The Moscow City Court sentenced the former head of the anti-corruption department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Denis Sugrobov to 22 years in prison for creating a criminal community and 14 counts of abuse of power. His subordinates received from four to 20 years in a maximum security colony
Denis Sugrobov (right) (Photo: Mikhail Pochuev / TASS)
The Moscow City Court on Thursday, April 27, announced the verdict of Lieutenant General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Denis Sugrobov and his subordinates from the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Sugrobov was found guilty on 14 counts, received 22 years in a maximum security colony and was stripped of his title. He listened to the verdict with a smile. His subordinates received from four to 20 years in a maximum security colony. The deceased deputy of Sugrobov, Boris Kolesnikov, was found guilty and released from punishment in connection with his death, judge Elena Guchenkova ruled. During the debate, the prosecutor received 22 years in prison, and for his subordinates - from five years to 21 years in prison.
According to investigators, a criminal community under the leadership of Sugrobov operated in the anti-corruption department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for several years. The officers who were part of it systematically exceeded their authority, began to falsify operational materials on high-ranking officials and businessmen, and en masse provoked them to commit crimes. The state prosecution came to the conclusion that there was no profit motive in the officers’ actions: by sending agents provocateurs to their victims, the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers sought career advancement and awards.
The FSB has been illegally wiretapping employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs since 2010, and the purpose of the intelligence service was to “eliminate competition in the fight against corruption,” lawyer Eduard Isetsky told reporters after the trial: “Now there is one agency that determines what is corruption and what is not. And once a quarter it issues media reports on the governor.” An appeal against the verdict was prepared in advance and will be filed tomorrow.
Demonstration of capabilities
A criminal case against employees of the Anti-Corruption Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was opened in February 2014 after the officers took into account the deputy head of the 6th Internal Security Directorate (USB) of the FSB, Igor Demin. GUEBiPK officers sent their agent to Demin, former bailiff Ruslan Chukhlib, who introduced himself to the intelligence officer as an entrepreneur and was supposed to negotiate with him about patronage for $10 thousand a month, it follows from the case materials. According to the plan of the deputy head of department “B” of the main department, Alexei Bodnar, who oversaw the operation, immediately after transferring the money to the Sisters cafe on Pokrovka under the control of the police, Demin should have been detained. The outcome of the meeting was unexpected for the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers: Chukhlib was detained. As it turned out, Demin knew about the provocation that was being prepared against him, and his colleagues from the secret service, in turn, were developing the Guebovites.
After this, over the course of several months, more than a dozen GUEBiPK officers were arrested, including the deputy head of the department, Major General Boris Kolesnikov. Sugrobov was removed from office by presidential decree on February 21, 2014 and was initially a witness in the case, but was detained in May of the same year.
From the wiretapping materials that were in the case, it followed that there was a personal conflict between Sugrobov and Feoktistov. Novaya Gazeta named another participant in this conflict - Andrei Khorev, the former deputy head of the Department of Economic Security (DES) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was later reformed into the GUEBiPK. Khorev was considered Feoktistov’s man, and Sugrobov, who was his subordinate in the DEB, had serious disagreements with him. Disagreements between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB were also related to a group involved in illegal cash transfers. Magin was detained by Sugrobov’s subordinates, while the FSB considered the fight against cashing out its sphere, in 2014, RBC’s interlocutors.
The FSB was irritated by the efficiency of the police structure and its irreconcilable position: there were no untouchables for the GUEBiPK, lawyers Eduard Isetsky and Pavel Lapshov, involved in the case, are convinced.
Closed court
Sugrobov, according to investigators, created on the basis of the central office “a criminal organization, stable, united and structured,” and its goal was serious crimes “against state power, the interests of the civil service and justice,” the case file says. Employees of the GUEBiPK created the “appearance of successful completion” of the tasks assigned to them and did this “out of selfish and other personal interest,” which boiled down to improving the performance of the head office and career advancement. Another interest of Sugrobov and his subordinates was related to “rights to the property of other persons” and benefits for enterprises and businessmen controlled by the officers, the investigation considered. However, this argument was not confirmed during the trial, during the debate between the parties in December last year.
