Corruption in Russia has a tendency to drive people to despair.
But in the case of a village police chief in the Krasnodar region, it may have led to something much worse.
Alexander Peshekhonov, 32, was found dead on Tuesday in his Lada Kalina car near the village of Radishchevo with a fatal gunshot wound that investigators say was likely self-inflicted, Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported Wednesday.
Beside Peshekhonov's body was a suicide note in which he accused his superiors — excluding the district’s police chief — of corruption, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
Peshekhonov, who had served in the police force since 2000, had been on his way to a meeting with the district police chief when he disappeared Monday.
An investigation has been opened into who might have driven the police chief to suicide, as well as into his allegations.
The Krasnodar region has been the site of a massive law enforcement campaign since November, when a criminal gang with links to the police brutally massacred 12 people in the village of Kushchyovskaya. Subsequent inquiries revealed widespread corruption and collusion between criminals and the police.
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