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Former Russian senior investigator charged with taking bribe of 200,000 euro — source

Drymanov however denied any wrongdoing and said he was "ready for the court battle"

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The former head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Moscow Main Investigative Department, Alexander Drymanov, is charged with taking a bribe on 200,000 euro for releasing crime boss Andrei Kochuikov, a law-enforcement source told TASS.

"Drymanov has been charged with taking a bribe of 200,000 euro for releasing Kochuikov," the source said.

On July 17, Moscow’s Lefortovo District Court ruled to arrest the official on bribe-taking charges.

Drymanov however denied any wrongdoing and said he was "ready for the court battle."

At a session of the Moscow City Court on January 23 that examined the criminal case of Mikhail Maksimenko, Head of the Internal Security Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee, state prosecutor Boris Loktionov stated that Drymanov had also been involved in the talks on requalifying the case against crime boss Andrei Kochuikov. At that time, he was a witness in the criminal probe. On March 6, the court heard the testimony by Nikandrov who claimed that he had given a 10,000 euro bribe to his boss. Drymanov, however, denied any bribe taking. In the autumn of last year, searches were held in Drymanov’s office.

It was reported in early June that General Drymanov had tendered his resignation, submitting a request for his retirement from service. His request was satisfied but the presidential decree on his resignation was not issued.

Case against high-ranking investigators

Maksimenko, Lamonov and Nikandrov were detained in July 2016 and are accused under part 6, article 290 of Russia’s Criminal Code ("Large-Scale Bribe Taking by an Official or a Group of Persons by Previous Concert").

Pursuant to the case files, they entered into criminal conspiracy with crime boss Zakhariy Kalashov (nicknamed Young Shakro) and took a $500,000 bribe for requalifying the accusations into more lenient charges and subsequently releasing crime boss Andrei Kochuikov (nicknamed the Italian) - one of the participants in the shootout near a restaurant in central Moscow.

The case files of Nikandrov and Lamonov were detached into separate proceedings as they fully admitted their guilt and agreed to cooperate with the investigators. Maksimenko was sentenced to 13 years in a high-security prison.

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