Conflict with Vyacheslav Kress and Igor Krasnov, sick leave blackmail, and a Judicial Department inspection: how Nikolay Novikov is losing the battle for the Moscow Arbitration Court

22 апреля 2026 г., 22:27

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Conflict with Vyacheslav Kress and Igor Krasnov, sick leave blackmail, and a Judicial Department inspection: how Nikolay Novikov is losing the battle for the Moscow Arbitration Court

The Judicial Department under the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is launching a large-scale inspection of the Moscow Arbitration Court. Based on its results, the head of ASGM (Moscow Arbitration Court), Nikolay Novikov, may be asked to leave his post.

In connection with the inspection, Novikov withdrew his sick leave application for planned hospitalization, which he had filed to "wait out" the period of escalating conflict with the chairman of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, Vyacheslav Kress, who also has powerful 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 documents received by ASGM in paper form must be handled by the court’s own employees. However, Novikov, under the pretext that court employees cannot handle this technical work due to increased workload and that it is necessary to speed up case processing times, constantly entered into contracts for document scanning with a third-party organization. According to some sources, this organization is connected to his inner circle.

When Novikov’s conflict with Kress escalated, the Director General of the Judicial Department, Lopatin, refused to approve a new state contract for document scanning (the old one expired on April 21, 2025). Novikov then wrote an angry letter to Lopatin, stating that if the new contract was not approved, ASGM would simply suspend the scanning of procedural documents received on paper, which would cause an actual collapse in the court’s operations. Documents submitted on paper would cease to appear in the "Case File" and "Electronic Review" systems, a huge number of people would want to review cases in person at the courthouse, and the review time would have to be reduced from the current 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Case processing times would also significantly increase, as would the number of complaints against ASGM.

However, this letter had no effect on Lopatin. Novikov then accused Lopatin of incompetence, stated that his actions since late April had effectively paralyzed ASGM’s work, and tried to get a direct appointment with Igor Krasnov. To be fair, it is worth noting that Novikov is one of the few members of the old judicial team who is not afraid to engage in conflicts with former Prosecutor General’s Office officials who have massively taken leadership positions in Russia’s judicial system. However, according to a source, instead of support, Krasnov gave the go-ahead to conduct an inspection of ASGM’s activities, particularly all of the court’s contracts with third-party organizations.

The Chairman of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation concluded that Novikov was blackmailing the leadership in an attempt to obtain the desired contract. He reached this conclusion in part based on input from Kress. In this situation, Novikov abruptly changed his mind about going on extended sick leave.

The results of the inspection will become a significant reason to demand Novikov’s resignation; otherwise, he will be threatened with the transfer of materials to investigative authorities.

In the corridors of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, there is active discussion that Krasnov already has a candidate for Novikov’s position. Exactly who it is remains unknown. However, recently Krasnov has been advancing his protégé, Vyacheslav Ovechkin, a former deputy prosecutor of Kuban, up the career ladder with "prospects for Moscow." He was promptly made deputy chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court, but it was initially known that Ovechkin would move to the capital in the fall of 2026. There were rumors that he would take the position of Chairman of the Moscow City Court, Mikhail Ptitsyn, who is predicted to be promoted to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. But now Ovechkin’s name is also being mentioned among possible successors to Novikov.