A couple of days ago, The New Yorker published a massive, fascinating, and essential-to-read article about Interior Ministry General Boris Kolesnikov.
*The New Yorker* is a backward magazine and still comes out in English, apparently failing to understand that the emanations of spirituality and sobornost (a Russian concept of spiritual community and togetherness) flowing from Russia cannot be stopped, and that it is high time everyone learned how to conjugate the verb “to kneel in reverence,” so here is a very brief recap in Russian. The original tells it all with great drama and skill.
Kolesnikov was the deputy head of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption. In late 2013, the directorate opened an investigation into senior FSB officials. The plan was to catch them red-handed when a planted intermediary handed over a bribe. One of the middlemen involved in the operation tipped off the FSB about the entire plan, and the agency in turn launched a counter-investigation. During the operation, FSB officers stormed the restaurant where the bribe was being handed over and arrested the Interior Ministry’s undercover operative, and the next day several officers from the anti-corruption directorate were arrested as well, including Kolesnikov. He was initially charged with attempting to provoke a bribe and with abuse of office; later, participation in an organized criminal group was added. In May 2014, Kolesnikov was taken to a hospital with two skull fractures. On June 16, he fell or jumped from the sixth floor of the Investigative Committee building during questioning.
The article not only brings together all the details of this story and gives a thorough account of the anti-corruption investigations Kolesnikov worked on, but also presents new facts about his death. In particular, it describes in detail the monstrous story involving Kolesnikov’s wife.
During the six months Kolesnikov spent in pretrial detention, he was pressured to testify against his longtime friend and partner Denis Sugrobov, who headed the anti-corruption directorate. Kolesnikov’s testimony was important to investigators because he was the only one who dealt with Sugrobov directly. Kolesnikov refused, and the investigator found another way to apply pressure—through his family. He allowed Kolesnikov’s wife to send him shoes in detention. She had already tried twice to send him sneakers, but they never reached him. This time Kolesnikov did receive the shoes, but a few hours later they were taken away. It was later announced that the sneakers might have contained drugs, so they would be sent for forensic testing. In this way, Kolesnikov’s wife was placed under the threat of being charged with drug trafficking. As *The New Yorker* writes, he was forced to choose between his old friend and his wife.
On June 16, 2014, he was taken from Lefortovo prison to the Investigative Committee for questioning. There, his investigator wanted to speak with Kolesnikov alone in the hallway. A few minutes later, the investigator ran back into the office shouting, “He jumped.” Their private conversation was not recorded in the interrogation report.
And let me remind you that no investigation was ever conducted into the alleged suicide (?) of a high-ranking detainee who was under guard. The Investigative Committee said that everyone had acted lawfully.
All of this unquestionably deserves a screen adaptation, and it also reminds us once again what a ruthless, vile, unprincipled mafia has seized power in Russia.