In early October 2019, the name of the successor of Timur Kulibayev (son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev) as the head of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation became known. The vacant place was taken by the friend and junior business partner of Kulibayev businessman Kenes Rakishev. Thus, the real organizer of the attack on the Asian "godfather", the former International Boxing Association (AIBA) Gafur Rakhimov, was opened. According to sources at Rucriminal.info, Rakhimov lost his post precisely due to the efforts of Rakishev, who in recent years has established himself as an ardent fighter with representatives of the mafia of the old formation, whom the United States refers to in documents as “Brotherly Circle”.

Rakishev is a representative (primarily financial) of the top of Kazakhstan, the same Kulibayev. For the latter, he performs various “slippery” tasks. For example, such as buying property in London for Gogi Ashkenazy, the lover and mother of Kulibayev’s children. Kulibaev is a longtime close friend of the famous Kazakh boxer Serik Konakbaev. By the fall of 2018, Konakbaev served as head of the Asian Boxing Confederation and vice president of AIBA. It was Konakbaev who decided to compete with Gafur Rakhimov in the election of the head of AIBA. For help, he turned to the then president of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation, and he entrusted all the shadow work to his assistant Kenes Rakishev. Rakishev does business in the United States, which at one time made Gafurov a blacklist for ties with the mafia. It was the theme of the mafia that surfaced on the eve of the election of the head of AIBA. According to sources at Rucriminal.info, this topic surfaced through the efforts of Rakishev. From his submission, the documents of the US Treasury Department were again raised that Rakhimov was connected with the international criminal network of thieves in law Brothers Circle.

An experienced backstage player Gafur Rakhimov outplayed Kulibayev and Rakishev in this fight. The election committee disqualified Serik Konakbaev as a candidate for the post of president of AIBA. The reason was that letters in support of his candidacy from the national boxing federations, which should be at least 20, did not arrive by mail at the AIBA headquarters in Lausanne in Switzerland before the deadline.

However, Rakhimov won only the battle, but not the war. As the sources of Rucriminal.info told, the angry Rakishev (with the support of Kulibayev) launched a real attack on Rakhimov on all fronts. Clearly, they did not do it openly. First of all, they continued to develop the theme of Rakhimov’s relations with the mafia and fanned the scandal over the fact that Rakhimov helped Russia get the Olympics in Sochi.

As a result, IOC representatives deprived AIBA of the right to organize Olympic boxing tournaments (that is, those where non-professional athletes received the right to be selected for the Olympics). And in July 2019, Rakhimov was forced to resign as head of the International Boxing Association (AIBA).

In 2017, the US Treasury published a list of people and organizations that, according to the US authorities, are related to organized crime, are associated with thieves in law and the Brotherhood Circle crime network.

The list included not only the names of people, but also their nicknames. US authorities indicate that Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov is known as “Taiwanchik,” Zakhary Kalashov is “Shakro Molodoy,” Vasily Khristoforov is “Resurrected,” Vladislav Leontyev is “Vadik Bely,” and so on.

According to the published scheme, three persons on the list - Gafur Rakhimov, Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taiwanchik) and Ruben Tatulyan (Robson) - are suspected of financing “thieves in law”.

Having completed the operation to remove Gafur Rakhimov from the post of head of the AIBA, Kenes Rakishev came out of the shadow in this topic and took the post of head of the Kazakhstan Boxing Federation. Thus, Kenes Rakishev celebrated another victory over the old-timers of the mafia. As Rucriminal.info already said, earlier Rakishev took an active part in sending “thief in law” Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) to jail for 10 years. Rakishev is also actively promoting the “authority” of Arman Dzhumageldiev (Wild Arman) because of which there was a howl between the clan of the “thief in law” Nadir Salifov (Lota Guli) and the clan of “thief in law” Badri Koguashvili.

 To be continued

Alexey Ermakov