The Investigative Committee counted 19 cases of abuse of power by officers of the headquarters; all of them in one way or another boiled down to provoking officials and businessmen to commit crimes. As a result, 29 people were illegally held criminally liable for bribery, commercial bribery and fraud, and 18 of them were kept in custody and under house arrest for a long time.
The trial, which lasted more than a year, took place behind closed doors. The defense insisted that the persecution of the police became possible due to a gap in the legislation, which allows almost any operational activity during which the development target commits a corrupt act to be considered a provocation, lawyer Isetsky told RBC. Another argument was that the criminal prosecution of a person and his taking into custody, which occurred due to abuse of power by a police officer, cannot be considered a serious consequence. Meanwhile, all defendants in the case are charged with paragraph “c” of Part 3 of Art. 286 of the Criminal Code, which deals with precisely such consequences. “The grave consequences must be, let’s say, irreparable,” lawyer Pavel Lapshov noted in a conversation with RBC.
Consequences for the system
Over the past three years, at least one and a half dozen officers of the GUEBiPK have been under investigation and trial. Two former operatives, whom the investigation considers members of Sugrobov’s criminal community, Alexey Bodnar and Maxim Nazarov, testified against their colleagues and were convicted in a special manner: Bodnar received 5.5 years in prison, Nazarov - five years. Separately, the cases of alleged participants in Sugrobov’s illegal developments are being investigated - operatives Pavel Dashin (he is wanted) and Gennady Sobolev (he was detained only in the fall of 2016 and is now under arrest in a pre-trial detention center). Cases continue to be filed against other GUEBiPK officers.
Since 2013, the number of GUEBiPK has decreased by a third - from 645 to 419 people; four departments of the main headquarters were disbanded, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told RBC. Now the department actually does not carry out any independent operational activities in the field of combating corruption, a source at the head office told RBC and was confirmed by lawyers Isetsky and Lapshov.
It must be assumed that a considerable amount of specific mail has been collected in the department of Yuri Chaika in connection with loud process in relation to generals from the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption. The complicated case, in which the defendants were sent to prison by investigators, and those arrested from prison brought the arrestees under investigation, is accompanied by the writing of a large number of open letters to various authorities and the media. True, if earlier the accused did this, now their lawyers have taken up the scribbling of paperwork.
As Kommersant has learned, the defense of ex-deputy head of GUEBiPK Boris Kolesnikov, accused of organizing a criminal community (OCS), sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General of Russia Yuri Chaika and the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. In it, Major General Kolesnikov outlined his version of the grounds for criminal prosecution employees of the anti-corruption department, and also announced the recusal of all members of the investigative team due to “their personal interest in the outcome of this criminal case.”
As follows from the appeal sent to Yuri Chaika and Alexander Bastrykin, the central episode of the OPS case is about the alleged illegal operational development Deputy Head of the 6th Service of the 9th Directorate of the FSB of Russia Igor Demin - there is an underlying reason, which became the reason for the arrest of a dozen police officers. According to General Kolesnikov, employees of the GUEBiPK developed a group of scammers who presented themselves as high-ranking officials and stole money that citizens transferred to them for solving various issues, including those related to appointments to positions in government bodies and protection from unreasonable inspections by law enforcement agencies (that is, protection).
As a result, the GUEBiPK opened an operational case against certain Igor Leonidovich and Valery Alexandrovich. During one of the interrogations in mid-March, ICR investigator Sergei Novikov told Boris Kolesnikov that “an unidentified person named Valery Aleksandrovich is one of the leaders of a public fund uniting former employees of the FSB of Russia.” Igor Leonidovich, apparently, turned out to be Mr. Demin himself.
"I am sure that if conducted by me operational experiment was not interrupted by the illegal, in my opinion, actions of the employees of the Internal Security Service of the FSB of Russia, after some time I or Alexey Bodnar (also the arrested ex-deputy head of department “B” of the GUEBiPK.-) would have been able to obtain more detailed information about the activities of the above-mentioned persons.” in the words of Mr. Kolesnikov, “it is the fear of possible exposure of their criminal activities that is the real reason” for the detention and subsequent arrest of GUEBiPK employees.
