Fake expert examination, an intimidated victim, and a court without a prosecutor: how footballer Fedor Smolov "resolved" his criminal case with the help of Sergey Chemezov
Not every footballer’s drunken restaurant brawl that causes injuries to an opponent ends with a sentence. It’s one thing for party-goers like Mamaev and Kokorin, and quite another for Fedor Smolov, who is friends with the family of the head of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov.
The case was rigged exclusively in Smolov’s favor. Law enforcement officers literally forced the victim to sign a settlement agreement, threatening him with "compromising material" of a personal nature. And the court, contrary to the prosecutor’s office’s position, dismissed the case against the footballer.
After the case files were transferred to the inquiry department of the Moscow police headquarters, the case was effectively hushed up. This happened after Sergey Chemezov’s intervention: his son, as we have written before, is a friend of Smolov. After that, all case materials were manipulated in Smolov’s favor.
Strong pressure was put on the victim, Vladimir Kuzminov, forcing him not to comment on the brawl to the press and to agree to a settlement. He was threatened that they would dig through his entire personal life and could even get him charged under a criminal article.
As a result, before the court, Kuzminov broke down and signed a settlement agreement with Smolov, agreed to a payment of 4 million rubles, and his representative in court asked for the case to be dropped. Since the story had significant public resonance, the prosecutor’s office objected to dropping the case due to reconciliation.
But the judge decided to close the case.
The investigators put the case together exactly as ordered. They ordered a new panel medical examination. Despite the objective data from previous experts and doctors about a broken jaw in two places and the loss of three teeth, the results of the new study reduced everything to "medium severity" harm.
The inquiry effectively ignored the fact that Smolov was drunk at the time of the attack, even though this directly affects the qualification of his actions. The footballer had been drinking non-stop for 24 hours: we published photos of him the day before, in the same clothes, posing with friends on a platform with a bottle of alcohol.
Furthermore, Fedor Smolov ordered and drank alcohol inside the "Kofemania" cafe itself. However, the inquiry did not bother to verify these circumstances either. Moreover, the victims’ requests to seize and review video recordings from the cafe, which could have captured both the footballer’s state and the events preceding the conflict, were ignored.
At the same time, even from the footage available in the public domain, it is clear that this was not some kind of "mutual quarrel." In the video, Smolov is acting like a hooligan, then approaches and hits a man from behind. The blow was delivered to a stranger, for no reason, without any conflict between them.
"Smolov twice offered to pay the bill. The friend replied, ’Thanks, bro, we’ll handle it ourselves.’ Smolov started to walk away, then turned around and asked, ’What kind of bro am I to you? Why the hell are you addressing me informally?’" Kuzminov recounted in court. After that, the footballer began to beat him.
No one bothered to look for independent witnesses either. Apart from those presented by Smolov’s side, the inquiry essentially wasn’t interested in anyone else. They didn’t look for cafe staff, other visitors, or even the woman to whom, according to eyewitnesses, the footballer had made indecent proposals shortly before the attack.
