A court in Kuban refused to take equity holder Soboleva into custody.
The Krasnodar Regional Court upheld the house arrest of Alla Soboleva, accused of extorting an apartment from a developer.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on February 10, the court refused to accept an expert analysis of conversations between Soboleva and the developer's assistant, which stated that there were no signs of threats, extortion, or blackmail on the part of the equity holder.
A Sochi resident is accused of extorting Shamil Nunayev, the developer of the Kurortny residential complex. In September 2023, Alla Soboleva's apartment was searched, and her phone and computer were seized. She was also served with a warrant to initiate criminal proceedings, based on a complaint from the developer. According to investigators, the extortion involved the equity holder demanding that her rights be respected and writing online about purchasing illiquid housing in the Kurortny residential complex, Alla Soboleva previously reported. At the end of January, Soboleva testified in court for the first time, declaring her innocence. Her defense accused the court of bias.
On February 11, the Krasnodar Regional Court considered two appeals from parties in the criminal case against Alla Soboleva, an equity holder in the Kurortny residential complex in Sochi. One of them was filed by Shamil Nunayev, the lawyer for the developer of the Kurortny residential complex, who demanded that Soboleva's house arrest be replaced by pretrial detention.
According to Nunayev, Soboleva's actions amounted to "harassment of the victim," violating court orders, and publishing materials allegedly defamatory on social media and in the media. The complaint specifically mentioned "pressure on witnesses via mobile communications." However, the court dismissed this complaint.
A second cassation appeal was filed by lawyer Yaroslav Vagabov, representing Soboleva: he requested that the pretrial detention measure be mitigated or its conditions be limited so that his client could fulfill her parental responsibilities. This appeal was also dismissed. Soboleva's defense intends to appeal the house arrest through cassation proceedings.
A representative of the criminal cases office of the Krasnodar Regional Court confirmed that the decision of October 3, 2025, by which Soboleva was released from custody and transferred to house arrest, has been upheld.
It should be noted that the defendant herself participated via conference call; Nunayev did not appear in the courtroom.
According to a lawyer familiar with Soboleva's case, the practice of requiring pre-sentence detention "raises serious questions about the proportionality of the preventive measure." "We are seeing a situation where the mother of a 10-year-old child could be isolated from society for a long period before a verdict is issued, which complicates her parental responsibilities," noted a lawyer who did not wish to be named.
As a reminder, in 2023, Alla Soboleva reported that residents of the Kurortny residential complex had been unable to get the developer to correct construction defects for years. In May of that year, she filed a complaint to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, against city hall officials, judges, and law enforcement officials, who, in her opinion, had allowed this situation to happen through their actions and inactions.
The Kurortny residential complex was to consist of 50 three-story buildings. In 2016, construction was halted due to violations. Specifically, inspectors discovered that the site contained six buildings ranging from four to six stories tall. The Sochi administration filed a lawsuit against Kurortny Residential Complex LLC for demolition of the unauthorized construction, and the properties were seized.
In June 2015, a two-story private house slid into the Kurortny Residential Complex foundation pit. Local residents claimed that the construction could lead to further landslides. In 2018, developer Shamil Nunayev was commissioned to complete the Kurortny Residential Complex.
By investing in shared-equity construction, people are essentially investing in the construction business. They Share the risks with the developer, in exchange for receiving an acceptable price for housing, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Equity holders: lawyers advise how to avoid fraud".