The Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation is struggling with the personal money of a farmer near Moscow

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the city court of Yegoryevsk near Moscow, consideration of the merits of the claim has begun to ban surrogate money put into circulation by the local farmer Mikhail Shlyapnikov. They are called kolioni, after the village of Kolionovo, where the farmer runs his farm. Shlyapnikov swears that colions are just a game for him and for his friends. The entrepreneur does not pay the salaries of his employees in colions, does not pay them in stores and does not force anyone to use them. However, the prosecutor's office, which has filed the lawsuit, the Central Bank and the tax inspectorate in unison, argue that Shlyapnikov violates the Constitution, the Tax and Civil Codes, as well as a number of federal laws - for example, the law “On the Central Bank”. Special Correspondent for Meduza Andrey Kozenko attended a fascinating trial.

“I don’t understand what’s going on here,” complained Shlyapnikov, who entered the court in a tight circle of journalists from federal TV channels. - Where should I go? I am in court for the first time in my life … Probably, the prosecutor was overexcited and filed this lawsuit. " “You, Misha, are a splinter, a nail. You are a corn for the local authorities, - answered his friend Yuri Bozhenov, who came with him. "I think they ordered a case against you." “So then, probably, the drugs would have been planted,” Shlyapnikov answered uncertainly. "I can't even imagine what the judge is going to say now." "You will see, they will sew you Soviet 58th (counterrevolutionary activity - note by Meduza)," his comrade reassured the farmer.

However, Shlyapnikov's case is not political, but rather economic. He released surrogate money into circulation, calling them colions - after the name of the village of Kolionovo east of Yegoryevsk (Moscow region), where the farmer's farm is located. The colonies are printed on photographic paper, they are one-sided. The denomination is 1, 3, 5, 10, 25 and 50 colions. The money is multi-colored, some trees are depicted on them, and next to them is the inscription “The ticket is the property of the Kolionovo treasury. It is not subject to inflation, devaluation, stagnation and other falsifications. It is not a means of enrichment and speculation. Supported by Kolionovo's own resources. For a fake it is possible and that …"

This is not the first extravagant act of the farmer Shlyapnikov. Back in 2010, he gained fame as a fighter against peat fires, acting without the help of the authorities - then Shlyapnikov boasted in an interview with Esquire that they wanted to start a case against him for overthrowing the village council in his village - he was accused of almost undermining the constitutional order, but then everything was quiet. Shlyapnikov also introduced, in fact, entry visas for regional officials wishing to visit his farm. The list of documents for a "visa" included a certificate from a psychiatrist. Now the farmer has invented his own money. The local authorities hate Shlyapnikov.

"And how much of this stuff have you released?" I ask the farmer. "A thousand-eight", - Shlyapnikov does not give a confident answer (in several other media outlets there were 20 thousand colions). "And how much is it in rubles?" - I clarify. “I don’t know in rubles,” says the farmer. - In potatoes I can say for sure - one and a half tons. " "50 colions is a goose!" - a friend of the farmer Bozhenov unexpectedly intervenes in the conversation. And Shlyapnikov begins to explain that he invented the colonies not as additional money, but as an element of barter, which he constantly deals with with his neighbors - there are about a hundred of them in total: these are other farmers, as well as Muscovites who have houses in neighboring villages. For example, a person lends money for a fuel tank, and in return receives not rubles, but 20 colions. Then he presents this surrogate to the debtor and takes from him, for example, a chicken or something else equivalent. The farmer pays his workers a salary in rubles.

Shlyapnikov does not hide the fact that he would like to use colions more widely, but he is afraid. “The state does not give money, it only offers frantic loans,” he complains. - Otherwise, I would lend to myself. I do not understand what I am accused of."

The assistant to the city prosecutor Nikolai Khrebet, who is defending the claim in court, explained to the farmer what he was accused of. According to him, the only monetary unit in Russia under the Constitution is the ruble. The financial policy in the country is determined by the Central Bank. Colions, however, do not comply with any laws, therefore they should be prohibited, withdrawn from circulation and destroyed. To one of the documents the prosecutor had a paper clip neatly attached to a five-colony bill. The third party to the case is the Central Bank. At the same time, the prosecutor said that the representative of the Central Bank is going to court right now, so he should be given the opportunity to speak - not as a third party, as it appears in the court documents, but as an independent expert. In any other court, the performance of the same person in different qualities would have passed for a gross procedural violation, but not here - the judge granted the prosecutor's request. Shlyapnikov, who came to court without a lawyer, was clearly not aware of such subtleties and did not object.

“There is only one thing I can’t understand: who suffered from my actions,” he turned to the prosecutor. - The Central Bank? Russia? A group of citizens? I don't understand how my personal receipts turned into some kind of monetary surrogate! " Shlyapnikov said that he is a simple honest farmer who loves to joke. Colions are a game for him. They were not used as a means of payment, they have no liquidity, they have no degrees of protection. “You can't pay salaries, taxes, and bribes with them. You can't buy matches in a general store or shop. The peasant cannot destroy the banking system,”he insisted. Then the farmer began to denounce. He accused the prosecutor's office of not protecting the interests of Russia, but of commercial banks that have abandoned the village and are giving "suffocating" loans.

Mikhail Shlyapnikov before the court session. June 3, 2015

The prosecutor was clearly offended and asked to give him the opportunity to object. From a procedural point of view, this also looked faulty, but the court began to look more and more like a show, and Nikolai Khrebet received the floor. “If someone wants to repay the debt, but you don’t want to repay it, then you will not be able to legally collect anything. Everything rests on your reputation and your good name, but from a legislative point of view, this is not enough, - he got excited. - Your colonies pose a threat to the unity of the payment system and the policy of the Central Bank. And so we are in the conditions of an economic crisis, and you are aggravating everything!"

