Urban type detective

The district police officer from the Ural village wanted to work honestly and bring police officers to justice. Now he is accused of beatings

In the winter of 2022, in the urban -type village, in the Sverdlovsk region, employees of the cemetery, digging the grave, stumbled upon unidentified bodies in plastic bags. For more than a year, police were silent for this find, until in 2023 the former district police officer Yuri Zolotko spoke about what had happened. He says that he wanted to work as a district police officer honestly and by law-and because of this he quarreled with the authorities, which he now accuses of trying to hide the corpses. "Cold" tells the story of a man who was going to become a good policeman, but became a defendant in several criminal cases.

In order not to miss the main materials of the "cold", subscribe to our Instagram and telegram .

On the morning of January 12, 2024, 22-year-old Christina Zolotko saw the window as three men in masks with machine guns headed towards her house. Kristina lived with a newborn child and husband Yuri Zolotko, who used to work as a district police officer, in the village of Shalya, one and a half hundred kilometers from Yekaterinburg - but on that day they went to the father -in -law and mother -in -law to the neighboring village of Kolpakovka. It was there that armed people appeared.

“I only said what was happening, and turned on the camera to write that they were doing, how one of the men was already running with an automaton,” Christina recalls in a conversation with the “cold”. - I took the child in my arms, I wanted to go to my husband in the corridor - they did not let me go. I say: “Who are you? Where are you taking it? Let's take a certificate.” They are just silent. "

Men put the 34-year-old Yuri Zolotko in the car without identification marks and took away. For which he could be detained, relatives did not understand: the district police officer did not commit crimes, did not "climb into politics." The only thing that was sharply distinguished from his colleagues was that recently local media wrote a lot about Zolotko: when they found orphaned corpses thrown into one of the graves in the village cemetery, he publicly accused police shally in this situation.

Tole is abnormal

In 2021, the chiefs invited Yuri Zolotko to the corporate party. The heads of police department of the Shalinsky district gathered in a cafe stylized under the ship. The district police officers were usually not called for such events, but formally Zolotko could be present at the party, because he temporarily acted as the head of the district police officers in Shali. In fact, as Zolotko says, they called him there to agree.

According to Zolotko, the point was that before that he, together with his colleague, sent a complaint about difficult working conditions to the Sverdlovsk Glavk. “We worked with a partner: a day - I, a day - he,” says Zolotko. “And the next day we worked again from morning to evening, then you could sleep, then again for a day.”

The daily shifts of the district police officer had to work out, because they were included in the investigative-operational group that goes to crimes: according to Zolotko, at night they went to the calls, while the operatives calmly slept at home, and then received money for the worked shifts. Since most district police officers were women with children, they were mainly staged on duty with a darker with a partner (he refused to talk with the “cold”) - and in the end they could not stand it, because “tole is abnormal”.

Sverdlovsk Glavk reacted to the complaint: the district police officer changed the schedule and improved the conditions of service. The local chiefs, according to Zolotko, did not like this: at first he was offered to quit, and when he refused, they deducted five thousand rubles from the salary in the framework of some “disciplinary sanctions”. The district police officer felt that they “ hid the anger” on him and were waiting for how to deal with him, but continued to work. “It seems that investigators and opera sincerely hate the service of the district police officers,” he says. - They think that we are picking in the nose, we sit in responding to the rejection ( applicants whose statements the police refused to register. - approx. “Cold” ) and fill out pieces of paper. But in fact, the district police officers have many responsibilities. If you do everything honestly, then it is very difficult. ”

At the party in the cafe, the authorities, according to Zolotko, offered him the following scheme: let the district police officers work as before, but he will be approved as a boss - no longer a temporarily acting, but permanent. “They told me:“ Only you competently draw up complaints, and the bulk will not write them. [If you are on our side,] They will do, as you say, they are afraid, ”recalls Zolotko.

Zolotko took a pause and spoke about the proposal of a partner. “And he says:“ Yura, well, have you really fought with this mess and do the same? ” - continues the district police officer. “And I couldn’t, I would be ashamed.” After that, according to him, he began real problems.