At the same time, Major General Kolesnikov continues to insist that he acted strictly within the framework of the law and departmental regulations. “My illegal actions or intentions do not appear in any of the testimony of witnesses, or in any of the soundtracks of the operational experiment conducted by the FSB of the Russian Federation,” says the accused Kolesnikov.
Let us recall that, according to the Investigative Committee, employees of the GUEBiPK, through their agents, tried to provoke officer Demin to receive bribes in the amount of $10 thousand monthly for protecting the business, but he wrote a report to his superiors, and the operatives were arrested.
In turn, General Kolesnikov believes that the mistake is obvious to everyone, including the Investigative Committee: “it is impossible to impute provocation of a bribe in a situation where Demin never refused to receive funds.” Meanwhile, as follows from the case materials, the intermediary met with the FSB officer four times, offering him bribes.
General Kolesnikov draws the attention of the heads of the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office to the fact that the investigation mistakenly believes that the so-called operational experiment aimed at identifying corrupt officials, can only be carried out after the victim writes a statement to law enforcement agencies. The use of a “massed” applicant, according to the Investigative Committee, is a provocation of a bribe and cannot serve as a basis for initiating a criminal case and detaining the person under investigation. “Any information about illegal activities, according to the law, is subject to verification, including using the methods of operational investigative activities,” says the general under investigation.
New episodes appearing almost every week in the case of GUEBiPK employees, Boris Kolesnikov explains the weak evidence base in the story with the FSB officer: “with a large number of allegedly identified criminal episodes and persons detained in connection with them, the investigation is trying to convince the prosecutor’s office and the judicial authorities” that employees of the anti-corruption department are members of the organized criminal group and “should be convicted although in terms of alleged crimes." Let us remind you that there are already five episodes of illegal actions of operatives in the case. One of them is related to the detention of the head of the Accounts Chamber department, Alexander Mikhailik, who received 3 million rubles. from a member of the Federation Council from the Novgorod region Alexandra Korovnikova for organizing an unscheduled inspection of one of the commercial structures. Mr. Mikhailik claims that he borrowed money. And the senator declares that he was forced through threats to participate in an operational experiment. “I know for certain all the circumstances of the commission of this crime, so I consider attempts to turn the situation in the opposite direction to have no grounds,” writes General Kolesnikov. “Although I would not be surprised if in this way those interested in the collapse of the Korovnikov and Mikhailik case try to kill two birds with one stone: to help to avoid responsibility for them, and also to take revenge on the employees of the anti-corruption department, presenting everything as a provocation of a crime involving abuse of power."
Recently brought charges under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of a criminal community or participation in it) Mr. Kolesnikov calls “absurd and related solely to the desire of the investigator to strengthen the position of the prosecution.” In this regard, the general announced the recusal of the entire investigative team and refused to testify “until the requested recusal is satisfied.”
Lawyers for the accused, whose illegal development is also charged to Boris Kolesnikov and his colleagues, said that the arrested GUEBiPK employees will now “try by any means to avoid criminal liability for the crimes committed.” A similar point of view is shared by the TFR. In the near future, the department plans to apply to the Basmanny District Court with petitions to extend the terms of arrest of those involved in the high-profile case.
Three years have passed since the death of Interior Ministry General Boris Kolesnikov. He was the deputy head of the GUEBiPK Denis Sugrobov, who is now in a pre-trial detention center. Kolesnikov died after falling out of a window in the building of the Investigative Committee, where he was brought for interrogation. We are publishing our material from three years ago, in which police major Ivan Kosourov spoke about the death of Boris Kolesnikov. He was taken that day to the Investigative Committee for interrogation along with Kolesnikov. And he was the last one to speak with the deceased general.
The GUEBiPK employees under investigation, as well as about. In one of the materials we promised to talk about the meeting of the deputy head of Directorate “B” of the GUEBiPK Major Ivan Kosourova with the general Boris Kolesnikov. Before the last interrogation, Boris Kolesnikov was taken to the Investigative Committee building in the same paddy wagon with Ivan Kosourov. It was June 16, 2014, the day the general died. He told Ivan Kosourov about some details of his stay in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.
