Ex-co-owner of the Listvyazhnaya mine pleaded not guilty to abuse of power

The former co-owner of the Listvyazhnaya mine in the Kemerovo region, Vladimir Gridin, who was put on the international wanted list, pleaded not guilty. This was announced on April 6 by one of the participants in the trial.

"Gridin does not admit guilt, he considers the charges in absentia unfounded," he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

On March 26, Gridin was charged in absentia with abuse of authority and put on the international wanted list. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Suspended sentence: why the owner of Listvyazhnaya received a suspended sentence

The verdict of the owner of the mine, in which 51 people died, was milder than that of its immediate supervisors.

The explosion at the Listvyazhnaya mine near the city of Belovo occurred on November 25, 2021. As a result, 51 people died and more than 100 were injured. A total of 285 miners were underground at that time.

A criminal case was opened into the incident under Part 2 of Article 217 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Violation of industrial safety requirements for hazardous production facilities, resulting in the death of a person by negligence"), as well as a criminal case into the negligence of employees of the Rostechnadzor department.

On March 25, 2025, the Central District Court of Kemerovo found Mikhail Fedyaev, the owner of SDS-Ugol, guilty in the case of the death of 51 people at the Listvyazhnaya mine. He was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 3.5 years in prison. A verdict was also passed against former technical director Anton Yakutov, who received five years in a general regime colony, and former CEO of SDS-Ugol Gennady Alekseev, who received five years and three months in prison.

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