Lawyers accused of corruption of former officials of the government of the Murmansk region said that their clients want to see on the confrontation of the governor of the region Marina Kovtun. According to them, Ms. Kovtun was the "organizer of corruption crimes".

Today in Murmansk there was a press conference of lawyers of officials of the regional government accused of corruption. The reason was the end of the investigation of the criminal case against employees of the regional administration administration Georgy Blagodelsky, Eduard Nikrashevsky and former vice-governor Igor Babenko. Lawyers of George Blagodelsky Valery Stadnik and Sergei Shlyago told reporters that they are going to attract the head of the Murmansk region Marina Kovtun to face-to-face with their clients.

The case contains testimonies of the accused, numerous documents and electronic correspondence pointing to the governor as the organizer of corruption crimes, "Mr. Stadnik said.

Defenders say: during the investigation, George Blagodel'skii showed that he received an order from the vice-governor Igor Babenko for misappropriation of funds, and that from the head of the region.

One of the participants of the press conference was the wife of Blagodelski Svetlana Sarachuk. Prior to this, the woman handed over to one of the independent Internet resources allegedly the "black accounting" of the government. At the event, Svetlana Sarachuk stated that she was threatened and that she applied to the police for the governor.

Also, lawyers suggested that a fourth defendant, former deputy head of the government apparatus of the Murmansk region, Sergei Keller, might appear in the criminal case. True, while he is in the status of a witness. According to the participants of the press conference, it was he who started the "black bookkeeping" in 2012. Only then did the documents go to George Blagodelsky, and a year ago his wife published them after her husband's arrest.

As already reported to "Kommersant", a string of high-profile criminal cases was opened in the Murmansk region a year ago. Figures are accused of misuse of funds in the amount of 50 million rubles. On the Internet, documents were published according to which the region's leadership literally spent budget money on all its needs, up to the purchase of shoes. At the same time, workers of the apparatus were imprisoned. The governor of the Murmansk region in the course of the investigation stated the pressure on her from the side of law enforcement bodies. Meanwhile, much is said about the fact that it is too early to declare Marina Kovtun involved in the incident, as it may well be the order of her political opponents like the former head of Murmansk, and now the State Duma deputy Alexei Veller. In addition, it is known that the governor does not get along with the siloviki at the local level, so there are enough people who want to arrange trouble for her.