In Moscow, two officers of the "M" FSB were arrested, on the basis of which a large-scale investigation is now being conducted in the FSIN, under which Oleg Korshunov, Deputy Director of the Prison Department, was arrested. According to the investigation, fighters with corruption in the security forces themselves participated in an illegal transaction to alienate half of the assets of the enterprise that owned the construction market in the southeast of the capital. Counterintelligence agents who found themselves in the cells of the Lefortovo pre-trial detention facility in the neighborhood with the officials they worked for, denied their guilt in a particularly large fraud.

The decision to detain Major Sergey Nikityuk and captain Konstantin Strukov was accepted by the Moscow Garrison Military Court at the request of the investigators of the SSD of the TFR. According to investigators, as early as in 2016, both counterintelligence agents participated in the scam involving the disposal of 50% of the assets of the commercial structure that owned the small construction market "Na Ostapovskaya" (Ostapovskaya Street, 1) near the metro station "Volgogradsky Prospekt". Learning that the city authorities are going to demolish several unsightly pavilions located on the market, the officers turned to the owner of the company, who, using their extensive connections in various structures, was offered to "solve the issue" with the preservation of his business.

For this they, according to the victim, demanded to rewrite half of the company, the authorized capital of which was 4.6 million rubles, to a third-party person. The entrepreneur was forced to agree, but the deal for some reason did not take place, and a little later the half-companies registered their candidate for the mother. Nevertheless, the market "On Ostapovskaya" authorities was still demolished, and its owners were offered compensation of 90 million rubles. The old owner of the company, who would have to share money with the newly-born partner, deemed himself deceived and wrote a statement to the law enforcement agencies. The criminal case of fraud in a particularly large amount (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code) was instituted in the central office of the Investigative Committee of Russia. First, with the operatives took several explanations about what happened, but they remained at large. However, later Konstantin Strukov was invited on "working issues" to sign certain documents to the premises of the FSB FSB in the Lubyanka, where they were detained. At the same time, Major Nikityuk was detained, as well as the failed co-owner of the market and his mother. Employees of the FSB, as servicemen, were sent for election to preventive measures in the garrison court, and their civil partner - in Basmanny district. The woman was not arrested, limited to a written undertaking not to leave the place. Officers who were charged with illegal seizure of assets by 2.3 million rubles, through lawyers appealed their arrest as unlawful and unjustified in the hope of leaving the Lefortovo detention center at least for house arrest. "My client does not plead guilty on the charges brought against him," Konstantin Strukov's lawyer Igor Kopenkin told Kommersant. He also noted that the side of the defense does not exclude the version of revenge for the capable operatives of the FSB for their professional activities, refraining from further comment.

At the same time, Kommersant sources in the law enforcement agencies stressed that Major Nikityuk and Captain Strukov served in one of the elite units of the central apparatus of the FSB, the "M" administration, charged with counterintelligence and fighting corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Justice and the FSIN and FSSP.

The task of co-workers was to identify abuses in the prison department. According to some reports, both counterespionage agents took part in virtually all the high-profile revelations in the structure of the FSIN in recent years. In particular, they were part of a group engaged in the operational development of former head of the prison department Alexander Reimer and his multi-billion dollar fraud with electronic bracelets, for which he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

In April 2016, Sergey Nikitiuk, still a captain, as a senior operative in matters of special importance in the second direction of the 3rd Department of Management "M", himself submitted a report to his management about the thefts he found while checking the activities of the FSUE located in the Saratov Region "Cannery factory FSIN" and its head Pavel Belikov. The operative reported that he and officials of the FSIN kidnapped under fictitious contracts 359 million rubles. "Nikityuk really stood at the origins of the investigation, a criminal case was opened, but the facts were not confirmed, and a year later he was stopped recognizing the right of the accused to be rehabilitated on this charge," Alexander Kunitsyn, lawyer of Belikov, told Kommersant. However, Mr. Belikov was charged with other episodes, and now the court is over him. Although, according to the lawyer, the FSUE and the FSIN department of the Saratov region, recognized by the investigation, declared no damage.

Meanwhile, according to Kommersant sources, Sergey Nikitiuk and his colleagues were actively collecting information not only on his managers, but also on the back issues of the then deputy director of the FSIN, Oleg Korshunov.

It was these data that became one of the reasons for the initiation of a number of criminal cases against a high-ranking prison official. Moreover, according to some reports, it was the information of the counter-intelligence agent that became the basis for wiretapping Mr. Korshunov's phones, and then he personally took part in the arrest in September last year of the former deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service on his boat in the yacht club outside Moscow and a search there.

However, the arrest of officers of the management of the M on the case of a major official will not be affected. Mr. Korshunov will soon stand trial on charges of embezzlement in several episodes, as well as receiving bribes. His accomplices are two subordinates, cases against two businessmen who worked with the structures of the FSIN (in their favor, according to investigators, the embezzlement was committed) will be considered by the courts in a special order in connection with the confession of guilt.

Both Sergei Nikitiuk and Konstantin Strukov were awarded departmental awards and had gratitude from the leadership of the service. In this case, according to people from their entourage, officers who are about 30 years old lived modestly. So, Major Nikityuk, they argue, lived with three children in a small apartment, and Konstantin Strukov recently purchased housing in a mortgage.