For years, the police “could not find” ex-FSB employees who beat up bloggers

The Investigative Committee of Russia insisted on the arrest of two employees of the Moscow company “Serkons”, who beat bloggers in 2019. The police “couldn’t find them” for four years. “Kommersant” writes about it.

According to the investigation, in March 2019, in March 2019, Serkons employees who previously worked for the FSB, the brothers Pavel and Aleksey Filatchevy, beat up the bloggers of the Rosderzhava online publication, who came to the company’s office to film a critical report about it, during a scuffle.

After the fight, all its participants contacted the police. But she opened two criminal cases: about hooliganism against bloggers and about harming their health in relation to the Filatchevs. The investigation of both cases was formal and eventually ended, Kommersant writes.

The investigation claims that the police initially had a lot of evidence against the Filatchevs, but they could not “identify the persons to be held criminally responsible.” According to the representative of the investigation in court, “this situation clearly testifies to the corrupt connections of the accused in the law enforcement system.”

In July 2023, the Investigative Committee of Russia took over the case. He instituted a criminal case against the Filatchevs under the articles of group hooliganism and obstruction of the legal activities of journalists. In court, the investigation insisted on the arrest of the Filatchevs so that they “could not use their connections to oppose the investigation.” The court sent the Filatchevs to the SIZO.

“Kommersant” writes that “Serkons” – one of the leading companies in the certification market – hired Filatchevy specifically to solve “sensitive” issues. Among them are assistance to customers in FSB certification and tax optimization.