Businessman Igor Kotelnikov has died in a Moscow pretrial detention center; according to the VChK-OGPU, he was required to testify against Timur Ivanov

In the punishment cell of Moscow's SIZO-4 "Medved", 52-year-old businessman Igor Kotelnikov, from whom FSB officers demanded to testify against former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, died. The telegram channel "VChK-OGPU" was the first to report this, citing its sources.

Information about Kotelnikov's death was confirmed by Eva Merkacheva, a member of the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC). According to the human rights activist, Kotelnikov died on Monday, July 8. That day, at about 11 a.m., he became ill in the punishment cell, where the temperature in the summer rises above 40 degrees.

The authors of "VChK-OGPU" write about "very strange circumstances" of the businessman's death. "The cause of death was given as what has become standard for the FSIN system - a blood clot came off," the Telegram channel's post says.

According to VChK-OGPU, a criminal case was opened against the businessman for bribery (Article 291 of the Criminal Code). It is unknown when exactly he was taken into custody. According to the investigation, Kotelnikov was an intermediary who could organize large contracts through the top leadership of the Ministry of Defense, receiving kickbacks for this.

According to the VChK-OGPU, FSB DVKR officers repeatedly visited him in the pretrial detention center and demanded that he testify against Timur Ivanov. Because of his refusals, as the Telegram channel writes, "pressure was put into effect" - Kotelnikov was placed in a punishment cell, where he could not be kept due to illnesses.

Timur Ivanov was arrested in late April in connection with a case of bribery on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, while holding the position of Deputy Minister of Defense and overseeing issues of construction and major repairs of the department's facilities, the official "conspired with third parties" to receive bribes "in the form of providing property-related services during contract and subcontract work for the needs of the Ministry of Defense."