Why work as a district police officer

When Zolotko was settled for work by the district police officer, he could not even think that something was wrong with this position. “None of my relatives worked in the police, I did not know that there was such an environment, that there is a difference,” he says. - By rank, they are equivalent to opera and investigators, but inside the system it looks different. The district police officer is like the lowest link, and they are always worse. ”

Zolotko, who was born in Kolpakovka, went to the police from his uncle-military-in childhood he stared at him and imagined that he himself would be formed. However, it did not work out immediately: the father, an employee of the timber industry industry, wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, so Zolotko unlearned in the forestry college at the car repairman, and after the army and institute began to work in Yekaterinburg.

In the capital of the region, Zolotko did not like: noise, dirt, expensive. When in 2016 a friend invited him to get a police in a chalet, he agreed. He immediately liked the work of the district police officer. “The day is always built differently. Today I can simply go around my administrative site, communicate with people, ”he explains. - Tomorrow - go to crimes. One day, go to the murder, on the other - to theft, in the fourth - to remove the illegal weapon. And every time everything is different. ”

The five -thousandth village of Shalya - translated from the Mansi, the name is translated as “dark, muddy” - is mentioned in the local saying: “There are three holes in the Urals: Challenge, Gary, Tabers”; It is understood that all these settlements are the devil know where. Since the 17th century, fugitive Old Believers settled here, later near the shawl, the plants of the Demidov and Stroganov industrialists arose. They began to build the village in 1903 for laying the railway - a section of the Trans -Siberian Railway. Today, Chalia is not too different from any Russian village of urban type: in the local DC they hold a concert “Time chose us” in honor of the 35th anniversary of the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, on the square there is a sign “I am“ 3 Shalya ”, the editorial office of the local newspaper is located in the same house with the police department.

There are few people in the chalet - and the district police officers meet their wards not only at work, but also on the porch of their own house, and they learn about the offenses from friends. Having moved to the village with his young wife, Zolotko immediately actively took up work. The activist of the Organized Urals organization Maxim Schuzakov recalls that they and Zolotko participated in raids together to identify illegal alcohol merchants, but when Zolotko made a protocol for one offender, the case did not go further: “The judges did not attract them, because the entrepreneur and the judge are in good close relations.”

“There are people who go there to work so that there is a crust and because they have their own selfish goals. And there are people who go there to work there in order to protect the homeland and catch criminals, ”says Skidakov, explaining how Golden is different from other police officers with whom he dealt. - Let’s be honest that for a kid in 28–29 years 40 thousand rubles a salary? This is a penny. He has a good education, you can move to Pervouralsk, here we have a simple hard worker at the factory receives 80-100 thousand rubles. Why work [precinct]? But this is really him. "

Three bodies in packages

In early February 2022, workers of the ritual company "Sorrow" dig a new grave for the 91-year-old Matryna Azovtseva in the cemetery-and suddenly the shovel stumbled upon something solid. It was a skull - and after him in the pit three bodies were found in plastic bags. According to Oleg, one of the employees of the cemetery who dug the grave, the smell of rot emanated from the bodies, they decomposed only partially. “Honestly, the first time I have how many we dug the graves,” Oleg adds. (He asked not to indicate his surname; Natalya Terletskaya, the head of the company "Sorrow", which provides work in the cemetery, told the "cold" that she "has no desire to talk on this topic.") A source familiar with the situation, told the cold that the bodies lay in the ground for about six months.

As expected in such cases, the workers called the police. According to Zolotko, the cemetery belonged to the site subordinate to him, he was at work, but no one told him anything. Instead, the police colonel Yuri Dvinsky and another district police officer went to the place. “The police officer ordered us to deepen the hole, bury these corpses deeper in order to bury the deceased after that, without telling the relatives of the latter. What we did, ” said Oleg. “No one took these corpses anywhere and did not take away anywhere, it seemed strange to me.” Later, Dvinsky will confirm that he really went to the cemetery, but does not comment on the detection of corpses. (They did not answer the questions of the “cold” in the Ministry of Internal Affairs; the district police officer, which went to the cemetery, also ignored the correspondent messages.)