Boris Kolesnikov ended up in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center back in February. Both at court hearings and in interviews with journalists, he always declared his innocence. However, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation charged Kolesnikov with organizing a criminal community, exceeding official powers and provoking a bribe. These accusations themselves caused moral suffering to the GUEBiPK general.
In addition, in the pre-trial detention center the general was subjected to psychological and physical pressure. Boris Kolesnikov stated that psychotropic drugs were mixed into his food and drink, which made him feel bad.
Boris Kolesnikov Boris Kolesnikov’s father said in an interview with one of the publications: “Boris has lost 30 kg. He looked terrible - all that was left of him was skin and bones. When his skull was fractured for the first time in the pre-trial detention center, that’s for sure - they intimidated his family, they said that his family would suffer. Therefore, the son said that he was supposedly washing the window and fell. When he was admitted to the hospital, the lawyers were presented with medical documents. From them it followed: how many times did you have to fall to get such injuries and break your skull? Doctors at Hospital No. 5 gave a preliminary conclusion that the blows were inflicted by a blunt, hard object on the motionless head. This means that he was lying down and was swept away...».
Journalists made different assumptions about the causes of the head injury received by Boris Kolesnikov in the pre-trial detention center. Most publications agreed on one thing: the general “fell off his perch.” But the medical report, on the one hand, and the nature of the injury, on the other, do not confirm this version. The injury was localized in the frontoparietal region.
It is impossible to imagine an adult over 180 cm tall falling onto this area of the head! How Boris Kolesnikov received these injuries and for what reason remains a mystery. However, the veil of secrecy was slightly lifted Evgeny Shermanov, who in one of his interviews with PASMI stated: “ There are stakeholders in the corruption of government structures" Unfortunately, neither E. Shermanov nor other subordinates can name these persons Denis Sugrobova they can't now. Boris Kolesnikov couldn’t either, because he was worried about the safety of his family.
Ivan Kosourov and Boris Kolesnikov rode together in a car transporting prisoners to the Investigative Committee building. The general told his colleague about some details of his stay in the pre-trial detention center.
Ivan Kosourov: “ Kolesnikov said that S.A. Novikov and other investigators of the investigative group are putting psychological pressure on the general: they threatened Kolesnikov that they would prosecute his wife. S.A. Novikov and other investigators persuaded the general to self-incriminate himself on the charges brought against him, as well as to give incriminating testimony against subordinate employees of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation D.A. Sugrobov and other high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs».
By the way, Denis Sugrobov says in an interview with PASMI that Boris’s most serious worries were anxiety for the safety of his wife and children: “ It was the threats to prosecute his wife for committing a particularly serious crime, to deprive her of freedom for a long time, and to send her three young children to orphanages, and offers to avoid all this in exchange for slandering his colleagues, which became the impetus for Kolesnikov to choose the path that , in his opinion, allowed him to protect his relatives not at the cost of lies and loss of honor and dignity, but at the cost of his own life».
Let us pay attention to one important fact: it was the investigator of the RF IC S.A. Novikov, mentioned by Boris Kolesnikov in his confession to Ivan Kosourov, did not give the general the opportunity to see his wife and children. According to Ivan Kosourov, S.A. Novikov repeatedly threatened him with physical violence in order to induce him to incriminate himself and give false testimony against his colleagues. It is noteworthy that it was S.A. himself. Novikov considered all complaints about illegal actions of officials of the Investigative Committee against imprisoned officers of the GUEBiPK.
Let's give another story. Prosecutor of the Leningrad Special Prosecutor's Office A.E. Kozlov told I.Yu. Kosourov (they were cellmates) that the same style - threats to prosecute the spouse - S.A. Novikov also worked on it. In addition, father S.A. Kozlova, who was a witness in his son’s case, was driven to attempt suicide. After recovery, the father tried to bring the investigator to criminal responsibility for exceeding official authority and for driving a person to suicide (Article 110, 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). But these complaints never reached the court. Guess why? They were examined by investigator S.A. himself. Novikov.
