Alexey Okopny, known for persecuting the opposition, became deputy head of the “E” Center

Alexey Okopny, one of the employees of the Center for countering extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow (or as it is more often called – Center “E”), best known for the persecution of opposition activists, became the deputy head of the unit and received the rank of colonel, Mediazona reports.

Okopny started working at Center “E” more than ten years ago as a low-level operative, but quickly became known to Moscow political activists, as he personally detained many of them at protest actions and was present during searches of their apartments.

In 2018, the creator of the Telegram channel “Protestny MSU” said that Okopny threatened to rape him after his arrest.

In March of last year, activist Alexander Teplyakov stated that Okopny threatened to kill him, showed a combat pistol, and in this way forced the detainee to write a report on his comrades.

Moscow activists of the banned National Bolshevik Party even accused Okopny of complicity in the murder of his colleague Yury Chervochkin: in 2007, 22-year-old party activist Eduard Limonov was beaten to death with baseball bats in Serpukhov on the eve of the “March of Dissenters”. The crime was never solved, Okopny was interrogated as a witness.