FREE WORD No. 135

Why is Mikhail Trepashkin really being persecuted?

Mikhail Filinov - for "Svobodnoye Slovo"

Former Chekist, now lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested on October 22. We will not talk about the fact that the Moscow region police planted a pistol in his car and that both of his criminal cases—the Moscow one for disclosing state secrets and possession of cartridges, for which Mikhail was sentenced on May 19 to four years in a settlement colony, and the Moscow region one, the trial for which is promised for June 2—were initiated by his former colleagues. But what was the reason? It is clear that Patrushev has no reason to love Trepashkin, who accuses him of poor hunting of Chechen terrorists, and eight years ago successfully challenged his dismissal from Lubyanka in court. But the second thing was a long time ago and not alone, and accusations don't stick, especially on the collars of Lubyanka tunics. Alexander Litvinenko accuses Putin and Patrushev of even greater sins, but he was only given a suspended sentence. And Trepashkin, in the case initiated against him by the military prosecutor's office in Moscow, spent many months under a travel restriction. What made the Chekists force events?

The arrest coincided in time with two interesting events: the start of hearings in the Moscow City Court on the case of the apartment bombings (October 31) and the story of the assassination attempt on President Putin via London.

One of the two could have been the reason for the arrest.

The Deceased Agent

A day after Trepashkin ended up in a dirty cell of the Moscow region police, an issue of "Moskovskiye Novosti" was published with his interview (as we found out, this material was prepared at the last moment, the editorial office decided for about two weeks whether to publish it). Mikhail, who was investigating the apartment bombings in Moscow, tells journalist Igor Korolkov about his suspicions.

The composite sketch of the person who rented the premises for the bombings is very similar, according to Mikhail, to his acquaintance from service—Vladimir Romanovich. Romanovich was part of a Chechen gang in Moscow, and, judging by everything, was embedded in it by the FSB. Later, this man died in a car accident in Cyprus (ni...

Dispute of Economic Bandits

On October 19, old acquaintances of Mikhail Trepashkin returned from London—FSB officer (retired or not—there is a discrepancy in publications) Andrei Ponkin and businessman Alexei Alekhin. Having arrived in London on a tourist package, they ended up in a Scotland Yard cell: Ponkin's former colleague Alexander Litvinenko informed the police that the visitors asked him to help organize an assassination attempt on Putin. After five days, the heroes were released, and they returned to their homeland. The Russian embassy was not interested in them.

For two days, the Russian press enthusiastically wrote about this epic. Ponkin initially claimed that he was not in London and that Litvinenko was "simply sick," and then said that, on the contrary, he went to Litvinenko to campaign for the motherland and the president and to ask Berezovsky to help find a job for Trepashkin and another retired Chekist—Shcheglov. Trepashkin, as we see, was after this placed in a completely different place. But does "after this" mean "as a result of this" here?

What is Trepashkin's role in this story?

Litvinenko mentions Trepashkin in his book "Lubyanka Criminal Group": the FSB's "extrajudicial killings department," where Litvinenko worked, was ordered to imprison or kill the dismissed Chekist Trepashkin so that he would not assert his rights. In the same book, Alekhin's name is heard for the first time:

"It started with the fact," writes Litvinenko, "that I was assigned to handle the case of businessman Alekhin, the director of a store in the area of the three railway stations—near the Krasnoselskaya metro station. Alekhin had serious problems. When the store opened, the owners appointed him director. After some time, a man came to him..."

"...from the co-owners of the store who worked in the FSB. That's how the case came to me.
We began to identify these bandits. It turned out that these were representatives of the Ryazan criminal group. Moreover, one of them was wanted for committing murders. And this man calmly drove around Moscow with the ID of an employee of the Ministry of Justice, was listed in the security of the head of the SOBR of the Moscow RUOP and was engaged in racketeering."

Now—the word to Ponkin (interview with "Gazeta" upon return from London):
"In the summer of this year, Alekhin was again 'hit' by bandits, this time the 'Baumans'. After the murder of their leader Globus (a thief in law, killed in 1994. - GAZETA) they are led by a certain Isa, with whom Litvinenko studied at a military school. So, the Baumans stated that they came from Litvinenko and demanded 51% of the store's shares. Alekhin wrote a statement about extortion to the police, but they did not investigate there. I asked lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin (another participant in that famous press conference, dismissed from the authorities shortly after it. - GAZETA) to participate in this case, who drew up a statement to the Moscow Prosecutor's Office. But we were 'kicked around' from there too.
During another telephone conversation with Litvinenko, I accused him of extortion. But he unexpectedly explained: they say, it's not me, but the former lawyer of Boris Berezovsky, Anatoly Blinov.
Then Alekhin and I decided to fly to England—to rest and clarify the issue with the store. On October 5, we arrived at Heathrow."

And here is what Alexander Litvinenko said in those days ("Novye Izvestiya"):
"Ponkin reached out to me through Trepashkin. About four months ago, Misha called me and said that a former colleague was looking for me, dictated the phone number and asked me to call back. I called," says Alexander Litvinenko. "It was Ponkin. Before coming to England, he again turned to Trepashkin and asked him to warn about his arrival. Misha sent an e-mail in which he warned me that a guest would arrive tomorrow. Who exactly, he did not specify. I have no doubt that Trepashkin knew nothing about Ponkin's true intentions. He was simply used."

Newspaper correspondent Polina Shershneva adds:
A few days before the detention...