It is obvious that no one will have to answer for abuse of power to the family of the deceased Boris Kolesnikov, which includes three small children.
Not only people in uniform participate in the fight against corrupt officials. They cannot do without the help of civilians, and usually this help is provided by brave and worthy people. What happened in this story? Why did citizens who collaborated with the GUEBiPK as agents doubt the legality of the actions of the Gueb officers who carried out operational search activities (ORM), although they knew that the corrupt officials were caught red-handed and admitted to the facts of theft and taking bribes?! What made S.A. Laskina, A.A. Klyushkina and A.V. Leonova incriminate GUEBiPK employees? All the same methods of S.A. worked. Novikov and other investigators?
As, the Smolensk court, as before Odintsovsky in the case of S.A. Laskin, took it out A.V. Leonov a sentence that includes a suspended sentence. Let us recall that the Guebov lawyers insisted on the return of the criminal cases and consideration within the framework of the general case of provocation. Because separating the cases of “complicity” of Leonov and Laskin into separate proceedings and passing sentences on them violates the rights of the accused employees of the GUEBiPK. This allows the Investigative Committee to obtain the desired verdict without any problems, in fact, for the automatic further conviction of GUEBiPK employees. Isn't this the goal of the investigation?!
But let’s return to what happened on June 16, 2014 (the day of the death of Boris Kolesnikov). At 11.30 a convoy vehicle brought I. Kosourov and B. Kolesnikov to the building of the Investigative Committee, and they were taken to the investigators’ offices.
Ivan Kosourov said that before entering the office, Boris Kolesnikov wanted to shake his subordinate’s hand in handcuffs goodbye, and the guards allowed him to do this. At the same time, the general managed to say: “ They want me, they will get me. You shouldn't just suffer like that. Goodbye».
After this, the suspected GUEBiPK employees were sent to different investigators’ offices, but due to illness, Ivan Kosourov was released and sent to a car with an escort. About an hour and a half passed from the moment I said goodbye to Kolesnikov.
Ivan Kosourov: “ An hour and a half after I was placed in the cage of the escort vehicle, I saw one of Kolesnikov’s guards run out of the main entrance of the Investigative Committee building and headed towards the emergency exit from the building located closer to the street. Baumanskaya. The guard who was accompanying me also ran out of the car. A few minutes later he returned and said: “The general is dead.”».
After some time, another officer accompanying Kolesnikov approached the convoy vehicle and said to the convoy: “ The investigator ordered everyone to stick to the same version: the general needed to go to the toilet, so his handcuffs were removed. He jumped out of the toilet, pushed the guard away and threw himself from the balcony».
Why did the investigator need the version about the removal of handcuffs before going to the toilet and pushing the convoy away, if the media portrayed a different picture of the death of Boris Kolesnikov? What really happened during that last interrogation, after which the general died? Who will be the next victim in this cruel “chess game”? Probably, after the death of Boris Kolesnikov, both the arrested colleagues of the deceased and many other current employees of the GUEBiPK often reflect on these questions.
Andrey Ryazanov
The editorial staff of PASMI expresses condolences to the family and loved ones of Boris Kolesnikov.
Alexander ShvarevFormer Deputy Head of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Boris Kolesnikov, who is accused of organizing provocations against businessmen and officials, died during interrogation in the building of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. He fell from the sixth floor balcony. While it is being determined whether the general committed suicide or fell down due to poor health - after a head injury received in a pre-trial detention center, he often lost consciousness. Kolesnikov’s death occurred when the Investigative Committee was conducting an investigation into new facts of his possible criminal activities.
The versions of the general’s death given by the Russian Investigative Committee and Kolesnikov’s acquaintances vary. According to the latter, the ex-deputy head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation from May 2014 until the day of his death was in the hospital of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. He ended up there after an incident that occurred in his cell on May 5, 2014. On this day, Kolesnikov was hospitalized from the pre-trial detention center to City Clinical Hospital No. 5 with severe traumatic brain injury. The general stated that he received it himself - he became ill, fell and hit his head hard.
