Mikhail Trepashkin: Biographical Facts

Mikhail Trepashkin's military service began in the nuclear submarine fleet. After his conscript service, he entered the Higher School of the KGB. From 1976, he was an investigator in the KGB's investigative department, specializing in cases involving the smuggling of cultural valuables and works of art.

In the 1990s, he worked in the FSB's Internal Security Directorate. His superior was Nikolai Patrushev, the current head of the FSB. Among Trepashkin's successful cases was the 1995 exposure of a criminal group within the FSB and GRU that was involved in selling weapons to Chechnya. However, the case was ordered closed. A conflict with the leadership arose. In the same year, he was dismissed from the agencies. In early 1996, he sued the FSB for illegal dismissal, and the court granted his claim. But the court's decision was never actually implemented.

In early 1997, Trepashkin was attacked on the street and beaten. By this time, he had given several interviews about corruption in the FSB. On the same topic, the former intelligence officer sent a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.

In mid-1997, Alexander Litvinenko, who at that time worked in the Directorate for the Development of Criminal Organizations (URPO), received an order to organize an attack on Trepashkin. Subsequently, in a complaint to the prosecutor's office that Litvinenko filed against URPO as a criminal organization, Trepashkin was mentioned along with Boris Berezovsky and Khusein Dzhabrailov. The latter two were also under URPO surveillance: Berezovsky was to be killed, and Dzhabrailov was to be kidnapped. In 1998, Trepashkin took part in a press conference at which FSB officers Litvinenko, Ponkin, and Shchepkin accused the FSB of criminal activity. Trepashkin attended the press conference as a victim.

After this, Trepashkin spent two years in private legal practice. In September 2001, he assisted French journalists who were filming the movie "Assassination of Russia," in which he spoke about FSB activities in connection with the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk. Immediately after this, a search was conducted at his home. A criminal case was opened against Trepashkin on charges of disclosing state secrets and illegal possession of weapons. The second charge was later dropped, but the first remained.

In early 2002, Trepashkin met Sergei Yushenkov and began actively cooperating with him in the public commission investigating the apartment bombings in Russian cities in 1999. In the same year, he became the legal representative for the Morozov sisters, who live in the USA (they were recognized as victims in the apartment bombings case). In August 2003, Tatyana Morozova came to Moscow and, together with Trepashkin, sought access to documents on the bombing case. This was the only attempt by victims of the 1999 terrorist attacks to obtain any information on the case.

On October 31, 2003, the trial for the apartment bombings case began, at which M.I. Trepashkin was supposed to appear as a lawyer for the victims. But he was unable to do so. On October 21, while returning to Moscow from Dmitrov while traveling for work as a lawyer, Trepashkin was stopped by GIBDD (traffic police) officers, and a pistol was planted on him. Since then, he has been in prison.

December 1, 2003. Arbat, District Military Court. Photo