The head of the department for technical and financial support of operational search activities (directorate “T”) Sergei Burkov and his subordinate, head of the 28th department of the department Stepan Uvarov, who was responsible for procurement and contracts, were detained one day apart at the end of March 2019 on charges of receiving a particularly large bribe from businessman Vladimir Shcherbakov, who supplied computer equipment to the particularly secret search bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Money was transferred to secure contracts. Shcherbakov was placed under house arrest on charges of bribery.
The arrest orders refer to 7 million rubles; the Kommersant newspaper wrote that the total amount is 12 million rubles. The materials also present the position of the defense, asserting that “the accusation is based solely on the testimony of Shcherbakov, who is interested in slandering Burkov and Uvarov,” they were caught red-handed and the money was not confiscated from them.
Six months after the arrest of the two colonels, the investigator of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Moscow Investigative Committee Ibragimov added to them another episode of abuse of power with grave consequences. Another MIA officer, Alexander Bogatyrev, who had previously been a witness in the case, was taken into custody for this episode.
The case is classified “top secret” and was heard behind closed doors. All defendants, depending on their role, were found guilty of two counts of bribery (Part 6 of Art. 290), two episodes of abuse of power in the execution of a state defense order (clause “b” of Part 2 of Art. 285.4) and four episodes of abuse of power, resulting in grave consequences (Part 3 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Burkov received 7 years in a strict penal colony, Uvarov – 6, and Bagatyrev got off with a suspended sentence of 5 years.
The Moscow City Court tried the entrepreneur Shcherbakov separately for giving a bribe; last summer, he received a special sentence of 2 years in a general colony, remained in the capital’s pre-trial detention center No. 1, and was released on parole in the fall.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”