Fired Officer to Present Evidence of Massive Police Corruption

A police major who posted videos on the internet detailing abuses in a Russian police department announced at a press conference in Moscow on Tuesday that he has 150 hours of recorded audio that back up his claims.

Major Aleksei Dymovsky says he wore a mini-dictaphone beginning in spring 2009 to record evidence of document falsification, corruption, and other abuses by members of law enforcement in the southern city of Novorossiysk. He stated that he was ready to personally present these and other secret documents concerning the allegations to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

During the press conference, attended by a record number of journalists, the major elaborated on his claim that superior officers had forced him to illegally bring charges against an innocent person. He said that Novorossiysk Police Chief Vladimir Chernositov had a conflict with a local lieutenant colonel by the name of Slyshik, and that Dymovsky was forced to arrest Slyshik’s son for a nonexistent crime.

The major said that his actions in exposing police corruption had garnered support from officers all across Russia. He asserted that in order to begin reform of the country’s law enforcement agencies, a large-scale review that would include the participation of the public must be arranged. The main task, he said, would be to raise the prestige of police forces in the country.

Dymovsky, who had wanted to leave Novorossiysk for Moscow with his family out of concern for their safety, had initially attempted to travel to Moscow by plane. However, when he was detained en route to the airport and found that his bank accounts had been frozen, prohibiting him from buying a ticket, he decided to make the approximately one thousand mile trip by car.

In a third video posted Tuesday of a phone conversation with Police Chief Chernositov, Dymovsky asserted that “I will win” and that he was prepared to sit in jail for three years for the risk he had taken. He also promised to distribute his gathered evidence on the internet, “to show how we work.”

Major Aleksei Dymovsky was fired from the Novorossiysk police department after a two-day inquiry into claims he had made in two YouTube videos posted on November 5. The videos alleged that he and his colleagues were treated “like cattle” by their superiors, and were forced to bring charges of nonexistent crimes against people known to be innocent.

The Russian Interior Ministry accuses Dymovsky of receiving funding from abroad, which he vehemently denies, and says that he was undergoing a professional evaluation at the time he posted the videos.