Ilya Boltunov, director general of the funeral organization Ritual-Service, was detained in a case of insulting a government official. He was arrested at night and taken away in a car without decals in an unknown direction, according to Boltunov's Facebook page. The businessman claimed that the real reason for the persecution was an attempt to take away his funeral business.
The case against Boltunov was opened back in 2020, when he argued with the employees of the passport office, and they called the riot police in response.
Boltunov came to the passport office with his sister to register her in his apartment. “We had a useless dialogue [with an employee of the passport office], after which I simply could not stand it. I was in a hurry, something was at work. [And asked]: “Listen, is there any way to speed up the process of providing a service?” To which an employee answered me: “If you perform, I will stop doing anything at all.” Well, as if just a boorish answer. I asked a stupid question. I say: "Do you have a boss?" I went to the manager's office and explained the situation. In response, she simply laughed: “What do you even want?” “I mean, I just explained to you that your employee is rude.” But she gave me the same answer. He just says, "Listen, get out of here." Then word by word. I made a remark to her that no one was wearing masks, although it was just the right time. Other employees joined in and began to be rude. I just told my sister: “Listen, I won’t talk to them here anymore. We pick up the documents, we leave. Went to pick up documents. They don't let us out, they don't give us documents, the doors were closed. We're like, "What's going on?" “Well, here you are insulting the police officers. Now the Investigative Committee will arrive and a criminal case will be opened against you. The indictment indicated that I deliberately planned an action to insult police officers. He called one "fat police creature", and spat on another officer. Did something with the third one. An investigator, a policeman, and so on arrived. OMON arrived with machine guns and helmets. It all looked like, at least, the capture took place on our side of this passport office, ”said Boltunov.
At the same time, according to Boltunov, the investigator who was in charge of his case said that Boltunov “offended” his relative at the passport office. In the investigator's office, the businessman was given a ready-made protocol of interrogation and demanded to sign it.
Boltunov was charged under Article 319 of the Criminal Code (insulting a government representative), and his sister was pressured to slander him. The businessman was searched in connection with this case.
During the investigation, according to Boltunov, law enforcement officers put pressure on him. He was detained several times, posters were posted around the city with his photographs saying that the police were looking for him, “they came to work, home, broke doors, intimidated a family with small children,” said the entrepreneur.
Previously, Boltunov had already had conflicts, and all of them were related to his funeral business. In 2018, unknown persons set fire to the pavilion of his company in Kozelsk. In the same place, competitors shot at his employees. He also said that they repeatedly tried to fabricate criminal cases against him.
One of the last conflicts with the district administration arose because of his plans to build a crematorium, the businessman said:
“The head of the district called. When asked for a building permit, he simply called me from his personal number and said: “So you sent the permit? There will be no crematorium here. You understood me. If you come, we'll kill you here. The District Attorney is my friend." Yes, of course, it's unfortunate that this is happening. Yes, I still have to communicate with lawyers in parallel, spend some time on this. But most of all, in fact, no matter how trite it may sound, my heart really hurts because this story is not mine, this is the story of almost every person in our country – someone who, to one degree or another, intentionally or unintentionally, but ran into this system.