Hit and run

A criminal case for the use of violence dangerous to life and health against a government official has been opened against Vadim Korovin, an activist of the Federation of Car Owners of Russia. This story began that on the evening of May 24, Korovin, who had recently been quite actively fighting against violations of the law by government officials in the field of traffic rules (in particular, violations by the Prosecutor General’s Office, which grabbed a lane for themselves on Bolshaya Dmitrovka), did not allow a car to pass with flashing light, which was driving towards him along Rublevo-Uspenskoye Highway. The car was driving in the oncoming lane and did not have a special coloring that would allow it to do so. As Korovin said on the Dozhd TV channel, at first he still had to let a traffic police car drive in the opposite direction, “which was an escort.” But when a “large German jeep” appeared in front of Korovin, which “didn’t want to go anywhere,” the FAR activist “moved to the right as much as he could,” but “could not go further to the side of the road, because it threatened the safety of me and other road users.” .

Then a traffic police officer got out of the traffic police car and, as Korovin said, began making some strange movements, apparently trying to ensure passage for a car with special license plates. When Korovin drove a little forward, the traffic police officer pretended that he had run into him. Later it turned out that Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Viktor Kiryanov was driving in a car with special license plates (according to activists, he had previously been seen driving in oncoming traffic and thus created an accident on Novy Arbat, after which he immediately drove off).

Korovin recorded what was happening on his mobile phone. In addition, his car had a video recorder. However, the activist was taken to the Barvikha police station, his phone was taken away, after which employees of the Investigative Committee arrived at the police station and seized his video recorder. First of all, Korovin was charged with an administrative offense for failure to pay a certain fine and was left in the police department for two days. There have been reports that Korovin has 22 unpaid fines, although he claims that there is only one unpaid fine and the order that he must pay it was only issued on May 23, so on May 24 they did not have the right to detain him for this . As Korovin reported, the police department explained to him that he “offended a very serious person.”

On May 25, Korovin was taken to court, which granted his request to consider the case of evading a fine at his place of residence, in Tambov. However, immediately after the trial, the activist was taken for questioning to the Investigative Committee. The Investigative Committee began an investigation “into the fact of a collision with a traffic police officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.” The traffic police officer allegedly had bruises on his lower leg - Korovin claims that he did not commit any collision, and when he tried to deal with the officer on the spot, he hid his leg from him.

The interrogation at the Investigative Committee continued until the evening of May 25, and Korovin was not charged. Then, when he was already leaving the building of the Investigative Committee, police officers who did not introduce themselves tried to detain the activist under some other administrative offense, but they failed. And on May 27, it became known that a case of using violence against a government official (many participants in the alleged mass riots on Bolotnaya Square are accused under the same article) had been opened.

In a statement, the Investigative Committee says that Korovin, “in violation of traffic rules, did not give way to an Audi A6 car of employees of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Central Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, which had special color graphic schemes on the outer surface, moving in the oncoming lane with flashing lights turned on, as well as a special sound signal and performing an urgent official task of accompanying a person to be protected in the convoy.” In addition, it is alleged that Korovin fled the scene of the crime - Korovin claims that he was first released and then detained again.