On February 15, the former "night owner" of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Kumanin, turned 65 years old. The jubilee, of course, is sad; he is serving a gigantic term of 23 and a half years in prison. However, Vladimir Kumarin could well have avoided such a broad list of claims from law enforcement agencies. As Rucriminal.info managed to find out, at one time the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg made an attempt to protect the leader of the "Tambov" and other "authorities" from the possibility of being accused in high-profile criminal cases - they wanted to "hang" the crimes on two other people, but the FSB intervened in the situation RF. As a result, a real "war" unfolded between the police and counterintelligence officers: with wiretapping of the phones of representatives of the two departments, with constant spying on each other, collecting dirt, etc. The Rucriminal.info correspondent managed to communicate with one of the participants in this war, who, on condition of anonymity, agreed to tell how events developed. We cite his story almost in full.
Cop St. Petersburg
In 2008, we arrived in St. Petersburg to participate in the investigation of a number of contract killings and raider seizures. The first thing that surprised the city was the huge influence that the GUVD has. In all other regions, the local FSB department plays a dominant role among the security forces. And in St. Petersburg - operational support in high-profile cases, the development of officials, behind-the-scenes games with the leaders of criminal groups, the protection of witnesses in high-profile investigations was carried out by police officers. This looked especially surprising against the background of the fact that the entire leadership of the FSB consisted of immigrants from St. Petersburg. The city prosecutor's office and the General Prosecutor's Office were also on the side of the cops.
Back in Moscow, we were warned that the police officers would complicate life in every possible way. And it really turned out that all investigators from the capital, FSB officers, are under the close guardianship of cops. Outside surveillance was set up almost from the station, attempts were made, so-called approaches, etc.
The main goal of the police was by all means, if not to ruin the criminal cases, then to send them in the right direction.
For a long time, four large groups of raiders operated in St. Petersburg. The first was headed by Vladimir Kumarin, a man who had connections in all echelons of power and therefore remained "untouchable" for a long time. The second group was headed by Badri Shengelia. He was considered a partner of Kumarin, but the latter said more than once that he was ready to "drain Shengelia", did not particularly hold on to this person.
In the third group, the leader was Mikhail Sliozberg, nicknamed Misha Kupchinsky, a unique person - just "flesh of the flesh" of the St. Petersburg police. He and the heads of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg have developed a real know-how in raider seizures. The scheme worked as follows. At first, representatives of Sliozberg clumsily brought to the tax inspectorates fake contracts for the sale and purchase of shares in firms, buildings, according to which they rewrote objects to their people. The victims, of course, went with statements to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, some of them personally to the head of this department, Vladislav Piotrovsky. He “tolerated” everyone and sent them to the deputy head of the Organized Crime Control Department, Vladimir Sych, at whom the applicants unexpectedly found the most rosy reception. Owl promised to find the criminals, punish them severely, return the property, etc. In short, he put up with him in every possible way. Satisfied and reassured, they waited for good news, and soon Sych's subordinates came to them and announced that a graphological examination had been appointed, which should show that the contracts submitted to the tax inspectorates were fake. The police officers, on quite official grounds, asked the victims for examination to write their full names at the end of two sheets of blank paper and sign them. Then the sheets with autographs were handed over to Sliozberg's lawyer and the texts of the sales and purchase agreements were applied to them. At the same time, corrupt tax authorities simply destroyed fake contracts, so that no trace of them remained. And the agreements with the real autographs of the building owners were attributed by Misha Kupchinsky's representatives to the investigators who were investigating cases of raider seizures. Investigators, at the direction of their management, appointed only a very "narrow" examination - on the authenticity of the sellers' signatures on contracts. The fact is that a broader examination will certainly show that the texts of the contracts were put on the sheets later than the sellers' paintings appeared on them. Then the investigators handed over to the people of Sliozberg the results of the examination that the signatures on the contracts were genuine and the originals of the contracts themselves. None of the cases of raider seizures committed by Kupchensky's people contained the originals of the agreements. When the investigators of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate were interrogated by the investigators of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, they unanimously declared the following: “we, the backward people, did not know that it was possible to conduct an extended examination”; "Originals documents returned the agreements, because they were afraid to keep them in the file - they could be lost. "
Thus, all the forged contracts were destroyed, the people of Sliozberg had contracts with the real signatures of the sellers in their hands, and even the examination from the police department confirming this fact. Ideal crime. Later, the "right hand" of Kumarin, Vyacheslav Drokov, testified to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation that he somehow asked Sliozberg: "Misha, how do you manage to get real signatures?" Kupchinsky laughed and replied: "Anything can be done through the cops." And then he offered services to obtain blank sheets with the signatures of the sellers "Tambov". Obviously, for a very good price.
