"The whole world is shocked"

The leadership of the Federal Drug Control Service accused prosecutorial investigators of violations

The interdepartmental war between the Federal Service for Drug Control (FSKN), on the one hand, and the FSB and the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office, on the other, which broke out after the arrest of a group of drug police officers led by Lieutenant General Alexander Bulbov , continues to gain momentum. Yesterday, Deputy Director of the Federal Drug Control Service Vladimir Zubrin gave an interview to news agencies in which he accused the Investigative Committee of numerous procedural violations in relation to his detained colleagues.

Speaking publicly about violations against arrested colleagues, that is, developing the theme of the “war of the special services,” Mr. Zubrin continued the line of his boss, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Cherkesov. At first, immediately after the arrest of General Bulbov and his subordinates, the intelligence services spoke about this “war” only unofficially. The drug police themselves believed that the FSB was thus taking revenge on the Federal Drug Control Service for the dismissal of a number of its high-ranking officials a year and a half ago. It was believed that they lost their posts because of materials obtained by drug police during the investigation of scandalous cases of smuggling of furniture and Chinese consumer goods, in which counterintelligence officers were involved. However, earlier this week, Mr. Cherkesov published an extensive article in the media, in which, in fact, he openly stated that his subordinates were victims of a “war of the special services.” Along the way, he made claims of dishonesty and lack of independence against other departments. In response, the Investigative Committee issued a statement, promising to continue the uncompromising fight against corruption, “regardless of positions and departments.”

Yesterday Mr. Zubrin continued this topic. “The whole world is shocked that a general from a special service was taken into custody based on materials from another special service. No one understands this,” said the deputy head of the Federal Drug Control Service. He also confirmed that recently Bulbov had indeed taken part in the investigation of the criminal case of “Three Whales” and the smuggling of Chinese products, clearly refuting reports that appeared in the media that the arrested policemen had nothing to do with these cases. Further, Mr. Zubrin spoke about how the rights of his detained colleagues are being violated: “I do not know any operational materials and I do not know what is in them, but I want to draw attention to the fact that I, as a former deputy prosecutor general (Mr. Zubrin held this post in 2000-2004. - Ed. ) the numerous procedural violations in this case are unclear. As far as I know, a case has not been opened against our employee; it is attached to some other case against police officers. Based on what the lawyers say, they are practically not allowed to see their clients. On what basis? It’s generally strange when a lieutenant general of the special services is arrested. He is the bearer of special state secrets. You can’t arrest, deal with it freely, judge the culprit.”

However, this speech is unlikely to have any impact on the fate of those arrested (FSKN employees are being investigated for illegal wiretapping of telephones). Everything that Mr. Zubrin said is the widespread practice of investigating criminal cases, which, by the way, is used by the drug police themselves. And so far none of the investigators, prosecutors and judges have had any troubles because of this.

Victor PAUKOV