Cash cow busted: officers detained at the "Kotel'nich GAI" post?

      According to sources close to the security services, each of the detainees allegedly took money in exchange for unhindered passage, and not in cash but in tranches to the bank cards of moms, dads, wives and sisters. Moreover, the size of the "levies" (only one is known) is said to total an amount with six zeros.

      After spending more than a week on its own investigation, Newsler.ru obtained only several private accounts — ranging from a "complete confirmation of the event" to an almost equally "complete denial." This is likely connected both to the possible absence of any incident and to a reluctance to publicize matters during the initial investigation, which might give authorities reason to turn their attention to senior security officers, for whom rank-and-file traffic cops were allegedly "working."

      According to one security source, "closing the matter" may indeed be linked to protection by higher-ups: today, after the sentencing of the deputy head of the Kirov police — Colonel Andrey Voronov — "publicly brandishing colonel's stars or lampasses is hardly appropriate." Recall that on September 24, 2025, Andrey Voronov was sentenced to six years of "strict regime" and fined 19.3 million rubles for "receiving a large bribe" and "exceeding official powers out of personal interest."

      Of course, the most "interesting" version for Kirov residents will be that all seven detainees are currently under arrest, held in pre-trial detention centers (SIZOs) and are giving testimony. The most striking detail might be the assumption that roughly six million rubles were discovered on the cards of just one of the "detainees," so the probable "total haul" of the seven road guardians would impress any layperson. It would also prompt the thought that for such "collective roadside work" they should be prosecuted not individually but en masse — which, in legal terms, sounds like an "organized criminal community" (OPC).

      According to another version, which was the most accessible to Newsler.ru, the authorities probably detained only one person, and there has been no word in "political circles" about his being placed under arrest as a preventive measure.

      As one former head of the Kirov traffic police recalled, the Kotel'nich checkpoint "has always been a thorn in the side" of departmental leadership:

      "There were complaints about extorting money from drivers. We tried to fight it: we sent decoy cars, our own people, but none of the extortionists were ever caught. A decision was even made to remove the checkpoint... But it turned out to be impossible — on a federal highway it has to be there."

      By the way, the first independent journalistic investigation, conducted back in 2000, when officers at the weigh station (opposite the traffic police post building) were stopping the logging trucks of a private entrepreneur, also yielded no results. In the presence of an "outsider" who was recording the conversation and taking photographs, the businessman (a retired army colonel) was mocked and humiliated, but no money was demanded. Only after more than an hour, when the outsiders were "sent away," was the named sum handed over and the idling heavy trucks sent on toward Kirov.

      Interestingly, the "expected failure of such operations" was explained by Nikolay Koshcheev, the former head of Kirov's Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP). As Nikolay Vitalievich explained, they had several times tried to catch in the act the then-deputy regional prosecutor Vladimir Bykov taking a bribe. But each time the operation was foiled until they realized that Vladimir Sergeyevich had been warned in advance about upcoming investigative actions. So, to avoid leaks, the "caught in the act" operation was prepared by a single person, and the lack of publicity made it possible to sentence 56-year-old Vladimir Bykov to four years of "general regime."

      "If you remembered that story," one interlocutor said, "it becomes clear why extortionists couldn't be caught for two decades."