Ex-Voronezh Traffic Police Chief Gets 7.5-Year Sentence for Bribes

Seven years and six months in a strict-regime colony, deprivation of rank, and a three-year ban on working in law enforcement after release — this was the sentence for former Gribanovsky District Traffic Police chief Dmitry Tapilin, pronounced by district court judge Andrei Silin in just nine minutes. On January 29, Tapilin was found guilty of receiving a large bribe totaling 238,000 rubles (approximately $2,600 at current rates), which was confiscated by the state. This was reported by the joint press service of the courts in Voronezh region.

Dmitry Tapilin was detained in May 2025 by investigators from the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) along with police and Federal Security Service (FSB) colleagues. According to the investigation, from December 2020 to November 2024, he collected money from representatives of organizations that escorted oversize cargo, in exchange for ignoring their violations. Investigators stated that the «payments» were received by the then-acting traffic police chief through an intermediary via bank transfers. Initially, the case involved 126,000 rubles (about $1,400), but the proven bribe amount eventually turned out to be nearly double.

Incidentally, the 7.5-year sentence without a fine can be seen as the court showing leniency towards Tapilin. For receiving a large bribe, he could have faced between seven and 12 years with a fine of up to 60 times the bribe amount, which in his case would have been up to 14.28 million rubles (approximately $158,700). It is unknown whether the former traffic policeman will appeal the sentence, which some might call a stroke of luck.