Having fulfilled the police order, the funerals remained at a loss: “Well, this crime, damn it, honestly,” says Oleg in a conversation with the “cold”. They told friends about this story, and soon the information about her reached Zolotko, who, according to him, immediately turned to the authorities. “Perhaps these are criminal corpses, firstly,” he explains. “And secondly, people were buried as dogs, this is prohibited by the law on burial, and simply not humanly.”

Whose bodies lay in someone else's grave remained a mystery.

Broke

Late in the evening of September 2, 2022, returning home, Zolotko saw a drunken company at the entrance of his high -rise building. With one of the men, Alexander Nepodnikov, Zolotko was well familiar: in the past, the non -released was on his preventive accounting, and once complained to the district police officer, that he lacks 200 thousand rubles to buy an apartment in the same house where the Zolotko family lived. Zolotko called his neighbor, who sold the apartment, and convinced her to reduce the price. “I helped him purely humanly,” says Zolotko. - And then he began to live here, and I realized that in vain. He drank, although I forbade him to do this in a public place. Then he broke the instrument shield with a drunk. ”

To deal with their neighbors, Zolotko was generally regularly. “The apartments in this house were given to the poor who lived in the huts,” he explains. - There are good people, but there are a lot of previously convicted, prone to criminal and unlawful actions. Previously, there was completely a mess, crowds gathered, drank, smoked, yelling, including music - I had to constantly stop these unlawful actions. ”

“He chased drunks here, but according to the law, as it were,” confirmed one of the neighbors of the district police officer. “Thanks to Zolotko in the house, order.”

That September evening, Zolotko decided to get around the drunken company and enter the porch on the ramp, but the non -released blocked the road and said: "You fucked everyone here, the menta fucking." “He grabbed me, began to wave, everything else,” says Zolotko. - And I was in a civilian. I have neither a pistol nor handcuffs, there is nothing at all, night. ” As a result, according to him, he twice hit his neighbor “as part of self -defense” and went home. (I did not answer the questions of the "cold" of the non -blessers.)

According to Zolotko, he immediately called the police to fix what had happened and draw up a protocol, but his colleagues ignored it. And a few days later, the non -graders wrote a statement about the beatings on the district police officer, saying that he had attacked him. Zolotko believes that the same employee of law enforcement agencies, who ordered the workers to bury the bodies at the cemetery, forced to do this. “[Police] since 2019 they melted anger at me, waited,” says Zolotko. - Even some previously convicted hugs told me that they were forced to write a statement to me. The district police officers, which I defended so fiercely when the authorities began to falsify [accusations against me], were frightened and did not help. Sometimes it seems that it would be better if I became a boss and showed double standards. ”

At first, a official audit began in relation to Zolotko, and in November 2022-without waiting for a court decision, they fired from the service because of the "misconduct, defaming the honor of an ATS officer." This denouement surprised the locals. “Golden makes a pleasant impression,” says the saleswoman of one of the local stalls. - And the other, this non -graders, I know that I beat his wife. He does not cause confidence in me, such a crush. "

Circular guarantee

In February 2023, Zolotko was restored in the service, and on May 31 they again fired. Why this happened, the district police officer did not understand, but after that he wrote a statement to the Investigative Committee with a request to verify the police leadership for covering crimes. The wife discouraged him, but it seemed to Zolotko that "it would not be worse": "It would be either better or nothing." “I just thought that there are no sins behind me,” he explains, “there was this case with objectionable. So what? Can't I defend myself? "

The case with the bodies in the cemetery in Shali Zolotko indicated in his complaint as one example of incorrect work of colleagues. “The police had to register this fact in the book of accounting for crimes. Then conduct an audit, report to the UK, send corpses to a forensic medical examination, establish the cause of death, identify corpses, ”Zolotko explains.

In November 2023, investigators finally interviewed the cemetery employees and began an audit under the murder article, but not under the article on the exceeding police officials. Nobody began to dig up bodies either. After that, Zolotko decided that “circular bail” has been operating in the law enforcement agencies and investigators help the police hide the ownerless corpses. He went to reporters. In December, the Ural publications were written about the situation in the cemetery. “The shift went right away,” the district police officer assures.

