Bribes are disgusting: ex-deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan may become a defendant in a new case

On July 28, the Perovsky District Court of Moscow found Rufat Ismailov, former Deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan, guilty of corruption crimes. However, according to lawyers, the verdict may not be the last point in this story: the investigation has the right to continue checking the origin of the assets of the ex-policeman worth about 534 million rubles, and if there are grounds, to open a new criminal case. Ismailov's former deputy Dalgat Abdulgapurov was also found guilty. The court sentenced the defendants to 15 and 12 years in prison, respectively. Experts call the case part of the ongoing anti-corruption campaign in Dagestan.

The corruption case

Rufat Ismailov, the former deputy Interior Minister of Dagestan, who headed the investigative police department, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined 51 million rubles. The convict was also stripped of the rank of colonel of justice, the Izvestia correspondent reported from the courtroom. Ismailov was found guilty of accepting bribes worth 1.3 million rubles, as well as abuse and abuse of office out of self-interest.

His deputy, Dalgat Abdulgapurov, was sentenced by the court to 12 years in a penal colony and a fine of 50 million rubles, and he was also stripped of the rank of colonel.

Several investigators of the Dagestan Ministry of Internal Affairs were also involved in the case, who actively participated in the corruption scheme — they received from 7 to 12 years in prison and fines of 1 million rubles and were also stripped of their titles. Businessman Emirov was sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony for handing over bribes to Dagestani policemen.

The lawyers of the convicts said they would appeal the verdict.

According to investigators, in August 2020, Ismailov and his deputy Dalgat Abdulgapurov received 300 thousand rubles for refusing to initiate criminal proceedings on the illegal construction of a house. Two months later, the prosecution believes, they received another 1 million rubles for assistance in making a positive procedural decision in the case of embezzlement of 30 million rubles of budget funds allocated under the maternity capital program.

In addition, as follows from the case file, in August 2022, the defendants transferred 100 million rubles to entrepreneur Frolov so that he could buy equipment for mining cryptocurrencies. However, upon learning that the order had not been fulfilled, the head of the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan and his deputy initiated a criminal case against the businessman, accusing him of fraud on an especially large scale. According to the investigation, the accusation was based on the testimony of fake witnesses.

After Frolov returned the money to the colonels, the charge was reclassified to a less serious one, and the businessman was fined.

The main defendants in the case were detained in November 2023. After searches in their homes and workrooms, they were escorted to Moscow, where the next day the court sent them to jail for two months.

Ismailov's Collections

As follows from the case file, Ismailov's career developed according to a typical scenario for a police officer. In 1996, the 21-year-old son of a justice of the peace began serving as an investigator in the Derbent district police department. Over the next 23 years, he went through almost all the steps of the corporate ladder and in December 2019 was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan.

However, as noted in the investigation materials, since 2010, by virtue of their position, Colonel Ismailov and his wife were required to declare their income, expenses, and property annually. And here a surprise awaited the inspectors. During this time, the policeman's family, according to official reports, earned about 20 million rubles. At the same time, the investigator found property worth about 534 million rubles, which was registered to his relatives and friends. At the same time, according to the investigation, before Ismailov joined the service, his family did not own large assets and did not have significant savings.

During his time in the police, Ismailov registered eight land plots, five buildings, six foreign cars, two parking spaces and other property with his friends. In addition, during a search of his house, they found a lot of expensive silverware: a vodka set, 30 glasses, two trays, four jugs and a candy bowl, as well as two silver tea sets with gold plating worth about 2 million rubles.

In addition, the Ismailovs were found to have a large number of gold jewelry, silver coins and a collection of watches worth from 50,000 to 1 million rubles. All this was included in the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office, which demanded that the property of the Dagestani policeman be converted into state income. In April 2026, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow satisfied these requirements.

A harsh sentence

Ismailov received the maximum possible sentence under the article on receiving a large-scale bribe committed by a group of individuals. According to lawyer Nikolai Semenov, the punishment turned out to be quite severe. In addition, the multimillion-dollar fine will not reduce the value of the property already seized from the ex—policeman - it will have to be paid separately.

"The fine relates specifically to the sentence and is calculated from the amount of the bribe received," the lawyer explained. — The fact that unconfirmed property was seized from him is a completely different matter.

At the same time, the 12 years of imprisonment that Abdulgapurov received is a fairly typical term in such cases, Nikolai Semenov noted.

The amount of punishment depends, among other things, on the position of the accused, Dmitry Yemelyanov, a lawyer at the Moscow Bar Association, explained to Izvestia. According to the lawyer, if a simple investigator had received the same bribe — 1.3 million rubles - the term would most likely have been shorter.

— Any crime of this kind casts a shadow on justice, on the state structure of power. The higher the position, the more damage is caused to the reputation of the government," he stressed.

Ismailov has three minor children, which is usually considered a mitigating circumstance. However, as lawyer Dmitry Yemelyanov explained, if there are aggravating circumstances in the case, the court may not take this factor into account.

According to him, even the 12 years of imprisonment imposed on Abdulgapurov is a rather harsh term.

— The court evaluates the role of each criminal and the degree of his involvement. The severity of the punishment was probably influenced by Abdulgapurov's high official position and his active role in the commission of the crime," Dmitry Yemelyanov said.

At the same time, the lawyer noted, the verdict does not mean that the investigation of all the circumstances has been completed. According to him, investigators may continue to find out the origin of Ismailov's property worth about 500 million rubles.

Increased attention to Dagestani officials

Earlier, Shamil Khadulaev, a member of the Dagestan Public Monitoring Commission, told Izvestia that complaints had been received against Ismailov. However, according to the activist, Ismailov and his accomplices managed to evade responsibility for a long time. According to experts, the arrest of the former head of the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan and his deputy, as well as the harsh sentence imposed by him, fit into the course of combating large-scale corruption in the republic.

In February 2025, Dmitry Belyaev, who then headed the investigative department of the Investigative Committee for Dagestan, reported that in 2024, more than 150 criminal cases of corruption against 181 people had been sent to court. Among the accused are 25 officials with special legal status, including heads of municipalities and deputies.

One of the most high-profile cases was that of the former mayor of Izberbash, Magomed Isakov. He was accused of accepting bribes, fraud and abuse of office. According to investigators, in 2019, he issued a building permit for an apartment building to a developer for 3.9 million rubles. In addition, according to investigators, Isakov signed two resolutions on the transfer of land worth more than 600 thousand rubles. Then this land was registered to affiliated companies.

In November 2024, Khalid Nurmagomedov, ex-Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Dagestan, was detained on charges of accepting a bribe of 60 million rubles. The investigation believes that for ten years — from 2013 to 2023 — the official assisted the head of the construction company in concluding state contracts at facilities subordinate to the ministries.

In July 2026, Boris Gontsov, the ex-mayor of Kaspiysk, was detained. According to investigators, in 2023, he received a bribe in the form of five apartments worth 18 million rubles for assistance in issuing a permit for the commissioning of an apartment building.

The Ismailov case has become one of the most high-profile corruption cases in recent years in Dagestan. According to experts, it demonstrates that law enforcement agencies are increasingly bringing to justice not only officials at the regional and municipal levels, but also high-ranking law enforcement officials. At the same time, according to Izvestia's interlocutors, the investigation of corruption crimes in the republic continues, and new criminal cases regularly replenish the list of defendants from among government representatives.