-on-Don with new equipment.

However, according to the case file, in August 2017, when the contract expired, the workstation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs was never delivered. However, shortly afterwards, the ministry accepted 1837 computers worth 71 million rubles from the contractor, while the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to accept the remaining batch of equipment, citing the delivery deadline.

A criminal case was instituted under Part 3 of Art. 285 of the Criminal Code (abuse of power, entailing grave consequences). In the case, there are two persons involved - the head of the communications department of the information technology communications and information protection department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Alexandrov and the founder of T-Platforms Vsevolod Opanasenko. Both were arrested by the Basmanny court in the same March and are still in custody.

In his address to the president, Boris Titov indicates that Mr. Opanasenko, according to investigators, allegedly persuaded Mr. Alexandrov to overstate the price of products, and also delivered equipment that did not meet the technical requirements.

According to Boris Titov himself, the position of the investigation should be taken critically, since the procurement plan referred to in the criminal case was approved at the government level, and the contracts between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and T-Platforms JSC were concluded based on the results of electronic biddings.
Accordingly, Mr. Alexandrov could not influence the outcome of the auction, the business ombudsman summarizes, and Mr. Opanasenko could not persuade him to abuse.

In addition, Boris Titov emphasized, the investigator charged the businessman Opanasenko with an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, according to which only officials are charged, and as a result of this, the businessman’s arrest was possible. Moreover, while applying for the detention of Mr. Opanasenko, the investigation did not take into account in his actions “an obvious sign of entrepreneurial activity”. Meanwhile, Mr. Titov recalls, the current legislation imposes serious restrictions on the choice of the most stringent preventive measure - and if the actions of businessman Opanasenko are correctly qualified, it cannot be applied to him.

Mr. Titov asked the President of Russia to give an order to verify the legality and validity of both the criminal prosecution of Vsevolod Opanasenko and the measure of restraint chosen by him

“The Opanasenko case, in my opinion, is very absurd,” Boris Titov told Kommersant. “Starting with the“ bureaucratic ”article of the Criminal Code, which was presented to the entrepreneur in order to circumvent the limitations of Art. 108 Code of Criminal Procedure. Continuing with technical expertise: several academic institutes oppose one expert of the investigation at once, which confirm compliance with the assignment of products supplied by T-Platforms JSC. And ending with the fact that they try to present Opanasenko responsible for the results of electronic auctions, which were completely independent of him, because they were carried out by decision of the government. As a result, one of the most talented IT specialists is behind bars instead of working for the good of the country. ”

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