One of the most recognizable employees of the Center for Countering Extremism of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow (Center “E”), Alexei Okopny, became deputy head of the unit. This follows from a letter that a Mediazona reader received in response to his application with a request to check State Duma deputy from United Russia Andrei Gurulev for extremism.
The response states that Gurulev’s statementsdo not violate the law “On Combating Extremist Activities”. On November 28, the document was signed by “Deputy Head of the Center for Countering Extremism A.V. Trench.»
There were no official announcements about Okopny's promotion. However, he received a new position no later than May 23, 2023 — this day is the date of the report, which formed the basis of a criminal caseagainst the co-chairman of the “Voice” observer movement Grigory Melkonyants. The document indicated Okopny’s rank and position: colonel, deputy head of Center “E” for Moscow. Melkonyants' lawyer Mikhail Biryukov told Mediazona about this.
Okopny refused to answer Mediazona’s question by phone about when exactly he was promoted and advised him to contact the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Operative officer of the 6th department of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate Alexey Okopny at work #trench pic.twitter.com/oFWQNv4T
— Shpikinfo (@shpikinfo) November 21, 2012
Alexey Okopny, an operative of the Organized Crime Control Department and later Center “E,” has been well known to Moscow political activists for 15 years. He personally detained many participants in street protests in Moscow and was present at searches of their apartments.
In 2018, the creator of the telegram channel “Protest MGU” Dmitry Ivanov told OVD-Info that Okopny threatened him with rape after he was detained at a rally near the FSB building in Moscow — the policeman did not like that the young man was his photographed.
In 2018, the Teatra.doc actors, detained during a group walk after a performance, identified Okopny as one of the security officers who kept them in the department until late at night, discussing out loud “what to do with you: drunkenness or drugs.”
In 2017, a former member of the pro-government group SERB, which specialized in provocations against oppositionists, told the Dozhd TV channel that its leader Gosha Tarasevich received an “operational bonus” from Okopny.
The Moscow National Bolsheviks accused Okopny of involvement in the murder of his comrade-in-arms Yuri Chervochkin in Serpukhov in 2007. The 22-year-old activist was beaten to death with baseball bats on the eve of the next “March of Dissent”; his killers were never found. Investigator Oleg Tselipotkin, who investigated this crime, interrogated Okopny as a witness.
“"Is this the Organized Organized Crime Control?" — “It seems so.” Why investigator Tselipotkin could not find the killers of the National Bolshevik Chervochkin
In 2012, Okopny through the court demanded compensation from the National Bolshevik Sergei Aksenov and activist Pavel Shekhtman for publications about the death of Chervochkin, which, according to the operative, caused him “moral and physical suffering: shame, embarrassment, heartache and headaches, insomnia.” The Simonovsky District Court of Moscow ruled in favor of Okopny.