The prosecutor’s office of Ivanovo Region has asked for assets allegedly belonging to the Ivanovskoye organized crime group to be transferred to the state and for the group’s activities to be banned. The requests were included in a court petition concerning assets worth more than 6 billion rubles.
The prosecutor’s statement said that a 15-member group had been operating in the region since the 1990s. It alleged that the group’s members had established close ties with the AUE movement, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.
Passenger transportation and allegations
According to the allegations, the Ivanovskoye group controlled almost all passenger transportation in Ivanovo Region from 2013 onward. Prosecutors also said that timber worth more than 30 million rubles was cut between 2016 and 2019.
Prosecutors linked the group’s members to extortion, robbery and armed robbery, as well as the forced division of areas of economic influence and the intimidation of local residents. The statement said that the members had been convicted multiple times of serious and especially serious crimes.
Measures concerning companies and real estate
The group’s revenues allegedly grew through money collected by purported administrators responsible for cities and districts in the regions and for penal institutions. The assets allegedly belonging to the group included vehicles, about 40 companies and more than 250 high-value properties in Ivanovo, Vichuga and Moscow.
According to prosecutors, illegal proceeds were transferred abroad and used to finance activities directed against the lives and health of citizens. The statement also alleged that these activities sought to disrupt the work of Russian public institutions.
Measures were imposed on the group members’ property to ensure the implementation of the court’s decision.
AUE is described as an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia.
