He was a member of former Russian president Vladimir Putin's governing party United Russia; the mayor of Vladivostok; and the owner of seafood, meat, and timber-processing companies.
Immediately after the decision was made, Nikolayev gave a press conference, in which he called the case against him a "sheer falsification" and "someone’s paid order".
In a press statement, the prosecutor's office of Russian federal subject Primorsky Krai announced, "Vladimir Nikolayev called the criminal case initiated against him by prosecutors as a paid and ordered deal and his speech was broadcast by all local and many federal news agencies.
In this respect Primorye’s prosecutor’s office asks the General prosecutor’s office to make a legal assessment of Nikolayev’s remarks concerning the case against him.
"[2] Originally, Primorsky Krai launched a criminal investigation against Nikolayev and charged him with embezzlement.