On October 14, the repeated elections of the head of the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) will take place, but they will definitely take place in a turbulent atmosphere. Russian biathlon is now on the verge of the biggest scandal in history, which may well end in a criminal case or confessions of libel.

Maygurov has already been accused in the summer

The first attempt to elect the President of the RBU took place at the end of June 2022. The current head of the organization, Viktor Maigurov, and the first vice-president of the RBU, Alexei Nuzhdov, fought for victory. Maigurov was very close to being re-elected, but he was only one vote short of winning. Elections had to be held for the second time. At first it was expected that the date of their holding would be the end of August, but for various reasons everything had to be postponed to mid-October.

And a few days before the vote, everyone experienced the effect of deja vu. The fact is that before the June elections, a complaint was filed against Maigurov with the prosecutor’s office. The appeal was submitted by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Council of the RBU Alexander Yeslev on behalf of the members of the Presidium Andrey Volkov, Vladimir Strakhov, Sergey Fedotov, Sergey Perevoshchikov and Valery Polkhovsky.

The president of the Tatarstan Biathlon Federation, Ildar Nugmanov, also took an active position against Maigurov, who noted that the president of the RBU put pressure on regional organizations. According to him, calls were received from the federal Ministry of Sports to the regional ministries with calls to vote for Maygurov. Nugmanov explained that the callers threatened to cut off the regions from budget funding.

Ildar Nugmanov / Photo: © Biathlon Federation of the Republic of Tatarstan

Nuzhdov stopped the theft attempt?

However, the story did not continue then. The elections passed quietly, and then for almost three months nothing was heard about accusations against Maigurov. But with the approach of the second vote, they again appeared in the press. And again, the president of the Tatarstan Biathlon Federation, Ildar Nugmanov, was at the forefront of the accusations. On the official website of his Federation, he made a powerful statement.

– Just the other day, I got the following information: somewhere in November 2020, Nuzhdov stopped an attempted theft. We are talking about the amount of 82 thousand euros, which was allocated by the Ministry of Sports to pay for the stage in Kontiolahti. These funds were received by Dmitry Rochev, an employee of the CSP and SBR, and transferred to Maygurov, who transferred a similar amount from the SBR foreign currency account to counterparties from Europe. And he ordered Rochev to prepare a report on fictitious documents and close this amount in the TsSP,” Nugmanov said.

The head of the biathlon of Tatarstan also spoke about another case when Rochev did a fraud with the amount of 42 thousand euros. And again, it was about fictitious documents, as a result of which about 10 thousand euros were stolen. Nugmanov is sure that the President of the RRF knew about the illegal actions and either was their participants or covered Rochev. At the same time, Nugmanov categorically denies Nuzhdov’s guilt and emphasizes that with him there will be no such mess in the RRF.

Alexey Nuzhdov / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Nikolsky

Maygurov recalled the “silence mode”

Nuzhdov himself assures that he is not involved in the accusations against Maigurov, but confirms that he knew about the machinations in the SBR structure and considered it his duty to report them. Regarding why all this information appeared right now, a few days before the elections, the presidential candidate noted that the decision was made not by him, but by Nugmanov.

– In the Code of Criminal Procedure there is such a concept – concealment of a crime from accounting. I did not agree with anyone, especially with Viktor, that I would hide the crimes. Why is it revealed now? I already explained. Nugmanov decided to publish this – this is his zone. I didn’t take any action. My dirty technologies in quotation marks are expressed in the fact that I do not hide information that is, to put it mildly, illegal? Is this my wickedness? Then I am ready to be a scoundrel in the eyes of these comrades, – Sports.ru quotes Nuzhdov.

Maygurov also took the time to speak on this topic. The head of the RRF is sure that Nugmanov just wants to promote himself in the elections and attracts attention in this way. And he recalled that he and Alexei Nuzhdov agreed on a “silence regime” until the second vote, so he does not intend to “sink into this mud”. Well, it won’t be long to wait.

On October 14, the name of the new president of the Russian Biathlon Union should become known. Although the facets of the pre-election struggle indicate that anything can happen – from liability for libel to criminal prosecution in case of proof of guilt.