The first witness was invited into the hall. Yuri Titov is a mechanic by profession, lives in Moscow, and has a house in the Yegoryevsky district. He said that he once lent Shlyapnikov diesel fuel, and in return received 50 colions. The witness insisted that it was not an agreement between entrepreneurs, but simply relations between individuals, and who cares who exchanged what. The prosecutor became interested in how much the witness borrowed diesel fuel. He said that it was about two thousand rubles. Thus, the court found out that one colion costs about 40 rubles. The prosecutor asked what the witness wanted to take to his 50 colions. "Goose," Titov answered, thinking. "Or a chicken and eggs." The prosecutor asked if the witness was overpaying. “A goose is both a goose in spring and a goose in autumn. This is not a ruble for you - at the beginning of the year one thing, at the end - another,”the witness answered coldly. The prosecutor did not give up and offered to compare 50 colions and the cost of a goose in the store. “And the quality is rustic ?! No really! " - cried the witness.

“I am fond of growing peppers and tomatoes. I grow pepperoni, for example. How much does it cost in stores, you know? Here! And I have mine. I ordered seeds on E-bay from Israel, planted seedlings,”boasted Yuri Bozhenov as a witness now. The hall, filled mainly with Muscovites, listened with bated breath. And Bozhenov said that barter was a common thing for him. He will give seedlings to a neighbor, he will give him chicken eggs or a new variety of potatoes for planting. Shlyapnikov gave the witness two pieces of paper, 25 colions each. Bozhenov in return, like the mechanic Titov, planned to help out the goose. "Why didn't they take the usual receipt?" the prosecutor asked. “I believe Misha as I do,” retorted the witness. "Didn't you pass colions to other people by accident?" - came the prosecutor from an unexpected side. "What?! Yes, that's my goose! Who am I going to give it to! " - the second witness walked more and more confidently along the path beaten by Mikhail Panikovsky.

“And now I have questions for the prosecutor,” the witness said categorically. - When will we start moving? When will we start answering letters from the village of Larinskoye? Unfortunately, it was not possible to find out what happened in the village of Larinskoye. The judge nevertheless said that according to the Criminal Procedure Code, a witness can only answer questions, and not ask them.

Nobody remembered about the Criminal Procedure Code, when it turned out that the next witness who came to the rostrum had been sitting throughout the session in the courtroom - and had heard all the previous speeches. Actually, interrogating him after that was not very correct. But the specialist of the tax service of Yegoryevsk, Tatyana Fomina, of course, was listened to. She said that the sale of goods is subject to taxation, and taxes are paid in rubles. The colonies, on the other hand, prevent the correct payment of taxes. “So this is not a subject of taxation,” pleaded the author of the colions. - You don’t take taxes from the common fund of thieves. And you don’t take a citizen’s money-box either. What am I to blame for here? Although the witness looked sympathetic, she stood her ground. “We regard them as business transactions,” she said.

She was interrupted by two women who burst into the hall. They immediately busily began handing out papers to the judge, all parties and journalists. “Are you from the Central Bank? We've been expecting you,”the judge said warily. “We represent the union of the indigenous peoples of Russia,” one of the women answered. - We want to file a claim! " Even the prosecutor laughed. “I understand that you want to enter into the process as a third party,” the judge showed herself to be a model of an imperturbable person. - So let's have a passport. “I am not a citizen of Russia,” said one of the women. The judge took her head. “And let's include them in the process - they don't understand why and I don't understand why,” Shlyapnikov rejoiced heartily. However, even a cursory acquaintance with the "suit" of the two women showed that this is hardly possible. Only the list of countries, the queen or mistress of which is one of the women, took 15 lines. And in the document itself, it was proposed to release Shlyapnikov from responsibility “on the basis of his status as a“Human.”The women were not even kicked out, they were simply asked to sit and behave quietly.

Mikhail Shlyapnikov in Kolionovo. 2011

The representative of the Central Bank did not appear in court and did not answer calls. I had to read out a response to the lawsuit sent from the Central Bank. There was everything the same as in the statement of the prosecutor - the colonies violate the Constitution and a number of federal laws. The Central Bank specialist who drafted the document considered it necessary to draw the court's attention to the fact that "the monetary unit of Russia - the ruble - consists of one hundred kopecks." The prosecutor did not want to continue the trial without a specialist from the Central Bank and demanded to postpone the meeting. “My sowing crop has been disrupted because of the prosecutors! Journalists live with me because of all this. Let's finish it quickly,”Shlyapnikov literally begged and spoke the pure truth about the journalists (the Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent in his report, for example, said that the farmer taught him to plant an apple tree).

“Maybe you admit the claim? Let's finish quickly,”the judge tried to catch him, and Shlyapnikov seriously thought about it. “Hey, hey, where! Why! Not!" - shouted his friends from different sides. "No, I will continue," he restrained himself.“You feel sorry for your colony,” the judge grinned and postponed the session until June 18.

Shlyapnikov, of course, is not the first person in Russia to invent surrogate money. In the early 1990s, hundreds of Russian citizens were printing their own currency due to inflation and a lack of real money. The tickets of the MMM financial pyramid were used as surrogate money; far beyond the borders of the region, the Ural francs were known - the currency of the never-created Ural republic. Such cases rarely go to court, but this happens sometimes. So, in 2013, one of the local courts in Bashkiria banned "shaimuratovka" - money printed by a local entrepreneur, also named after the Bashkir settlement. The decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Bashkiria - he sided with the businessman.

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