Relatives of Azovtseva, who was buried over the foreign bodies of Matrena Azovtseva, who found out that three more bodies were lying in the grave, two years after the funeral, were shocked. “But there, after all, the grandfather was still buried nearby. There are not even words, ”said a relative of the deceased Nina Azovtseva. In December, three unidentified bodies were opened and found the grave. They were sent for examination - later the investigators reported that she did not find signs of “criminal death”. Azovtsev was reburied in another place.

The dead in the bucket

More than two years have passed since the discovery of bodies in the Shalinsky cemetery, but it is still unknown as they were there, no one and why they buried in this way. The Investigative Committee has not yet announced any examinations, except that they have not revealed signs of murder. There are several unofficial versions of how there were several bodies in the cemetery.

Ivan Kolunov, editor of the funeral of the funeral, the journalist-investigator who wrote a lot about the ritual industry, explains that such situations in Russia are not so rare: there are many mysterious cemeteries in general. “No one knows how many cemeteries are in Russia,” he says. - Moreover, even the cemetery administration does not know how many burials they have. For example, Moscow should now roll out an electronic database. It was made for about two and a half years, because no sources fought. They have cemetery books, but there are real graves - and one does not coincide with the other. And we are talking about the capital of our Motherland, and what is happening there in some remote villages-one god knows. ”

As in many small cemeteries, in Shalinsky there is no booth in which an employee would sit, no video surveillance cameras, no even a fence that protects the cemetery. Workers are going to dig graves on request. “For half the Russian cemeteries, some local entrepreneur-cunning is responsible,” Kolunov continues. -And he is sitting there according to some contract from the administration. For example, he receives a contract for garbage removal from the administration, but in reality he runs the entire cemetery. What he does there is not particularly interested in anyone. The main thing is that there are no scandals. ”

The last contract for servicing the cemetery in Shali was concluded with entrepreneur Vitaly Lobanov: he receives budget money for a variety of work-from repairing roads to housing and communal services. Lobanov did not answer the calls and reports of the "cold". The source of “cold”, familiar with the situation in the Shali cemetery, says that “there is a cemetery caretaker in the village in the village,” but in fact he receives a salary and does nothing. По его словам, в теории кладбище должно быть поделено на сектора, но на практике за этим никто не следит, а учетные записи не ведутся.

Иван Голунов предполагает, что тела, найденные в Шале, могли принадлежать людям без документов. «Государство же у нас обязуется захоронить каждого бесплатно, — объясняет он. — В основном это касается безвестных трупов, бездомных и так далее. В Шале есть морг, то есть история может быть такая: из сельских районов отправляют в райцентр тела с подозрением на криминал на вскрытие, туда их увозит полиция, а обратно она их не хочет везти. Я недавно писал про такую историю в Амурской области. Тела увозят, а дальше говорят родственникам — дайте 50 тысяч, нужно нанимать машину, чтобы везти обратно тело. Во многих случаях люди не забирают тело. Оно остается в морге, лежит как безвестное, а потом администрация за свой счет его захоранивает».

По закону каждому умершему в России полагается гроб. Но в реальности администрация нередко на этом экономит. «У администрации и муниципалитета несчастного нет финансирования, им не выдают денег, но у них есть обязанность захоронить людей, — говорит Голунов. — Они пытаются максимально экономить. Раз в два месяца случаются какие-то скандалы. Вот недавно в Ярославле трактор копал траншеи, а потом из ковша в эти траншеи кидал покойников в гробах. И тоже все возмущались».

