Это вовсе не сводит на нет тот факт or "того факта"?

Question

What form should I use in this case, the form of Accusative Case or of Genitive?> Это вовсе не сводит на нет **того факта/тот факт**, что они> преступники

Answer 1

Here is only one correct way to answer this question.We need to use Accusative case.

In this sentence we have an expression "сводить на нет" (reduce to zero) and a direct object "факт".

Сводить на нет (что?) факт.

Факт- masculine inanimate (doesn't change its form in Accusative case).

Answer 2

Although Russian is generally a logical, consistent language, there are exceptions, and this is one of them. Usually, we expect, as I think you do here, that negative statements will require a genitive direct object. Note, for exаmple, that this is always the case with нет, as in Нет молока в холодильнике.

However, all the turmoil and upheavals of Russian history in the last century or so have left their effect on the language, and Russians nowadays don't always use the genitive in negative sentences, and I suspect that even thoughtful native speakers can't quite explain the variation that you noticed in this sentence.

As an instance of the ways Russians don't obey the rules of grammar when it's inconvenient, let me mention to you an example that I noticed at my favorite Russian website, paperpaper.ru. What is at issue is the manner of referring to streets with long names. There is in St. Petersburg this street: улица Рубенштейна, which is quite a mouthful Strictly speaking, one would expect Russians to say "Я живу на улице Рубенштейна." That is grammatically correct, and I'm sure that some Russians do say that. More commonly, though, they take that last word and treat it as an indeclinable noun. Thus: "Я живу на Руенштейна." That may offend the ears of purists, but that's how people use the language in the twenty-first century.