The fourth group of raiders, according to a Rucriminal.info source, was headed by "authority" Andrey Leukhin, nicknamed Medved, who constantly clashed with Kumarin and Sliosberg.
A huge number of unsolved "contract" murders and raider seizures in St. Petersburg were not only striking, but also became simply indecent. It was then that the leadership of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, together with the "authorities", came up with a joint special operation: all shootings and explosions, primarily committed by the "Tambovskaya" gangs, should be "pinned" on "authority" Oleg Makovoz, and all raider seizures - on Medved. Sych, Piotrovsky and Misha Kupchinsky with Kumarin took part in the discussion of the details of this special operation. Moreover, the latter said that he was ready to "give" the law enforcement officers also Shengelia, so that everything would not look so obvious. As a result, all the crimes that are now incriminated to Kumarin could have been put on Makovoz and Leukhin 10 years ago. For this, everything was ready: dozens of witnesses gave the investigation the "necessary" information, relevant articles began to appear in the media, the Central Internal Affairs Directorate stepped up work in a given channel, representatives of the prosecutor's office also moved according to the developed scheme. And here Vladimir Putin gives the go-ahead for the arrest of Kumarin, investigators and officers of the FSB of the Russian Federation come to St. Petersburg from Moscow to investigate the most high-profile cases themselves.
"We do not need the" overseers "from Moscow"
An especially tough fight between the FSB and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate unfolded over the figure of Oleg Makovoz, the closest associate of thief in law Vladimir Tyurin (Tyurik). Once Makovoz was responsible for security operations in Tyurik's group "Ten", then he himself became an "authority". Tyurik, in turn, is a close relationship of one of the most influential thieves in law, Asan Usoyan (Ded Khasan). It was Tyurin who instructed Usoyan to monitor the interests of their clan in St. Petersburg, and Makovoz was Tyurik's eyes, ears and hands in the “northern capital”. He had his own group of killers, headed by Denis Dolgushin. Dolgushin knew the details of most of the major contract killings in St. Petersburg, because he either committed them personally, or participated in the preparation of the crimes, or knew about the details from familiar perpetrators. A real storehouse of information. It was Dolgushin, by the way, who at one time developed an operation to eliminate the "authority" of Konstantin Yakovlev (Kostya Mogila). In 2003, serious misunderstandings arose between Ded Khasan and Mogila on a number of commercial projects. To control the situation, Ded Khasan sent Tyurik from Moscow to St. Petersburg several times, during one of his visits he ran into Yakovlev right at the airport. The conversation immediately turned into a quarrel, Yakovlev said to Tyurik something like this: "Tell Ded Khasan that we here in St. Petersburg will figure it out without any" looking ", there is nothing to send anyone to us." Tyurik gave the information, after which the fate of Kostya Mogila was decided. On May 25, 2003, during a visit to Moscow, Yakovlev was shot by motorcyclists. And soon after that Dolgushin decided to deal with his boss Oleg Makovoz. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, someone “whispered” to Dolgushin that Makovoz himself had “ordered” him. Secondly, Dolgushin by that time was tired of the role of an ordinary killer. He hoped that after the death of Makovoz he would be able to take his place. Moreover, the murder could always be attributed to revenge on the part of the people of Kostya Mogila. On October 14, 2003 in St. Petersburg, killers literally riddled the car (about 90 bullets were fired in total), in which Makovoz was. But he himself remained alive. After that, Dolgushin realized that his life was worth nothing anymore, and found himself in the arms of representatives of the St. Petersburg police department. This happened not without the assistance of the Tambov. According to some reports, Vladimir Kumarin personally had a conversation with Dolgushin.
