MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/: So far, there are no results of the internal probe at the Russian Investigative Committee held in the wake of reporter Ivan Golunov’s case, the investigation is ongoing, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"I can only say that a probe is ongoing at the Russian Investigative Committee. So far, there are no results," Peskov stated.
Ivan Golunov was taken into custody on June 6. According to the Moscow police, Golunov was carrying four grams of mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant drug, while five grams of cocaine were found during a search of his rented apartment. Subsequently, he was charged with drug dealing, whereupon Moscow’s Nikulinsky District Court placed the journalist under house arrest. Golunov denied all the accusations from the very beginning, and his defense attorney believed that the prohibited substances had been planted.
On June 11, Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that the criminal case against journalist Ivan Golunov on suspicion of drug trafficking had been dismissed "in view of the failure to prove his participation in the crime." All charges were dropped, and he was released from house arrest on June 11.
On June 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree dismissing chief of Moscow’s Western Administrative District police force Andrei Puchkov and chief of the Drug Control Department of the Moscow police force Yuri Devyatkin.
