Russia’s leading anti-corruption police chief showered jewellery, opulent property and elite cars on his wife and three ‘unofficial’ spouses, it is alleged.
Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko, 39, kept his battalion of beauties in luxury while pocketing the kind of bribes he was supposed to root out to fund his excessive lifestyle, say state investigators.
The senior policeman — officially earning less than £40,000 a year as he spearheaded Vladimir Putin’s drive against endemic corruption — was detained last year accused of grandiose criminality, which he denies, but now details have emerged of his alleged exotic private life amid claims from prosecutors that his blonde army were fully aware of his alleged illegal activities.
Russia’s top anti-corruption police officer Colonel Dmitry Zakharchenko has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes to pay for his several unofficial ‘partners’, prosecutors claim
Colonel Zakharchenko moved from the provinces along with his girlfriend Irina Petrushina to Moscow in 2005, but following their split, he gave her a Mercedes ML and a £1m apartment
Dubbed the Casenova Colonel, he arrived in Moscow from the provinces in 2005 bringing with him glamorous girlfriend Irina Petrushina, but the relationship foundered when his new Moscow mistress became pregnant, it was reported.
He left Petrushina a Mercedes ML along with a £1 million penthouse in a prime location, and the pair ‘remained friends’.
In 2008 his ‘second partner’ Marina Semynina gave birth to their daughter but the relationship was unstable due to his ‘philandering’.
He compensated Marina and the child with two apartments, including a £3 million penthouse in luxurious residential complex Imperial House in the very heart of Moscow.
The other, then valued at around £600,000, was in a ‘pyramid-shaped’ building on a street named after Soviet revolutionary Lenin’s brother.
After ending his relationship with Petrushina he began a relationship with Marina Semynina in 2008 and the pair had a child – she received several apartments and some luxury cars
While dating Semynina, he met model Yana Saratovtesva, pictured, and later married her and moved into an £8.5 million apartment. Following their divorce, he handed her a £1.2 million apartment after she had threatened to report him to the police’s own internal security force
Marina also became the owner of chic Porsche Cayenne and Mercedes CLS, gifted by Zakharchenko.
‘Dmitry Zakharchenko was trying to satisfy her in everything,’ reported pro-Kremlin news source Life.ru
Once she begged him to help a homeless man, and in an ‘act of charity’ he built him a house.
Meanwhile, the policeman was funding the expensive shopping tastes of his new love, model Yana Saratovtseva.
A family friend said:’Saratovtseva went to Semynina’s home, turned her back and slipped down her trousers, showed Semynina her toned rear and told her: ‘You will never have such an bum!’
The policeman was smitten by Yana, now 29, and married her.
Wedding gifts from her groom included a Porsche Cayenne and jewellery including 20 carat diamonds valued at $350,000.
As he was supposed to be countering graft in Russia as head of a special task force in Putin’s Interior Ministry, he moved his new bride into a 250-square-metre apartment on Prechistenskaya Embankment with a view over Moscow River, Christ the Savior Cathedral and the Kremlin.
This property is now on the market at a value of £8.5 million.
The marriage did not last, and the couple headed for the divorce courts.
But, according to investigators, she began ‘blackmailing’ the alleged bent cop, threatening to report him to the ministry’s powerful security service.
He responded by seeking to mollify her, gifting an apartment of her own worth £1.2 million.
By now, Zakharchenko’s wondering eye had led him to 24 year old Anastasia Pestrikova who he met at a party in a Moscow night club.
Early last year she had given birth to his son.
Perhaps fearing the net was closing on him, he registered the boy in one of three smart apartments he had bought for his mother.
Anastasia was provided with a Range Rover, along with a sumptuous apartment worth £2.2 million on Efremova street in Moscow.
He also set her up with a bank account filled with some $16 million American dollars, cash that has been frozen pending investigations.
After his arrest, she gave birth to another son by the policeman.
‘Perhaps Colonel Zakharchenko had a premonition that he could be arrested, and knowing about Anastasia Pestrikova’s pregnancy decided to ensure the mother of his children was looked after,’ said a Life.ru law enforcement source.
She is said to be living now in more modest surroundings with her parents in unfashionable suburb Khimki.
Anastasia Pestrikova met Zakharchenko at a Moscow party and they had a son together
Meanwhile in May this year Saratovtseva celebrated her birthday at restaurant La Maree at a cost of $52,000 dollars.
Zakharchenko was earlier accused of receiving a bribe of $800,000 dollars from this restaurant’s owner Mekhdi Duss and a discount card and a ‘discount card’ worth $60,000.
Zakharchenko was detained during a special operation by the FSB on September 9 2016.
During searches in his car, office and apartments owned by his family, at least £113 million was seized, mostly in foreign currency.
In mid-September, Zakharchenko – head of T department dealing in major corruption cases – was charged with bribe-taking, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice.
The allegations are seen as a major embarrassment to the Russian police’s anti-corruption campaign.
He denies wrongdoing and has claimed investigators are seeking to ‘break him psychologically’.