In the meantime, he has provocations from his local colleagues to fear.
Police Major Alexei Dymovsky, who recently caused quite a commotion by publishing a video address to Vladimir Putin on the internet, held a press conference yesterday. To name just a few of the many changes in his life after the video address: he now lives in fear of being spied on, expecting provocations from his colleagues, and has taken a ten-day unpaid leave, "considering the circumstances." The Major also indicated that he was not aware that he had been sacked from the Interior Ministry; his bosses had not informed him.
The police major's press conference was delayed by 40 minutes. He explained that his tardiness stemmed from the extra precautions he had had to take in order to avoid being shadowed by his colleagues, whose provocations he now feared. "I'm afraid of being set up... They might plant drugs or marked banknotes," the policeman explained. "My immediate superiors have not informed me that I've been fired. For the time being, I plan to take an unpaid leave," he announced. (Kommersant reported the scandal over the policeman's internet video address to Putin in yesterday's issue). The officer said that he had already submitted a request to acting chief of the Novorossiisk Internal Affairs department, Vladimir Grebenyuk.
Dymovsky explained that the goal of his video address was to attract the public's attention and that of the federal authorities to the situation in Novorossiisk's police force. "The way the bosses of the Novorossiisk Internal Affairs Department treat their subordinates is absolutely appalling," the police major said. He had originally intended to appeal to Putin about the serious irregularities at his agency back in 2006 during a live phone-in with the then president, but when representatives of the president's staff came over to carry out an inspection, Dymovsky apparently had a change of heart, renounced his words and said it was somebody else who had introduced himself as Dymovsky.
Dymovsky repeated part of what he said in his video address, but he omitted quite a few details, explaining that he would disclose them to the officials during the course of the inspections.
Dymovsky refused to reveal who had videotaped the address and posted it on the internet. "They're ordinary citizens," was the only information he would disclose. Vadim Karastelev, a human rights activist claiming to represent Dymovsky's interests, announced that the police major was planning to give a press conference in Moscow, after which he would open up a public reception room in Novorossiisk to register all the violations made by and against policemen.
Chief of the Krasnodar Territory Internal Affairs Department press
service, Igor Zhelyabin, explained to Kommersant
that they were waiting to hear the findings of the Interior Ministry Commission,
which Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev had sent to the region. "The facts
regarding the Internal Affairs Department were checked on Friday. They were not
confirmed and Alexei Dymovsky didn't see fit to meet with the representatives
of the regional commission," Zhelyabin explained, adding that Dymovsky has been
fired by executive order of the head of the regional Internal Affairs
Department, Sergey Kucheruk.
Anna Perova