Several people were watching the house of military correspondent Kots: they were recruiting on an advertisement website

The performers took photographs and transmitted information to the “customers”

Details of the case of surveillance of the family of military correspondent Alexander Kots in Moscow have become known. According to the investigation, customers are interested in detailed information about the journalist’s schedule.

Today, December 26, the Moscow district court sentenced 28-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan Leonid Gutarov to 1 year in prison. Yulia Ivanova, senior assistant to the head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, reported this to MK. He pleaded guilty under the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Violation of privacy” even at the stage of investigation of the criminal case. The man admitted that, having not found the “target” at the address, he tried to find out information about the whereabouts of the military commander Kots from his wife.

As MK learned, Leonid Gutarov studied in the USA, and, having arrived in the Russian Federation, entered the first year of the Higher School of Economics (at the time of his arrest he was a 1st year student, on a commercial basis). His mother is a lawyer in Kazakhstan, and the student himself was looking for work. Investigators checked and made sure that Gutarov actually sent resumes to international economic companies. And he found the “dubious work” on the advertisement site. As Leonid himself explained, he was not afraid to respond to the offer of an “assistant” with a daily part-time job, since he was sure that on this resource, common offers to become a drug courier were moderated. And at first everything was really within the bounds of decency. The “manager” explained in correspondence that the job involved taking photographs. True, the subjects of filming were supposed to be people, but for some reason this did not bother the student, perhaps because the salary at that time was 5 thousand rubles a day.

Over time, the boss transferred communication with his subordinate to messenger and began to complicate tasks. Leonid Gutarov needed to collect information about exits/entries into the house of Alexander Kots himself, as well as his relatives. After being on idle duty for some time (the journalist was on a business trip), the “tower” student was tasked with finding out where the military correspondent was located. He knocked on the right door and introduced himself to the journalist’s wife as a neighbor. But he was immediately exposed. Then Gutarov came up with a legend that Alexander Kots offered him a job and he needed to know where he was and when he would return. After such questions, the woman called 112. The “neighbor” managed to get away, but tracking his path and detaining him was a matter of technique for the operatives. Alexander Gutarov immediately began to cooperate with the investigation and unlocked his gadgets.

According to information from a MK source, the investigation and special services have information that a real hunt is underway for military correspondent Alexander Kots. Thus, Gutarov is far from the only one who, having bought into the opportunity to earn extra money, kept an eye on the journalist’s home and family. We are talking about at least several more men who are now being sought by operational services. They all took photographs and passed on information to their “customers.”