Two former traffic police officers in Sochi have been sentenced to prison terms of seven and nine years after extorting a bribe from a driver.
A court in the southern resort city found both men guilty of taking a bribe, while one was also convicted of using violence against a public official, the Krasnodar Krai investigative directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia told Lenta.ru. In addition to their prison sentences, the court banned both former officers from working in law enforcement and ordered each of them to pay a fine of one million rubles.
Fake roadside breath test
Investigators and the court established that the incident occurred in December 2025, when the two officers stopped an automobile while carrying out a routine patrol. The officers accused the motorist of driving under the influence of alcohol. Although the man was entirely sober and agreed to take a roadside sobriety test, the patrolmen convinced him that the breathalyser had returned a positive reading. They then threatened to revoke his driving licence on the spot unless he handed over 100,000 rubles in cash.
The motorist paid the demanded money to the officers, but his wife immediately alerted the police about the extortion. When investigators and detectives from an operational unit arrived at the scene to catch the corrupt pair, the situation escalated rapidly.
Realising that he was about to be caught red-handed with the illicit cash and the manipulated testing device, one of the officers drew his service pistol. He aimed the weapon at the arriving law enforcement squad, prepared it to fire, and bolted from the location. As he fled, the officer managed to discard the evidence before investigators eventually tracked him down, took him into custody, and sent him for trial.
Traffic enforcement and police oversight
The convicted officers served in the Road Patrol Service, known across Russia as the DPS, which operates under the State Traffic Inspectorate, or GIBDD. The force is a branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs responsible for maintaining road safety, issuing vehicle registrations, and conducting highway inspections across the country. Criminal cases involving police misconduct and bribery in Russia fall under the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the federal agency tasked with probing serious crimes and public corruption.
The resort hub of Sochi, located along the Black Sea coast in Krasnodar Krai, experiences heavy vehicular traffic throughout the year, making highway patrol units a regular sight on regional roads. Both former officers will serve their terms in a correctional colony, while the judicial ruling bars them permanently from returning to any position within the Russian security or policing apparatus.
