In the FSB in the Saratov region, another rotation of personnel took place. The regional administration was entrusted to Colonel Sergei Uymanov from Voronezh, who previously held the position of the first deputy head of the FSB in the Sverdlovsk region.
Oleg Belomozhnov, who has headed the department since 2019, may become the head of the FSB department for the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Oleg Belomozhnov left his post in Saratov at the end of 2022, the decree on the appointment of a new leader was signed by the President of the Russian Federation just before the New Year holidays, on December 31. But the official appointment of Sergei Uymanov and his presentation to the management team has just taken place, the press service of the FSB reported on him on January 9th.
Oleg Belomozhnov came to the Saratov region from Magadan. The ex-head of the Saratov FSB was born in Orenburg, has two higher educations and work experience in state security agencies since 1991. Prior to Magadan, he headed the FSB in the Republic of Tyva.
During his tenure in Saratov, the Chekists had to deal with many high-profile cases, starting with the accusation of embezzlement and exceeding the powers of the SSTU Igor Plehve, who was removed from his post in 2018 at the request of the FSB.
But the loudly started criminal case on bribes during the renovation of the Saratov Opera and Ballet Theater, which came in 2020, eventually came to a halt. The scandal ended with a fine of 20 million rubles for the legal entity, the Moscow restoration company Adept Stroy LLC, and 3 million for the briber himself.
In 2021, the Saratov FSB, together with the Commander-in-Chief, was developing Andrei Prigarov, the ex-prosecutor of the Kirovsky district, who was detained on New Year’s Eve on charges of taking bribes from a funeral service.
The final chord in the work of Oleg Belomozhnov was the case of bribes, which caught the Saratov tax authorities. Its details were not brought to the general public, it is only known that two employees of inter-district inspections traded in personal data of taxpayers and managed to get 1 million rubles for this before they were detained.
The last case, most likely, is destined to become the legacy of the new head of the FSB. Andrey Larin, the head of the Argument legal bureau, explained that for Sergei Uimanov, the appointment to Saratov means an increase in rank.
– The head of the FSB is a general’s position. He came as a colonel and will receive general’s shoulder straps, this is career growth, – he noted.
Also, the ranks of the Saratov administration are waiting for the arrival of a new team, as a rule, all the heads of law enforcement agencies do not come to the post alone.
– The manager deals with personnel issues in terms of dragging his team, – the expert notes, – This is an unspoken, but general rule. Most likely, we should wait for his command. Everyone who comes brings his team with him, this is the norm.
Sergey Uimanov was appointed to Yekaterinburg in 2020, after his predecessor Anatoly Pilipenko, the first deputy head of the Sverdlovsk FSB, General Alexei Zinoviev, retired. The transfer from Voronezh to the Urals was also a step up the career ladder for Uimanov, in the Voronezh region he was just a deputy head of the department, and in Yekaterinburg he rose to the post of first deputy. Sergei Uymanov’s main concern in Voronezh was counter-terrorism measures, in particular, ensuring the security of the Novovoronezh NPP.