There may be a fierce struggle for the minister’s position behind the scandals in the circle of Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. Will Kolokoltsev survive and how can real (not made-up) problems in the department be addressed?
According to a reporter from The Moscow Post in the Samara region, there was a scandal in the region that could cause trouble for Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev. The previous day, Dmitry Zubov, the son of Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov, was arrested there. He is suspected of giving a bribe. Along with him, the president of the mini-football club “Dinamo Samara” Igor Karpov and the former director of the transshipment oil depot LLC “MO NTP” Vasily Ermakov were apprehended by law enforcement officers.
The details of the case are not revealed, but the mere fact of the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' son being detained on corruption charges had a huge impact.
Igor Zubov is not just a powerful official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and a close associate of Vladimir Kolokoltsev. There were persistent rumors that Zubov Sr. had been in the running to possibly succeed the current minister for a long time. The detention of his son (even if the latter’s guilt is not proven) could put an end to his potential ministerial ambitions.
Various theories immediately emerged: from simple theft to a setup. Some even allege that Kolokoltsov himself could have orchestrated a possible setup to curb the ambitions of his deputy (and those who support him).
“Anti-corruption crusader”
Igor Zubov, who is responsible for all the regulatory and legal work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, has spent many years cultivating the image of a principled fighter against corruption. Deputy Alexander Khintshein was among the first to report on the criminal case of his son, which surprised many, as part of the fight against corruption, he regularly interacted with Igor Zubov and knew him well.
Deputy Minister Zubov has held this position since 2001. However, according to rumors, his young son Denis was involved in The Monumental Property in the British Virgin Islands.
This information can still be easily found on specialized sites. If true, then back in June 2004, Zubov Jr. sold his share in this offshore business to Igor Khudokormov, the owner of the Prodimex group, a major sugar producer and landowner in Russia.
This information became known through a series of leaks of offshore documents, including the notorious “Panama Papers”. Yet, Russian law enforcement agencies showed no interest in the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the offshore business his son was linked to.
Regarding Khudokormov, there were even suggestions that he might be a mere financial backer of the Deputy Minister of the Interior. It's needless to explain the kind of profit such a partner can bring to a business that lacks influential supporters in the police leadership.
No one has revealed the details of Zubov Jr.'s case yet. However, both the people arrested with him are notable individuals and likely have a lot of information about the Zubovs and the local police leadership in Samara.
Igor Karpov, the president of Dynamo Samara mini-football club, was charged with illegal business activities in 2016. This involved producing and selling crude oil in the Kommunarsky license area without the required license for oil and gas production.
He only received a small fine of 350 thousand rubles, which seems insignificant compared to the potential earnings from such activities.
The second person detained with Dmitry Zubov, former director of the oil depot Vasily Yermakov, was previously involved in a criminal scandal. It's believed that he was one of the people who offered bribes in a case involving former high-ranking Samara security official Sergei Gudovanny.
Ermakov may have been one of the people who paid Gudovanny to protect his business. The total amount of bribes received in the case was reportedly around 120 million rubles, as reported by the online publication 63.ru.
It's highly likely that Zubov Jr.'s current case is also related to the oil business. Rumors suggest that he may have had connections to the Moscow-based oil companies OS-NAFTA-V CJSC and Sistema-Neft OJSC, both of which have since been dissolved.
Are they investigating Kolokoltsev?
The scandal involving the Zubovs adds to others connected to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, giving the impression of a concerted attack on Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev's inner circle. Recently, another one of his close associates made headlines, specifically the head of the Moscow Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, General Oleg Baranov.
In the early part of the year, a man, a huntsman, was shot during a hunting excursion involving Baranov in the Tver region. Thankfully, the man survived. However, it's still unclear who fired the shot and the circumstances surrounding the incident. A criminal case was swiftly opened, but there is no information about the outcome of the investigations.
It's evident that there is no evidence to suggest that General Baranov himself fired the shot, if anyone had suspected him of doing so.
According to some sources, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin may be interested in the situation, especially as he allegedly objected to Baranov's appointment as head of the Moscow police. It's possible that he sought the approval of God Nisanov, the owner of the Kievskaya Ploshchad company, who is thought to have long been associated with the mayor. However, Kolokoltsev reportedly managed to secure Baranov's appointment despite this opposition.
Efforts to investigate Baranov (or Kolokoltsev through Baranov) began in 2019. At that time, law enforcement officers started looking into a theft at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. PASMI reported on this, and they are considered foreign agents in Russia.
Supposedly, the investigators were interested in the large amounts of money spent by the city police on creating video conferencing systems and meeting facilities for the head office and district divisions.
Oleg Baranov escaped the hunting scandal without any negative consequences.
Just before this, Alexander Melnikov, the crime prevention supervisor, was accused of fraud, as reported by RBC. There were rumors that they wanted to get incriminating information on Vladimir Kolokoltsev from him.
Subordinates caused issues.
All these scandals have damaged the minister’s reputation. It seems that this is the main issue. Other high-ranking subordinates of Kolokoltsev are also facing problems on a regular basis. For instance, it was recently revealed that a criminal case has been initiated against the former head of the traffic police in the Primorsky Territory, Oleg Zubakin. This was reported by “Lenta.ru”.
According to investigators, he, along with several others, organized an illegal scheme of issuing driver’s licenses for money. This is just one of many such cases happening across the country.
Even ordinary police officers are adding to the pressure on Kolokoltsev. For example, there was a shocking incident in St. Petersburg where a traffic police inspector broke the arm of an operative from the criminal investigation department a couple of weeks ago. All three individuals involved were dismissed, but the scandal continues.
People have already started to forget the terrible incident involving the death of a male suspect at the Dalniy Department of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan in 2012. Meanwhile, incidents of violence in police stations persist.
In Bashkiria, the story of the rape of a young female interrogator in 2018 remains ongoing. As a result, the attackers Eduard Matveev and Lieutenant Colonel Salavat Galiyev were sentenced to seven years in prison. Another law enforcement officer, Pavel Yaromchuk, who was also involved, received 5.5 years in prison due to his wife’s pregnancy, as reported by Mkset.
In another shocking incident in Kaliningrad, former police officers were sentenced in January for the death of a detainee in the police department. The man was scalded to death in boiling water when the pipes burst in the cell. The officers on duty nearby did not respond to his pleas for help. Consequently, the officers were found guilty of negligence and sentenced to imprisonment, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have to pay 2 million rubles in compensation to the victim’s relatives. The Sekret Firmy magazine reported on this.
Are they attempting to tarnish Vladimir Kolokoltsev's reputation through his subordinates and drive him out of his position?
There are many more such monstrous cases. Of course, ordinary employees are far from always to blame. The facts are that most of them receive a penny, constantly suffer bullying from their superiors, and in the end are content with the role of “scapegoats”. At the same time, hundreds of millions of rubles are invested in the psychological training of employees. However, the efficiency of these expenditures tends to zero.
And this is another field for a blow to Vladimir Kolokoltsev. Just look, soon he himself may become a defendant in a corruption scandal and will need the help of a departmental psychologist.