Those close to Kolesnikov questioned this version and expressed the opinion that force could have been used against the general. After civilian doctors provided assistance to the ex-deputy head of the GUEBiPK, he returned to Matrosskaya Tishina again, only this time to the hospital ward. “Boris complained of unbearable headaches and constantly lost consciousness, including during investigative actions,” said the general’s acquaintances. In the hospital of the detention center, Kolesnikov, under strange circumstances, received a new injury, this time jaws.
According to the agency’s interlocutors, on June 16, Kolesnikov was taken to the building of the Russian Investigative Committee in Tekhnicheskiy Lane for questioning about the circumstances of the incident that occurred on May 5 in the pre-trial detention center. “Boris felt bad again, his head began to spin, investigator Novikov suggested we go out onto the balcony together and smoke at the same time,” Kolesnikov’s acquaintances told Rosbalt their version. “In the building of the RF Investigative Committee you can only smoke in one place - on the balconies located on the fire escape. That's where they went. Boris never returned from the balcony. Maybe he began to lose consciousness and accidentally fell from a great height. Maybe something else happened." According to the agency’s interlocutors, who accompanied Kolesnikov during the interrogation of lawyer Chizhikov, they were not released from the building of the RF Investigative Committee after the incident: “They tried to interrogate him as a witness about the circumstances of Boris’s death.”
In turn, the official representative of the RF Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, gave a slightly different version of events. "During the interrogation, which was conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation in the presence of his lawyer, the accused, accompanied by two employees of the convoy regiment of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow, went to the toilet. At the same time, in accordance with the instructions, the handcuffs were removed from him. Suddenly running out of the toilet and knocking down a police officer, Kolesnikov jumped out onto the balcony and jumped down from the sixth floor. As a result of his injuries, he died,” Markin said. “It should be noted that Kolesnikov had previously made suicidal attempts twice while in custody.”
["Kommersant", 06/17/2014, "General Kolesnikov could not stand the investigation": According to the defense, after the interrogation, conducted in the presence of lawyer Chizhikov, General Kolesnikov and investigator Novikov went out into the corridor together, accompanied by a convoy. Lawyer Georgy Antonov suggested that they went to smoke on the balcony, since the Investigative Committee has a strict ban on smoking in offices. According to Mr. Antonov, they had previously smoked several times on this balcony, continuing the conversation they had started in the office.
[...] in private, a conversation could arise between them, for example, about suspicions against the general regarding his involvement in drug trafficking. Let us recall that the Investigative Committee ordered an examination of whether prohibited drugs could have been contained in the cavities of the sneakers given to the general by the general’s wife, and if so, in what quantity [...]. If the examination had given a positive result, then the general’s wife, who now has three of their small children, could be under investigation. And for the general, who was very sensitive to his family, this topic was extremely painful. However, the defense and the Investigative Committee were unable to say anything concrete about the chemical examination carried out yesterday. Moreover, the committee claims that investigator Novikov did not carry out investigative actions with Mr. Kolesnikov without his lawyer, and left the office only after the convoy informed him about the general’s suicide. - Insert K.ru]
["RBC daily", 06/17/2014, "Lawyers do not believe in the ICR version of the suicide of Deputy Sugrobov": The lawyer of the deceased, Anna Stavitskaya, citing the words of her colleague Sergei Chizhikov, who was present at the interrogation of Kolesnikov, told RBC that after the interrogation the former policeman He left the office with investigator Novikov, and the investigator returned alone, shouting that Kolesnikov had jumped out of the window. Stavitskaya does not believe in the TFR version: according to her, the location of the toilet and balcony in the TFR building is such that her client could not travel this way without hindrance. “When I saw him, he was scared, depressed, distracted. However, as Chizhikov said, on the day of the interrogation he was in normal condition, nothing said that he was going to commit suicide,” says the lawyer. Stavitskaya is inclined to believe that her now former client could have been told something that “caused his diseased brain to go into overdrive.” - Insert K.ru]
The general’s death occurred at a time when the list of applications filed against him was growing like a “snowball.” As the agency’s source in law enforcement agencies said, recently one of the major capital lawyers told the FSB of the Russian Federation that he allegedly gave Kolesnikov a bribe of $1 million. Also, counterintelligence officers found out that the general, being the deputy head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, was personally responsible for the development of one of the former ministers, now running a state-owned enterprise. The official was suspected of committing a crime under Article 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (commercial bribery). The victim went to meetings with the ex-minister several times and recorded conversations with him using equipment issued by the GUEBiPK. At the moment when the arrest was supposed to take place while receiving the money, Kolesnikov personally told the victim that all the records had been destroyed and there would be no operational experiment. He did not explain the reasons for this.
