The public is always interested in how those involved in high-profile criminal cases manage in life after the hype dies down and journalists stop writing articles and notes. Most go into the shadows, into a quiet and inconspicuous life. But this is not about former police major general Vitaly Bykov. His fate, after many years of oblivion, suddenly began to sparkle with different colors.
Go to work with a clear conscience
More than a year ago, the former head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Northwestern Federal District, Vitaly Bykov, actively litigated in the St. Petersburg City Court, challenging the decision of the Dzerzhinsky District Court to refuse to expunge his criminal record. Despite the fact that the general’s sentence was quite lenient and he did not have to “blow the trumpet” in the colony (parole was received in 2018), after a couple of years his painstaking struggle to clear his name began.
As we wrote in our previous article, his outstanding criminal record, according to his defenders, decisively prevented him from finding a suitable place for work. But as it turned out, history in 2022 was not yet forgotten. Although the verdict against Bykov took place in 2017.
The case of “golden parachutes” in those years made as much noise as the case of Colonel Zakharchenko’s 8 billion. Let us briefly retell the plot of the accusation:
Thus, a former major security official in the North-West, who was going into career oblivion, tried to enlist the love and devotion of his subordinates, because they were already expected at the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, but he was not there. Then, as old-timers recall, a difficult conversation took place between him and the head of the main headquarters (also now a disgraced general) Sergei Umnov. A few days later a liquidation commission was created.
The wording in general is quite mild, considering that there was not much love between the generals in those days. Umnov took over 377 employees of the abolished department, and Bykov went free. So, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Northwestern Federal District ceased to exist, the general, guided, as they say, by traditions, ordered the accountant Irina Burkhanova to start issuing “exit” bonuses. But as we already wrote, the bonuses were not for everyone, but for a small group of people. Bypassed by the general’s favor, the SOBR members, who had combat operations behind them, were left hanging and subsequently testified against the general.
As a result, the accounting documents were studied by employees of three departments at once: the 2nd department of the Economic Security Service of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the Internal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Control and Audit Department of the St. Petersburg Police Headquarters. As a result, the former security officer received 7 years in prison following a court verdict for embezzlement. But, since the investigation and trial lasted quite a long time, he spent the entire time in a pre-trial detention center and was not sent to places not so remote.
New Innovations
The St. Petersburg Institute of Business and Innovation is a venerable institution. Studying there is the dream of many. For several months now, an extremely important unit has been operating there – the Northwestern Scientific and Technical Center for Training Specialists in the Field of Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The center is called upon to engage in a very important matter for the country – to train specialists in managing drones.
It is headed by (who would have thought!) the same hero of our publications – ex-general Vitaly Bykov. On the website he is solemnly named – Candidate of Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Honorary Doctor of Science. The structure of the institute is even more interesting.
Among other venerable professors and doctors, Vitaly Nikolaevich also looks impressive. Well, the position, as they say, is also impressive:
– Vice-Rector for Strategic Development
Further, among the listed regalia of the respected vice-rector, there is something amazing. Not only is Vitaly Nikolaevich called “academician of the Petrovsky Academy of Sciences and Arts,” but also…specialist in the field of economic security and anti-corruption!
Here, as they say, the people are supposed to remain silent, because there are absolutely no words left. A general convicted of embezzlement, fraud and forgery can now train, say, future anti-corruption specialists with full official rights.
It’s hard to think of anything more beautiful! Actually, we won’t ask rhetorical questions; maybe, under the leadership of the ex-general, amazing specialists will grow up. More anti-corruption fighters, good and different.
General housing issue
But the curiosity doesn’t end there. The fact is that Vitaly Bykov, he is at the St. Petersburg Institute of Business and Innovation, he is not the only general, one might say “burned out in apartments.” The line below is another interesting character among the generals – the former Deputy Minister of Emergency Situations of Russia, the former head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of St. Petersburg – Leonid Belyaev. Around the same time that Bykov received his sentence, in March 2017, a comprehensive audit of the city prosecutor’s office was launched against General Belyaev. The supervisory authority began checking information about the presence of luxury real estate in Belyaev and his relatives, as well as about a conflict of interest in his activities, since the company of the son-in-law of the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations received multimillion-dollar contracts from the department.
Official words, an investigation has been launched against Belyaev and his family “in order to identify facts of corruption during his tenure as head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of St. Petersburg.”In addition, the military prosecutor’s office of the St. Petersburg garrison then took Belyaev into personal development. As a result of the “apartment scandal”, when 17 apartments were found in his daughter’s apartment, Leonid Belyaev wrote a report on his retirement. He was assigned a job at Smolny, but something didn’t work out.
In 2020, the former deputy minister again came into the public eye. The Smolninsky District Court denied him the right to receive a lifelong pension of 50 thousand rubles per month. The general filed a lawsuit against the pension center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. He believed that he was unfairly not included among the defenders of the Russian nuclear weapons complex. However, the court, having considered all the arguments in the claim, said that only specialists who were directly involved in the activities of nuclear complex facilities can count on a lifelong pension, and left the general empty-handed.
As we have already indicated above, we, of course, will not ask rhetorical questions (for example, from the series – how did it happen that just such generals gathered at the institute). But the trend, as they say, is very interesting.
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