"Waste paper in scrap metal"

The loss of two safes from the federal criminal investigation department may cost its boss his job

A scandal broke out in the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Two huge safes with “secret documents of an operational nature” disappeared from the ministry building on Zhitnaya Street in Moscow. This high-profile emergency became known to the general public the other day, although employees of the criminal investigation department, who, in fact, owned this property, spoke with a smile on their faces about the loss of metal fireproof cabinets with papers that were of no importance. The incident, according to several sources in the department, will only be a reason for the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliev to dismiss from the department the head of this department, Lieutenant General Vladimir Gordienko, with whom he “did not have a good relationship.”

As law enforcement agencies told Vremya Novostei yesterday, the emergency occurred back in July, when repairs were being carried out in the department's premises located in the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Zhitnaya. The workers, among whom were conscript soldiers, carried the safes from the offices into the corridor. Having completed the renovations in the premises, the builders began to do it in the corridor. “Apparently, to keep the safes out of the way, the workers were either asked or they themselves came up with the idea to move the safes into the courtyard,” a high-ranking source in the department told us. - Well, they were told what they did, and that’s what they did. When the repairs were completed, no one told them to return the safes back, and they lay in the yard next to the discarded junk. The housekeeping department employees apparently decided that no one needed the cabinets and allowed them to be removed and disposed of. All the talk that the soldiers themselves noticed something there and took it outside the territory of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is complete nonsense. Try to take anything away from here, especially a safe that weighs several hundred kilograms.” According to the same source, “in the safes there were documents marked “For official use” - staff documents: statistics, reports, etc. in a few years." “These materials may have some interest for internal use, but are absolutely useless to ordinary people,” he noted.

The loss of the safes was discovered a few days later. The incident was reported to the minister, who created a commission to conduct an internal investigation into the disappearance of the cabinets. It was not possible to find the safes at the scrap metal collection point; apparently, they and their contents had already been melted down. According to unconfirmed information, the officers of the criminal investigation department responsible for the safes were fired, and several people received disciplinary sanctions. The acting head of this department, Major General Alexey Pavlov, was removed from his post. The head of the department, Vladimir Gordienko, may also lose his position in the near future. “The lieutenant general has been on a business trip to the North Caucasus for ten months,” said our source in the department. - The commission summoned him and interrogated him. Of course, he cannot be responsible for the actions of his subordinates, whom he has not actually managed for almost a year. But it is he who will answer for the usual Russian sloppiness. This is also connected with the relationship between him and Nurgaliev. Now he has been sent on leave, but most likely upon his return Gordienko will be sent to retire.”

Despite the fact that the information about the “missing safes with waste paper” was confirmed by the majority of department employees, there were also those who suggested that the case of the disappearance of the cabinets had criminal overtones. “There were rumors that safes with important operational information on several important cases were taken away under the guise of trash. But I can’t say for sure whether this is so,” one of the employees of the capital’s criminal investigation department told the newspaper.

Alexey IVLEV