As a result, the "storehouse of information" first gave testimony about all the murders to which Makovoz really had a relationship. And then, according to the special operation of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate and the "authorities", he also began to talk about how Makovoz allegedly "ordered" the murders, which were actually committed by the "Tambov". One crime after another was broadcast on Makovoz, he himself was about to break down and confess, in short, everything went like clockwork. Operative support in the case was carried out by the employees of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg, under the personal leadership of Vladislav Piotrovsky. And here investigators and FSB officers from Moscow appear. If it were not for our intervention, then Kumarin and there would be practically nothing to judge for - Makovoz and Leukhin were all responsible. Our main goal was to cut off the militiamen from Makovoz, prevent the murders of the "Tambovskys" from being pinned on him and take Dolgushin's police department out of full control. Then the main battle began.
In bed with the prosecutor
No matter how trite it sounds, the events unfolded in the spirit of American action films or TV series, such as "Cop Wars". The FSB took Makavoz under its reinforced protection, and Dolgushin under its GUVD. Both sides organized constant outdoor surveillance one after the other and tapped the opponents' phones, and began collecting compromising evidence. In particular, we found out that the police officers and the prosecutor's office feel some kind of real love for Dolgushin, and sometimes in the literal sense of the word. In their conversations, the cops and prosecutors called him nothing other than "Deniska" and rushed around with him as with a "written sack". Anything that Deniska doesn’t want, the police will immediately organize for him. As a result, we constantly watched their joint trips to the best hotels, baths, restaurants, nightclubs. Only that they didn't spoon-feed. A surveillance camera was installed in one of these baths, chosen by Deniska and the police officers. At first, we watched as Deniska was drinking there with the cops, and then an employee of the prosecutor's office appeared in the bathhouse, helping to support the state prosecution in many cases considered in the courts of St. Petersburg. And this woman retires with Deniska, and they begin to make love right in the bathhouse. It was later revealed that the couple have long been lovers. It is worth noting that the prosecutor's office in all courts demanded suspended sentences for Deniska, on whose account there are dozens of human lives. This did not happen immediately. At the first trial in 2005, the state prosecutor asked Dolgushin for 15 years in prison. The hearings were urgently interrupted. Vladislav Piotrovsky personally went to Moscow, to the Prosecutor General's Office. After that, the hearings resumed, but the prosecutor's office has already requested eight years "suspended" for the "killer". After that Dolgushin was given only suspended sentences for a long time.
Meanwhile, Makovoz himself, having fallen under the protection of the FSB, also started talking. He gave information about the murders to which Kumarin was involved, and also spoke about his relationship with Vladislav Piotrovsky. They met, back in the 90s, when Makovoz controlled one of the private security companies in St. Petersburg, and Piotrovsky was the head of the criminal police. As a result, Piotrovsky offered Makovoz to cooperate, both with him and with another notable character of the “gangster Petersburg”, the former head of the security for the mayor of Anatoly Sobchak, Roman Tsepov.
However, there were some "punctures". In exchange for testimony, Makovoz sometimes asked to be allowed to get out into the city: accompanied by FSB officers to a restaurant, to the girls. Usually it was formalized like this: the investigator gave permission to transport Makavoz from the pre-trial detention center to the hospital for examination, but in fact, he went to have fun under guard. All these "sorties" were carried out in conditions of increased secrecy. But several such campaigns were detected by the "outdoor" of the St. Petersburg police department, which transmitted information to the media, a big scandal arose.
There were no clear winners in the battle “for Macavoz”. On the one hand, the "authority" was able to "cut off" the murders committed by the Tambov. On the other hand, most of the information received from Makavoz, in particular regarding the Piotrovsky move, was not given. In June 2009, the court sentenced Makavoz to 23 years in a strict regime colony for his contract killings, and his former killer Dolgushin received only five years and three months in prison.