According to the agency's source, recently the RF Investigative Committee has interrogated many citizens who appear as witnesses in the materials of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation related to arrests during provocations. All these people stated that their signatures were forged; they were not witnesses during these police events.
Secret agents of the GUEBiPK also began to actively cooperate with the investigation, in particular Alexey Klyushkin and several former subordinates of Kolesnikov (including the ex-deputy head of department “B” Alexey Bodnar). "If the former head of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Denis Sugrobova Mostly there is indirect evidence, but Kolesnikov was given direct evidence, and he was facing a long sentence,” noted a source in law enforcement agencies. - This general, who spent a significant part of his time in the most expensive restaurants in Moscow, endured the conditions of his stay in the pre-trial detention center more than anyone else. And every day it became more and more clear that he would not be released very soon. Apparently, that’s why I decided to take my own life.”
“Boris never even mentioned that he might commit suicide, so we don’t believe that he himself committed suicide,” Kolesnikov’s acquaintances, in turn, told Rosbalt. “If, as they now say in the Investigative Committee, he previously made two suicide attempts, he should have been placed in a specialized medical facility. But this did not happen."
Let us recall that as part of the case of provocations against officials and businessmen, 12 employees of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation were taken into custody, including the former head of the department Denis Sugrobov and his deputy Boris Kolesnikov.
General Boris Kolesnikov is one of the most controversial figures in the history of the modern Ministry of Internal Affairs. Tragic fate, sudden accusation of corruption, strange death. There are many ambiguities left in his case; he was a significant personality in our country, participated in solving many corruption cases, and ultimately he himself found himself under investigation and accused of fabricating cases.
Youth
Born on June 27, 1977 into an educated family. His father was a professor at the Department of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, so the boy’s fate was initially decided. General Boris Kolesnikov, whose biography, like any employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is not very public, received from his father all the necessary knowledge in order to become a good defender of law and order.
He began his career as an ordinary police officer together with his future leader Denis Sugrobov, with whom he later solved many crimes side by side.
He began his career in the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Northern District of Moscow, actively fighting crime. Later he was transferred to the Central Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He worked for several years as an ordinary operative, and then received a promotion and became the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Professional activity
After reorganization at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in August 2011, he was transferred to the position of head of the department for combating crimes in the public sector. And exactly a year later he became deputy head of the GUEBiPK, and was now engaged not only in investigating crimes in the public sector, but also in the fight against corruption. General Boris Kolesnikov, whose biography is full of various events, received the police rank of major general in October 2013 at the age of 36.
He participated in solving many high-profile cases: the Oboronservis case, participating in exposing the scam with tomographs, solving the bribery case of the head of Rosreestr, the head physician of the clinic Anatoly Brontvein and in other high-profile cases.
Family
Little is known about the personal life of Boris Kolesnikov. He was married and happily married. General Kolesnikov Boris, whose wife Victoria Kolesnikova, had three minor children in his marriage. The former major general treated his family very kindly, loved his wife and his children.
His wife Victoria did not believe in her husband’s suicide. Immediately after Boris's death, she repeatedly told reporters that her husband was killed.
Accusation
The worthy career of the young major general was cut short in an instant. At the end of autumn 2013, his department began developing a case against the leaders of the FSB. One of those being developed was the head of the FSB employee fund, and the other was the deputy head of the FSB department. After that everything went wrong. General Boris Kolesnikov was summoned to the investigative committee for interrogation, which smoothly turned into arrest. He was accused of abuse of power, bribery and was taken into custody. There is information that Boris Kolesnikov and Denis Sugrobov admitted their guilt and tried to bribe the Investigative Committee.
