The first head of the State Drug Control Service, a former associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin who fell into disgrace, Colonel General Viktor Cherkesov, has died at the age of 72. Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, spoke about his death.
“Tragic news: Colonel-General Viktor Cherkesov, former head of the drug control service and presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District, died tonight at the age of 73,” Khinshtein wrote on his Telegram channel.
Cherkesov was born on July 13, 1950 in Leningrad, in the 70s he began to work in the state security agencies. In 1998, he received the post of first deputy head of the FSB – it was then headed by Putin. In 2000, Cherkesov was part of Putin's campaign headquarters, then the president appointed him his plenipotentiary in the Northwestern Federal District. In 2003, the St. Petersburg security officer began to lead a new special service – the State Drug Control Service (FSKN).
In 2006, on behalf of Putin, the Federal Drug Control Service took part in the investigation of the Three Whales furniture smuggling case, one of the most resonant in the 2000s. As a result, there was a series of high-profile arrests and resignations in various law enforcement agencies. The head of the Federal Customs Service, Alexander Zherikhov, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and other high-ranking officials resigned, and the head of one of the departments in the Federal Drug Control Service itself, Alexander Bulbov, was subsequently arrested.
In this regard, in 2007, Cherkesov published an article in Kommersant entitled "We must not allow the soldiers to turn into merchants." It caused a great resonance – Cherkesov spoke about "civil strife within the so-called KGB community" and said that it was unacceptable, because, from his point of view, the special services saved Russia from the catastrophe of the collapse of the USSR.
“Falling into the abyss, the post-Soviet society clung to this very “Chekist” hook. And hung on it. And someone wanted it to hit the bottom and shatter into smithereens. And those who were waiting for this were terribly offended. And they began to be indignant, talking about the bad properties of the “Chekist” hook, on which society held on, ”wrote Cherkesov.
After that, Putin said that "he considers it incorrect to bring such problems to the media." “And if someone acts in this way, makes these kinds of claims about the war of the special services, he himself must first be impeccable,” he said.
Cherkesov was disgraced. He was appointed head of the Federal Arms Supply Agency and then retired. Vedomosti then wrote that Putin "could not forgive him for articles about the struggle within the special services."