According to the portal 47news, the searches are carried out in the context of the investigation of a criminal case under Art. 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Misuse of official powers”), started in 2020. Subsequently, the agents seized documents from eleven commercial MREOs (there are also in St. Petersburg that quite officially work with the traffic police based on a service agreement).

The file mentions the “Fund for aid to the programs of the Central Directorate of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.” According to the survey, this organization received contributions from commercial structures, which were not always made voluntarily. The publication calls businessman Dmitry Mikhalchenko, the ex-head of the Forum holding company, the initiator of the creation of the fund. At the end of June, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of 1 million rubles in case of embezzlement during the construction of the residence of the President of the Russian Federation in Novo-Ogaryovo.

In turn, according to the Cheka-OGPU telegram channel, the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region has long sought the removal of the head of the St. Petersburg Traffic Police, General Major Semenov. Last fall, he even wrote a letter of resignation, but the implementation of the document was suspended (the general is said to have found high-ranking patrons).

According to the portal 47news, the searches are carried out in the context of the investigation of a criminal case under Art. 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of official powers”), started in 2020. Then the agents seized documents from eleven commercial MREOs (there are also in St. Petersburg that quite officially work with the traffic police based on a service agreement).

The file mentions the “Fund for aid to the programs of the Central Directorate of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.” According to the survey, this organization received contributions from commercial structures, which were not always made voluntarily. The publication calls businessman Dmitry Mikhalchenko, the ex-head of the Forum holding company, the initiator of the creation of the fund. At the end of June, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of 1 million rubles in case of embezzlement during the construction of the residence of the President of the Russian Federation in Novo-Ogaryovo.

In turn, according to the Cheka-OGPU telegram channel, the leadership of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region has long sought the removal of the head of the St. Petersburg Traffic Police, General Major Semenov. Last fall, he even wrote a letter of resignation, but the implementation of the document was suspended (the general is said to have found high-ranking patrons).