The Moscow Police Trade Union reported that the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the ZAO, who was fired because of the Golunov case, decided to retire; this was later denied

Police Major General Andrei Puchkov, who was fired from his post as head of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Western Administrative District of Moscow because of the criminal case against journalist Ivan Golunov, wrote a letter of resignation, told Znak.com the Moscow police union . Later, the head of the trade union, Mikhail Pashkin , told RBC that Puchkov did not submit such an application.

“He didn’t write [his resignation letter], I talked to him,” he said.

Earlier, the union said that Puchkov’s former colleagues wanted to record a video message in his support and transfer the recording to the “Direct Line” from President Vladimir Putin, but the former boss “convinced his subordinates not to do this.”

on Puchkov’s decision to retire reported RIA Novosti and the head of the expert council on security and relations between citizens and law enforcement agencies, Anton Tsvetkov, . “I talked with General Puchkov, he really decided to retire. “He thanked all the staff for working together,” he said.

On June 13, Putin, at the request of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, dismissed Puchkov. Along with him, the head of the drug control department, Police Major General Yuri Devyatkin, was fired. Kolokoltsev petitioned for the resignation of the generals after the Ministry of Internal Affairs dropped the criminal case against Ivan Golunov due to the fact that it did not find evidence of his involvement in the attempted sale of drugs.

It was the employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the ZAO who detained the journalist and initiated a criminal case against him. The head of the drug trafficking control unit of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Closed Joint-Stock Company, Colonel Andrei Shchirov, assured that there were “no inconsistencies” in the Meduza special correspondent’s case. However, experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not find traces of drugs in control swabs from the palms and nail plates of the journalist. There were also no fingerprints of Golunov on the items seized during the search.

Updated at 4:10 p.m. Information from RIA Novosti and RBC has been added, and the title has been changed.