According to the investigation, Boris Kolesnikov and Denis Sugrobov owned property worth more than 300 million rubles. One of the versions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs employees was even based on the fact that the general and 12 other operatives under his subordination independently fabricated corruption cases, framing officials.
Various unpleasant rumors began to appear in the press regarding the major general, regarding his use of drugs. Whether the case against the young Interior Ministry employee was fabricated or not still remains a mystery. General Boris Kolesnikov, whose family was confident of his absolute innocence, was taken into custody and placed in a pre-trial detention center.
Press about the arrest and death of Boris Kolesnikov
The case of Boris Kolesnikov received wide attention. Various theories were put forward in the press regarding the guilt of the former employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the crimes of which he was accused. There was an opinion that General Boris Kolesnikov ended up in prison because he too actively involved law enforcement officers in the development.
However, this version is nothing more than a theory, undocumented. A huge number of photographs of the general under investigation, in prison, during interrogations, behind bars in a cell appeared in newspapers, magazines, and the Internet.
In March 2014, General Boris Kolesnikov was stripped of his title by Presidential Decree. In April of the same year, he tried to present his version of events to senior officials. A month later he wrote a statement to the ECHR saying that his life was being threatened. During the same period, while in a pre-trial detention center, he began to receive “domestic injuries” one after another. There is information that, while under investigation, he repeatedly attempted to commit suicide.
Death, funeral
Kolesnikov’s life was cut short on June 16, 2014. According to the official version, during the interrogation he asked to go to the toilet, but, going out into the corridor, he knocked down a police officer, ran to the window and jumped off the balcony. He fell to his death after jumping from the 6th floor. General Boris Kolesnikov, whose photo is in the article, committed suicide.
According to Boris Kolesnikov's lawyer, Georgy Antonov, the former major general was prohibited from being buried with honors. There was no escort, no salvo, no military band. He was buried at about 150-200 people gathered at the funeral. But none of the former colleagues came in military uniform.
Versions of death
The death of General Boris Kolesnikov occurred in a pre-trial detention center. However, the exact cause of his death has not been established. According to one version, he was driven to suicide. The father of the deceased told the Kommersant newspaper about this.
There is a theory that as a result of the traumatic brain injuries he received in the pre-trial detention center, his psyche was impaired. On that ill-fated day of interrogation, his blood pressure rose and he was very depressed, which is why he jumped out of the window. The media describe Boris Kolesnikov as a drug addict who smashed his head in a pretrial detention cell and jumped out of the window.
One suggestion is that he suffered a traumatic brain injury in prison and was then thrown out of a window. There is an assumption that his death is connected with a change of power in the “cash” sphere, because it was Kolesnikov and Sugrobov who “oversaw” this sector of the market.
Doubts
Lawyer Anna Stavitskaya spoke about the events that took place on the day of the former general’s death, June 16. According to her, Kolesnikov and investigator Novikov went out onto the balcony together. What happened there is unknown. But the investigator returned alone. He said that the major general jumped out of the window.
And a little later, Vladimir Markin, a representative of the Investigative Committee, voiced another version, according to which the defendant knocked down a policeman, ran to the balcony and jumped off it. But there is a small inconsistency here: how could Boris Kolesnikov know where exactly the balcony is open?
The defendant’s wife, Victoria, has repeatedly said that she was forbidden to see her husband, and she never met him while he was in jail. Victoria could not believe that her husband committed suicide, leaving her alone and three small children. He loved his family too much and would never have done this, she said.
Anton Tsvetkov, chairman of the Public Monitoring Committee, said after the death of the suspect that Boris had repeatedly expressed concerns and was afraid of something while he was in the pre-trial detention center. He even said that he was afraid of someone close to him. Boris Kolesnikov died at the age of 37, leaving behind his wife and children. And a single version of the cause of his death has not yet been established.