On December 25, the Boksitogorsk City Court will consider a claim for reinstatement from the former head of the police department of the city of Pikalevo, Major Denis Kovalev. He is 35 years old, originally from the Boksitogorsk village of Efimovsky. They say that his father also headed the Pikalevo department. In September I made, let’s say, history.
At about eleven in the evening on September 9, traffic police officers noticed a Ford Focus at the entrance to Pikalevo. That evening, employees of a separate special battalion No. 2 from St. Petersburg were working, and the routine “Drunk Driver” event was taking place. The driver did not respond to instructions over the loudspeaker, and a pursuit began. Suddenly the Ford slowed down, the traffic cops caught up with it – the inspector opened the right front door, the Ford driver did the same – both were about to get out. Half a second of eye contact, the driver slammed the door and pressed the gas (there is an opinion, at first I thought it was the local traffic police department). Half a minute later I drove into the garages and then turned onto a forest road. The Toyota Camry of the St. Petersburg traffic police could not get through there.
By that time, the inspectors had already looked at the license plate number in the database – the car was registered to the police. Arriving at the local department, they asked Kovalev through the duty officer. He came out, as they say, in a not very adequate state, but after a couple of sentences he suddenly took to his heels. Together with the inspectors, two members of the Grom special forces were in the raid; after about a hundred meters they caught up. For his energy, Kovalev received handcuffs. Judging by the video from the scene, he asked to give him a “third try” and “light up.”
“Let’s be amicable now. Guys, it’s up to you, let’s come to an agreement. The town is small, and we really hold it. And we hold it well,” Kovalev exhorts in an unsteady voice (how can one not remember “Real Boys”).
The answer is ironic: “What is your last name, comrade future former major?”
The car was found in the yard next to the department, and two reports were drawn up against Kovalev for “failure to stop when required” and “drunkenness.” CSS officers were on site within a few hours. Kovalev himself, after about the same amount of time, inflated 470 ml/l at the medical examination. In his explanations, he said that he did not hear signals to stop, but ran away because two traffic police inspectors and two special forces allegedly behaved inappropriately and shouted at him.
The next day Kovalev was fired. His case was even discussed at the morning meeting of the headquarters with the districts.
But the ex-head of the Pikalevo department challenged the drunk driving report in court and won. The fact is that according to the procedure, a medical examination necessarily involves two studies with a break of 20 minutes. Summoned to court, the doctor suddenly forgot whether it was the second one, and the nurse said that he was going out at that moment to smoke.
The court examined the medical examination report, but did not take it into account. Now, on the basis of successfully fighting off “drunk driving,” the ex-policeman is challenging the legality of his dismissal. If reinstated, he can count on decent compensation from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
47news contacted Denis Kovalev and he replied: “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”