A former police officer from Krasnodar was sentenced to five years in prison in the case of bribes from Baza journalists

The Savyolovsky Court of Moscow sentenced the former head of the duty department of the Krasnodar Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Ablaev, to five years in prison on charges of abuse of power and accepting bribes from journalists of the Baza publication. RAPSI reports this with reference to the press service of the Moscow City Court.

During interrogation on May 26, the ex-policeman said that at the beginning of 2020, a girl named Anastasia wrote to him in a telegram, a Mediazona correspondent reported from the courtroom. Later, Baza editor-in-chief Gleb Trifonov mentioned during interrogation that Anastasia Chumakova, now the head of the ASTRA publication, contacted the policeman.

Ablaev learned from Chumakova that she worked as a journalist, after which she offered to send her reports about events in Krasnodar for money. “In the end, taking into account my financial situation, I decided to agree to her proposal,” he said. — Anastasia and I did not discuss a specific amount of remuneration for each fact of transfer of information. At the same time, it was agreed that the money would be transferred to my mother’s card at T-Bank. She agreed." According to Ablaev, on average he received 5–10 thousand rubles at a time.

Later, Chumakova informed Ablaev that she was being transferred “to another direction,” and her colleague “named Gleb” began communicating with him. They worked with him according to the same principle “until approximately May 2024.” At the same time, breaks for providing information “could last for several months.” “Sometimes I refused to provide information to both Gleb and Anastasia for one reason or another,” the defendant claimed.

In 2023, according to Ablaev, he decided to “wind down cooperation” and began sending out reports less often, since “the news began to often show” that police officers were being prosecuted for such actions. During the investigation, the investigation established that over four years, 67 thousand rubles were transferred to Ablaev, although the policeman himself, when interrogated by investigators, spoke about 300-350 thousand rubles. In court, the former law enforcement officer partially admitted his guilt.

Currently, as part of this case, Baza editor-in-chief Gleb Trifonov and the publication’s producer Tatyana Lukyanova are under house arrest. In July 2026, security forces conducted searches at the publication’s office. As Baza wrote, their editor-in-chief was forced to unlock the phone, threatening to “fuck him to death.” The next day, Trifonov and Lukyanova were sent to a pre-trial detention center, and two months laterthey were transferred to house arrest.

According to investigators, Ablaev provided journalists with “restricted access” information for money. Cases against two other ex-police officers - former detective of the criminal investigation department of Belgorod Alexander Selivanov and former detective of the criminal investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Krasnoyarsk Territory Sergei Kovalev - have been transferred to the courts. Trifonov also met Selivanov in 2022 through Chumakova.

In addition to the main sentence, the court imposed a fine on Ablaev in the amount of 670 thousand rubles. He was also banned from holding positions in law enforcement for four years.