Blackmail and kickbacks in document scanning: Moscow Arbitration Court chairman Nikolai Novikov comes under Supreme Court inspection over alleged attempt to secure a contract for his affiliated companies

22 апреля 2026 г.

Kseniya Zhukova

As reported by the media, the Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is launching an extensive inspection of the Moscow Arbitration Court.

Following the results of the inspection, the head of the Moscow Arbitration Court (ASGM), Nikolai Novikov, may be asked to step down from his position. In connection with the inspection, Novikov withdrew his application for sick leave for planned hospitalization, which he had submitted in order to “wait out” the period of escalating conflict with the chairman of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, Vyacheslav Kress, who has strong support from the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Igor Krasnov. Our project has learned the formal reason for the large-scale inspection.

According to regulations, the scanning of all paper documents submitted to the Moscow Arbitration Court must be carried out by the court’s own staff. However, Novikov, arguing that court employees are unable to handle this technical work due to increased workload and that it is necessary to speed up case processing times, repeatedly entered into contracts with a third-party organization for document scanning. According to some reports, this organization is linked to his close circle.

When Novikov’s conflict with Kress intensified, the CEO of the Judicial Department, Lopatin, refused to approve a new government contract for document scanning (the previous one expired on April 21, 2025). Novikov then sent Lopatin an angry letter stating that if the new contract were not approved, the Moscow Arbitration Court would simply suspend the scanning of paper procedural documents, which would lead to an effective collapse in the court’s operations.

Paper-submitted documents would stop appearing in the “Case File” and “Electronic Access” systems, a huge number of people would appear seeking in-person access to cases directly in the courthouse, and the time allotted for case review would have to be reduced from the current 20 minutes to 10 minutes. In addition, case processing times would significantly increase, leading to a rise in complaints against the Moscow Arbitration Court.

However, this letter had no effect on Lopatin. Novikov then accused Lopatin of incompetence, stating that his actions since the end of April were effectively paralyzing the work of the Moscow Arbitration Court, and attempted to secure a direct meeting with Igor Krasnov.

For fairness, it should be noted that Novikov is one of the few members of the old judicial team who is not afraid to enter into conflict with figures originating from the Prosecutor General’s Office, who have increasingly taken senior positions in Russia’s judicial system.

However, according to a source, instead of support, Krasnov ordered an inspection of the Moscow Arbitration Court’s activities, particularly all of its contracts with third-party organizations. The Chairman of the Supreme Court concluded that Novikov was engaging in blackmail in an attempt to secure the desired contract. He reached these conclusions partly based on input from Kress. In this situation, Novikov abruptly changed his mind about taking extended sick leave.

Sources believe that the results of the inspection will provide sufficient grounds to demand Novikov’s resignation, and if he refuses, he may be threatened with the transfer of materials to investigative authorities.

Behind the scenes at the Supreme Court, it is actively being discussed that Krasnov already has a candidate for Novikov’s position. The identity is not known for certain. However, in recent times Krasnov has been promoting his “Moscow-oriented” protégé, former deputy prosecutor of Krasnodar region Vyacheslav Ovechkin, through the ranks. He was quickly made deputy chairman of the Krasnodar regional court, but it was initially known that by autumn 2026 Ovechkin would move to Moscow. There were rumors that he would take the position of chairman of the Moscow City Court, which is expected to be vacated if Mikhail Ptitsyn is promoted to the Supreme Court. Now Ovechkin is also being mentioned among possible successors to Novikov