St. Petersburg's Deputy Head Of Criminal Investigation Arrested For Robbery

The Russian colonel faces up to 15 years in prison.

On May 11, the Basmanny court of Moscow sent to pre-trial detention center the deputy head of the criminal investigation department of the Main Department of the Interior Ministry in St. Petersburg Vitaly Lavrishchev on charges of major robbery (part 4 of Article 162 of the Criminal Code), law enforcement agencies told TASS. The police colonel faces up to 15 years in prison.

The FSB officers detained Lavrishchev on May 8, at the same time his office was searched. According to the investigation, the policeman is connected with the attack on a man from whom $300 thousand was stolen.

The incident in question is the one that took place on December 2, 2022 near the building of the investigative department of the Moskovsky district of St. Petersburg. Then several people tried to force a man to give them money, and after refusal attacked him. One of the participants sprayed the victim in the face with the contents of a gas gun, and then a bag with cash was snatched from him. At the time, the amount of damage was estimated at about 18.3 million rubles.

According to "Fontanka", testimony against Lavrishchev was given by Aram Mukuchyan, the former chief of criminal investigation of St. Petersburg's Moskovsky district, who made a deal with the investigation. He claimed that the colonel may have known about the preparation of the attack. Lavrishchev himself denied guilt.

One of the defendants in the case was Maxim Chachin. In February 2026, he was sentenced to four years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 200,000 rubles. The court also recovered from him more than 18.8 million rubles in material and moral damages.

The press service of the Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that in case of proof of guilt Lavrishchev will be dismissed from the internal affairs bodies and will be punished in accordance with the law.

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