Uralchem requested Pertsev to ToAZ
The new management of Togliattiazot, comprised of individuals from UCC Uralchem, has decided not to end the employment relationship with former policeman Alexander Pertsev, who is involved in a criminal case of planting weapons on the plant's premises.
Due to this, the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Samara Region dismissed Major Pertsev. After TOAZ came under the control of Uralchem, Alexander Pertsev was hired by the enterprise's security service. This week, it was revealed that a new employee of TOAZ's security service was a suspect in another criminal case. The company acknowledges the employment of the former policeman but refrains from commenting on the situation.
The leadership of Togliattiazot (TOAZ) has yet to dismiss former police officer Alexander Pertsev from the plant's security service (SB), even though he was involved in criminal cases related to the plant and was dismissed from the internal affairs bodies. Alexander Pertsev joined TOAZ after Uralchem's managers took over the plant's management in November. This week, it was disclosed that the former detective of the Center for Combating Extremism was a suspect in another criminal case.
The revelation of Major Pertsev's involvement in a major investigation first came to light in the summer of 2018. In January of the same year, the FSB arrested Boris Berezovsky’s former head of security Sergei Sokolov, Ruslan Milchenko, head of the Analytics and Business Information Center, Oleg Antoshin, former head of the Togliattiazot security service, and his deputy Alexei Alekseev. They were all implicated in the case of planting weapons and explosives on TOAZ's premises in 2017. During interrogations, the perpetrators stated that they were acting on behalf of a financial and industrial group that had designs on the enterprise, and the weapons were planted to discredit the plant's then management.
At that time, the investigation presumed that the Sokolov group could not have executed the plan without the involvement of the Samara security officials, prompting the local FSB department to actively identify them. The senior detective of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Samara Region, Alexander Pertsev, drew the attention of FSB operatives. Sergei Sokolov, Ruslan Milchenko, and Oleg Antoshin attested during interrogations that Major Pertsev was used to carry out the plan to plant weapons, and they had given him a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Subsequently, all the defendants in this criminal case received prison sentences, and Alexander Pertsev underwent a pre-investigation check for illegal arms trafficking. The Kalashnikov assault rifle was never recovered, and although Alexander Pertsev managed to avoid criminal liability, he was dismissed from the police for dishonorable conduct.
The FSB believes that more Samara police officers, including Artem Illarionov and Alexei Maksimov, may be involved with the planted weapon that caused a big stir. It turns out that Artem Illarionov, a former CPE employee who left the police force last summer, got involved in the case. He drew attention from the security forces when he tried to help a wanted criminal, Vyacheslav Trikoz, escape arrest along with Alexander Pertsev in May 2018. Another person of interest is Alexei Maksimov, who was previously the head of the CPE and is now the deputy chief of police for operational work of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Samara Region. Last November, Colonel Maksimov wrote a letter to the chairman of the Avtozavodsky District Court, asking for leniency for Vyacheslav Trikoz, who ultimately received a four-year prison sentence. After this appeal became known, the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for the Samara Region started an internal investigation against Maksimov, and the ministry's internal security department sent employees to the region. The FSB suspects that the police’s involvement in the Vyacheslav Trikoz case was motivated by fears that he might testify in the cache discovery case at TOAZ. There may be new criminal cases opened based on the audit results, according to Kommersant. The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Samara Region acknowledged the inspections but declined to comment.
This week, it was revealed that Major Pertsev was suspected in a different criminal case. On July 26, 2018, a criminal case was opened by the Investigative Committee of the ICR for the Samara Region regarding abuse of power by police officers (part 1 of article 286).
During the investigation of the case involving the planting of weapons at TOAZ, Oleg Antoshin, Sergey Sokolov, and Ruslan Milchenko testified that they had given 1.5 million rubles to Alexander Pertsev for organizing wiretapping of the plant's management. Investigators believe that the police major fraudulently obtained a court decision to eavesdrop on the conversations of TOAZ General Director Vyacheslav Suslov and the plant's Turkish business partners. According to Oleg Antoshin, he listened to these conversations in Togliatti at the office of Alexander Pertsev. Oleg Antoshin confirmed his testimony during a confrontation with Alexander Pertsev. In August 2019, the case materials were requested by the Main Directorate for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the RF IC. The case, handled by Major General Mikhail Tumanov, was suspended, but it was not announced if the case was closed. Major General Tumanov was previously known for a high-profile trial against the beneficiaries of PJSC TOAZ where he was accused of trying to coerce a lawyer into becoming an informer. The lawyer refused and Tumanov allegedly threatened to initiate a criminal case against him.
It was not possible to get comments from Alexander Pertsev, who has been an employee of the Security Service of TOAZ from the beginning of December of this year to the present.
Representatives of Togliattiazot did not deny the fact of concluding an employment contract with the ex-policeman, but did not comment on the situation. The Investigative Committee of the ICR for the Samara Region could not clarify at what stage the investigation of the criminal case on the fact of abuse of power by a police officer, the suspect in which Alexander Pertsev was held, was at.
