The power structures of Kazan are agitated by the news of a scandal in one of the key and most prestigious police departments: Vyacheslav Kochetov, head of the Vishnevsky police station, who headed the department in 2021, was handcuffed. According to BUSINESS Online sources, the hunt for a high-ranking policeman was carried out by operatives of the internal security service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Tatarstan. According to their materials, the TFR initiated a case against Kochetov about a bribe from a migrant who was supposed to be deported from the country. So being the head of the police department in Kazan is now not only responsible, but also unsafe – lately they receive terms and problems with the law no less often than promotions.
Picked up from work
The working day of the head of police department No. 2 “Vishnevsky” Vyacheslav Kochetov ended on Thursday not at home, but in a temporary detention center. In the evening, he was detained right at his workplace by operatives of the internal security department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Tatarstan. They took him away calmly: the officer himself opened the door for the operatives, got himself ready and left the building, accompanied by “guards”.
From there he was taken to the official department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Tatarstan on the street. Naki Isanbeta. They also interrogated him there as a suspect in mediation in receiving a bribe (Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
What exactly is Kochetov suspected of? According to the Investigative Committee, in March he was approached to “solve” the issue of one of the migrants from Uzbekistan, who was caught with fake rights. Bringing to criminal responsibility for him would mean automatic deportation. Kochetov was asked to resolve this issue with the employees of the Moskovsky OP. The Sledkom and the CSS of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are sure: Kochetov agreed and asked for 50 thousand rubles for this.
Kochetov’s position is not officially known, but, according to our sources, during interrogation he admitted his guilt only partially. Namely, he categorically disagreed with the fact that he took money for his actions. The CSS operatives have other arguments: as evidence, they provided a printout of bank transfers to the accounts of the OP employee.
The term of the lieutenant colonel’s detention, which is 48 hours, ends tomorrow. It is expected that on Saturday the TFR will decide on the preventive measure that it will ask for the head of the police department. The press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Tatarstan has not yet commented on the incident.
What Kochetov is known for and how the heads of Kazan departments are being “pressed”
Lieutenant Colonel Kochetov took up the position of head of the Vishnevsky police department in early summer 2021. Prior to that, he headed the Yudino police department, which is based in Salavat Cooper, and even earlier, before being transferred to Kazan in 2018, the policeman headed the Tsentralny police station in Naberezhnye Chelny. True, only a year, after which the former head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the motor city, Alexei Sokolov, took him to the capital.
“Vyacheslav Mikhailovich is a strong leader who is ready for Kazan volumes and Yudin’s workload. All conditions for work have been created here,” Kochetov was represented in Kazan by Deputy Minister and Chief of the Republican Police Sokolov.
Before Kochetov, the Vishnevsky police department was headed by Bafadin Sovgatov, who is considered one of the most authoritative representatives of the local Azerbaijani diaspora, for many years. Among the rest, including colleagues, Sovgatov often enjoyed an ambiguous reputation – you can find several open complaints about the former head of the department on the net. Interlocutors in uniform remember him as a leader who left an ambiguous opinion of his subordinates about himself. There was also one tragic incident during Sovgatov’s work, however, already with his former subordinate: Aslanbek Tkhostov, the ex-deputy head of the Vishnevsky OP, committed suicide.
Another head of the Vishnevsky OP (with the prefix “ex”) Rifat Sadykov was sentenced in October 2019 to a suspended sentence. He was detained in June 2017 on a bribe from one of the suspects who tried to pay off the police. Rustem Garipov, the first deputy head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Kazan Internal Affairs Directorate, was also involved in the case with him at that time. He was subsequently acquitted.
The case with Kochetov involuntarily draws attention to the general trend: being the head of the OP is at least alarming, for them the “unfortunate” time has come. Recently, the head of Zarechensky, Taras Doroshkevich, was again in an unpleasant story, from whom the prosecutor’s office demands to seize property for 25 million rubles, for which he could not account. And just the other day, Alexei Yershov, the former head of the Safiullina subdivision, was sentenced for protection of parking lots and bribes, who was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison.