The 52-year-old businessman Igor Kotelnikov, from whom FSB officers demanded to testify against former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, died in the punishment cell of the Moscow pre-trial detention center-4 «Bear». The telegram channel “VChK-OGPU” was the first to report this with reference to its sources.
Information about Kotelnikov’s death was confirmed by member of the Human Rights Council under the President (HRC) Eva Merkacheva. According to the human rights activist, Kotelnikov died on Monday, July 8. That day at about 11 o'clock he became ill in the punishment cell, where the temperature in the summer rises above 40 degrees.
The authors of «VChK-OGPU» write about «very strange circumstances» of the businessman's death. «The cause of death was named as what has become standard for the FSIN system — a blood clot came off,» the Telegram channel's post says.
According to the Cheka-OGPU, a criminal case was opened against the businessman for giving a bribe (Article 291 of the Criminal Code). It is unknown when exactly he was taken into custody. According to investigators, Kotelnikov was an intermediary who could, through the top leadership of the Ministry of Defense, organize large contracts, receiving kickbacks for this.
According to the Cheka-OGPU, employees of the DVKR FSB and demanded that he testify against Timur Ivanov. Due to the refusals, as the telegram channel writes, “pressure was used” — Kotelnikov was placed in a punishment cell, where he could not be kept due to illness.
Timur Ivanov was arrested at the end of April in the case of bribery on an especially large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). According to the investigation, while holding the position of Deputy Minister of Defense and overseeing the construction and overhaul of department facilities, the official “conspired with third parties” to receive bribes “in the form of providing services of a property nature during contract and subcontract work for the needs of the Ministry of Defense.”< /p>