Возможно, в Шале возникла похожая ситуация. В 2020 году у администрации Шали закончились деньги на муниципальную похоронную службу. Судя по всему, после этого чиновники начали обращаться за этими услугами к частным компаниям. Как рассказывает источник, знакомый с ситуацией, в 2022 году в поселке существовали три ритуальных агентства, но только одно из них регулярно получало контракты на захоронение бесхозных тел — компания «Ангел». Государство выделяет на погребение одного тела около девяти тысяч рублей. «Если все делать по уму, сумма выйдет больше — говорит источник “Холода”. — А это невыгодно. Поэтому они просто собрали людей и закинули их в одну могилу. А кто узнает об этом? Да никто». Поскольку учет толком не ведется, а сектора на кладбище определены нечетко, когда зимой другие ритуальщики стали хоронить Матрену Азовцеву, понять, что ее хоронят в чью-то могилу, было невозможно. «У компании какой договор? Они за каждого покойника должны отчитаться администрации фотоотчетом. Но с них никто ничего не спрашивал, — объясняет он. — Даже если бы потом родственники этих людей нашлись, пришли и спросили, где те захоронены, им бы никто не ответил».

Юрий Золотко спорит с этой версией. «Ну могли бы сэкономить, поставили бы один крест на троих, без гробов бы закинули этих троих, и все, никто ничего бы не сказал, — рассуждает он. — Но даже этого не было сделано. По документам администрации место было свободное. Как участковый я с таким столкнулся впервые». Золотко убежден, что тела на кладбище оставили полицейские по распоряжению руководства — возможно, хотели таким образом избавиться от «висяков» в отделе.

Через несколько недель после того, как Золотко рассказал об истории на кладбище журналистам, участкового задержали в Колпаковке.

Это бумеранг

12 января 2024 года мужчины без опознавательных знаков увезли Юрия Золотко в СИЗО. Оказалось, что в декабре 2023-го против него возбудили еще три уголовных дела. Все они связаны с взаимодействием с его подучетниками.

«Должность участкового сама по себе такая, что предполагает постоянное привлечение людей к ответственности, — говорит Золотко. — Конечно, ранее судимые люди постоянно недовольны полицией».

Согласно обвинению, в 2019 году Золотко ударил гражданина Полозникова, ранее судимого за кражу бензопилы, в грудь. В 2021 году, как утверждает следствие, участковый побил на работе Ивана Доронько — ранее его судили за угон машины; к административной ответственности он привлекался 29 раз. В 2022 году, указывают следователи, Золотко нанес несколько ударов Сергею Колдаеву — ранее его судили за 14 преступлений по статье о насильственных действиях сексуального характера в отношении несовершеннолетней.

По всем этим эпизодам в отношении Золотко уже проводили служебные проверки и всякий раз оснований для возбуждения уголовного дела не находили. Теперь делам дали ход — и по статье о превышении полномочий Золотко может грозить до 10 лет лишения свободы.

— Были такие ситуации с Юрой, когда я выходил покурить после 10 вечера, — рассказывал на заседании суда по избранию меры пресечения Сергей Колдаев. — У меня были ограничения [по условиям условно-дословного освобождения], но не в квартире же мне курить. Стою курю, в тапочках, шортах, со своей сожительницей, он два раза подлетал и составлял на меня протокол. За курение в общественном месте и то, что я нахожусь вне дома. Два раза я сидел на сутках за это.

— Вы обжаловали эти постановления? The judge asked.

— Нет, я не силен в законах. Посидел на сутках.

- Were there threats?

— Не было никаких угроз.

Затем Колдаев потребовал отправить Золотко в СИЗО, заявив, что опасается за свою безопасность.

— Вы понимаете, что такое домашний арест? Он не сможет оказывать на вас никакого давления, — сказала судья.

— Понимаю, — ответил Колдаев. — Но я хочу, чтобы он сел на эти два месяца. Это дело принципа, такого же, как у него, знаете, у него принципы такие же были. Выхожу покурить с сожительницей, на меня составлен протокол, я поехал на 10 суток. Думаю, это бумеранг.

Многие жители Шали не склонны сочувствовать Колдаеву, которого ранее судили за педофилию. «Мое мнение человеческое, если Юра даже что-то сделал, такого мало ударить. С такими людьми по-другому никак, ну сами же понимаете, — утверждает Максим Ездаков. — Он говорил на суде, что Золотко ненавидит. И как можно формировать дело только на словах человека, который признавался, что ненавидит Юрия?»