One of the main opponents of the GUVD and the prosecutor's office was the investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Oleg Pipchenkov, who led all investigations in St. Petersburg. He is a very peculiar person. For most of his life, Pipchenkov was engaged in investigating cases of banditry, murders, and organized crime groups. He always said that his favorite hero is Gleb Zheglov. For Pipchenkov there are no semitones - everything is either white or black. As a result, in many cases there was an obvious overkill with the accused. The largest "harvest" was collected for the investigation of the raider seizure of the Frunzenskaya Fruit and Vegetable Base (FPK), in which charges were brought against as many as 25 persons involved. Then, however, the claims against most of these people were abandoned. There was a great interest in the story with FPK because Vladislav Piotrovsky could be hooked on through this case.
FPK belonged to an elderly businessman Semyon Abramovich Shubin. Then she was captured by the people of Sliozberg. Shubin, through some of his connections, managed to agree on a meeting with Piotrovsky, told him about what had happened. The head of the GUVD sent Shubin to Sych, promising that he would deal with everything. Well, then the scheme described earlier worked. Sych's subordinates took from Shubin for examination the painting on two sheets of paper, on which later Misha Kupchinsky's lawyers would whether the texts of treaties are applied. However, the militiamen made a big puncture. When Shubin wrote his full name, he was nervous, as a result he made a mistake, crossed out several letters, then corrected them. The opera did not ask the businessman to rewrite his name, as a result, the signature on the contract turned out to be with all these corrections. Serious evidence. As a result, Pipchenkov began to shake first Sliozberg, then Sych. And the idea of Pitrovsky. Misha Kupchinsky quickly fled to Israel. He was put on the wanted list. Owl at all interrogations constantly lied about any reason. It is generally difficult to find a more deceitful person. Piotrovsky was interrogated twice. He admitted the fact of meeting with Shubin, but said that he sent him to Sych, because he considered him an excellent professional. He spoke extremely positively about Syche, stated that he was one of the best workers and had nothing to do with any raider seizures. About his acquaintance with Misha Kupchinsky spoke extremely evasively. As a result, only Sych and his subordinates were sent to court. There was no “good” to squeeze Piotrovsky from the top.
As for other raider seizures, at first things were going hard, but then the arrested one after another began to cooperate with the investigation. For this Pipchenkov came up with his own unique know-how. He understood perfectly well that the Prosecutor General's Office, due to its friendship with the St. Petersburg Main Directorate of Internal Affairs and the tacit support of Kumarin, would not ask for suspended sentences for witnesses of the RF IC in the courts. Therefore, Pipchenkov simply suggested to the defendants in the cases that he would not bring new charges, charges under grave articles, etc. And in return, they should start cooperating. Shengelia was one of the first to testify. He had previously guessed that he was "leaked" by Coumarin, but he was simply afraid to say anything. Then Kumarin himself ended up behind bars and Pipchenkov put the question to Shengelia bluntly: either he would be hanged with a whole series of raider seizures and, possibly, murders, or he was giving evidence. And then Shengelia suffered. He told about Kumarin, and about Drokov, and about Sych, and about the Tsvetkov brothers (active members of the Tambov organized criminal group), as well as about many other people. The situation with the “right hand” of Kumarin Drokov was much more complicated. At first he did not want to cooperate in any way, then he was taught a good lesson. In 2009, in one of the cases of raider seizures, he received a term of 15 years in prison (Kumarin was given a year less). After that, Pipchenkov still broke Drokov. The investigator said he had little choice. In case of further refusal to cooperate, he will be automatically charged with the same charges as Kumarin, including murder. This means that Drokov will never be released. If he begins to testify, then the term for raiding will be the only one for him and there will be no more charges. As a result, Drokov broke down, and turned out to be even more talkative than Shengelia. He not only testified about Kumarin, but also about Sliozberg, with whom he often spoke, about Leukhin, about the same Sych and Piotrovsky.
If we talk about some kind of decency among all the characters, then Leukhin surprised most of all. He refused to give any evidence, even against the same Kumarin, who contributed to the fact that the Bear ended up behind bars.
To be continued
Alexey Ermakov
