Deputy Head of Mytishchi detained in connection with housing scandal involving family from Tajikistan

The Investigative Committee of Russia reported the detention of an official in connection with the provision of an apartment to a Tajik family.

A deputy head of the administration of the Mytishchi urban district in the Moscow region has been detained on suspicion of negligence in issuing a housing certificate worth 24 million rubles to a large family, as reported on the website of the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Moscow region.

The official is accused of negligence. He allegedly did not verify the authenticity of the information provided when making the decision to recognize the family of Takhmina Samadova as low-income and issue the housing certificate.

Investigators have initiated a criminal case against the deputy head of the Mytishchi administration under Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“negligence”). The issued certificate for the apartment has been annulled, and the family has been removed from the queue for improved housing conditions.

On January 13, the head of Mytishchi and secretary of the local branch of “United Russia,” Yulia Kupetskaya, published a message about the issuance of the certificate to the family on her Telegram channel. This sparked a wave of discontent online, and the story received widespread attention. Kupetskaya, in turn, stated in one of her posts that the family fully met all the conditions for receiving the housing certificate.

Users demanded that the family be checked, citing posts by the large family’s father, in which he threatened “the enemies of Tajikistan” and reposted materials criticizing Russian law enforcement. He was accused of disloyalty to Russia, including for writing: “ready to tear apart anyone for the Tajik flag.”

After a strong reaction from Russian nationalists, the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, known for his anti-migrant views, ordered an investigation into this incident.

Shortly after this, within the framework of a criminal case under Article 159.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“fraud with payments”), a native of Tajikistan, the large mother Takhmina Samadova, who has been a citizen of Russia for 14 years, was detained.

According to the investigation, she provided false information about her husband’s income. It was also indicated in the extract from the house book that 13 people were registered in a one-room apartment. This included Samadova’s biological brother and his two children, who actually live in Tajikistan.

Currently, the mother of seven children is under house arrest as she is pregnant.