Система направлена на законность

Сначала Золотко защищал адвокат по назначению, но быстро стало понятно, что толку от него не будет. Денег на частного защитника у семьи Золотко не было: участковый, которому суд назначил домашний арест, работать не может, его жена Кристина находится в декретном отпуске и получает 9800 рублей в месяц.

Чтобы помочь мужу, Кристина создала группу в телеграме и открыла сбор средств на адвоката. Сейчас она продолжает активно участвовать в его деле. «Я замуж выходила за участкового — никогда не думала, что буду доставать его из тюрьмы, — рассказывает Кристина и смеется. — Вообще неинтересны мне раньше были новости о полицейских. Не казалась его профессия опасной».

«Когда его резко увезли на суд, я всех обзвонила [в поселке], чтобы бежали [на заседание], — продолжает она. — Одна девочка говорит: “Я сейчас в бане, но я приеду”. Многие поддерживают, помогают». По словам знакомых Золотко, сейчас к нему на суды приходят столько людей, что в зал все не помещаются и многие ждут в коридоре.

«Вы поймите, это Шаля, — говорит Максим Ездаков, который выходил в одиночный пикет в поддержку Золотко и получил за это протокол об административном правонарушении. — Тут когда подняли цену на бензин на пять рублей в поселке, вышли 80–90 человек (в августе 2021 года в Шале действительно прошел согласованный митинг, заявленная численность составляла до 50 человек. — Прим. «Холода»). Хотели выйти гораздо больше, но люди работают за бюджетные деньги, руководство говорило: придете — выгоним с работы. Пришли бы и на суд Золотко больше, просто люди боятся». По словам Кристины Золотко, история ее мужа так напугала ее знакомую, что та собирается увольняться из полиции после выхода из декрета.

«Начальство создает прецедент: не только для меня — для всех сотрудников полиции, — говорит Юрий Золотко. — Получается, сотрудник полиции будет бояться: он лучше не выполнит свои служебные обязанности, не защитит граждан, чем его привлекут. Они подводят к тому, чтобы сотрудник полиции тупо выполнял незаконные приказы начальников. Если бы я не боролся, не написал заявление в СК, не обратился в СМИ, то меня бы немножко замарали, уволили — и все, я бы жил дальше спокойно».

Ни он, ни его жена раньше не обращали внимания на новости о полицейских, которых преследовали после конфликтов с начальством, — слышали только про арест главы паблика «Омбудсмен полиции» Владимира Воронцова. «Я не думал, что со мной похожая история случится, — говорит Золотко. — Он как-то с Навальным связан, а я никак не был связан с оппозицией. Я, наоборот, всегда поддерживал точку зрения Российской Федерации. И никогда с оппозиционерами не сотрудничал. Я считаю, что поддержка сверху должна быть какая-то, раз все огласке предалось». Государство в своих бедах участковый не винит: «Это конкретные люди устроили. Система, наоборот, направлена на законность».

В конце февраля суд отменил приговор о 400 часах обязательных работ, которые Золотко назначили после конфликта с Неугодниковым, и вернул дело на новое рассмотрение. Через пару недель домашний арест Золотко сменили на запрет определенных действий. Однако вскоре появилось новое уголовное дело — заявление на участкового написал ранее судимый за кражу Владимир Винокуров, которого Золотко привлекал к ответственности за избиение человека с инвалидностью. «На каждую его победу в судах в Шале возбуждают дополнительное уголовное дело. Это финансово и психологически давит, — говорит Максим Ездаков. — У них задача — сломить его».

На кухне у Золотко висит портрет Иосифа Сталина: участковый сам заказал его на Wildberries. «Сталин такой лидер, серьезный, хороший, — объясняет он. — Просто его имя пытаются опорочить, говорят, что он тиран. Я немножко изучал, смотрел историю — это приукрашено, репрессий было не так много. Начальники ГУЛАГов, как правило, занимались этими репрессиями. А Сталин… Ну, может, и участвовал. А на самом деле, в военное и послевоенное время как по-другому действовать? Понятно, что жестко».