To kill for $15,000. “Pichugin, at the behest of Nevzlin, handed over to Gorin a photo of the aggrieved, indicated her address”. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 28, 1998.
On this day 25 years ago, on November 28, 1998, in southeast Moscow, in one of the apartment blocks on the Ferganskaya Street, an explosion was fired at 2 a.m. A bomb went off in the staircase near the door of one of the apartments, where together with her parents was registered the Moscow mayor councilor on public relations Olga Kostina, who before that had worked as a councilor of Mikhail Khodorkovsky on public relations.
TAMBOV’S FRIENDS OF “MENATEP”
In the course of the investigation, as of 1999, it was established that the bomb had been assembled, laid, and let off by bandits from the town Tambov. This group consisted of Korovnikov Igor Olegovich, Kabanets Vladimir Nikolayevich, Erbes Denis Pavlovich, Popov Pavel Alexandrovich.
As an intermediary for a contract to carry out this assault was mentioned Alexey Peshkun. It’s in this format that in April 1999 a charge was brought, and in mid-December of 1999, the case was transferred to court. On June 29, 2000, the Tambov Regional Court gave its appraisal of this criminal episode on the strength of all presented evidence, testimonies of the defendants of the case and the circumstances of the committed crime. The Tambov Court, taking into consideration that no one was hurt and that the bandits had not ascertained that the “target” was in the apartment, pleaded the executors not guilty of the attempted murder of Kostina. The commissioner of this crime, at the time of the court sessions, was not established – everything “closed on himself” Peshkun, thus breaking the chain. However, this episode happened to be only a part of the “serial” picture of the criminal activity of Khodorkovsky’s oil empire. Had the Tambov Court known the whole picture, it would certainly have estimated it differently.
Later, the investigation and the court found out that the contract came from Leonid Nevzlin through Alexey Pichugin. The crime was organized by Sergei Gorin from Tambov, who afterward was "wiped out" in November 2002, as the masterminds of the crime were afraid of disclosures.
“I SAID TO GORIN THAT THERE WOULD BE TWO CORPSES”
“Having arrived in Moscow, Korovnikov disguised as an employee of the energy company "Mosenergo", penetrated the apartment and there from the conversation with the dwellers he understood that the masterminds had cheated him: Ms. Kostina worked at that time in the Office of the mayor of Moscow, and Mr. Kolesov was “in a bank”. Soon the circumstances of the crime changed too: Sergei Gorin and Peshkun, having forgotten about “a simple harassment”, demanded from the executioners to dabble acid in the face of Olga Kostina and to kill Viktor Kolesov. Vladimir Kabanets was chosen to kill Kolesov, the office manager of “Rosprom” – he planned, disguise as a yard-keeper, to come close to his victim and shoot his with a sawn-off hunting rifle. “I told Goring that there would be two copses – Kolesov and his driver, and in response, I was told that’s nothing, we will add another $15 thousand”, reported the newspaper “Kommersant” about the court proceedings mistakenly calling Viktor Kolesov as Vladimir. Most likely, Kolesov made it out alive only because there were frictions between the masterminds and the executioners, and he as “target” was transferred to bandits from Volgograd – to Reshetnikov and Tsigelnik, who on October 5, 1998, battered him for 5 thousand U.S. dollars, having camouflaged it as an ordinary street assault. Whereas the Tambov group planned to kill both him and his driver.
(See also the article “The Court considers Nevzlin extremely dangerous…' and “The bloody price-list of Nevzlin”).
From the materials of the case:
“INDUCED TO COMMIT THE MURDERS OF KOLESOV AND KOSTINA”
“Having acceded to Pichugin’s proposal, Gorin in order to commit the crime engaged Peshkun A.V. who, also had agreed to take part in the crime, in August 1998, induced Korovnikov I.O. and Popov P.A. to execute the murders of Kolesov and Kolesnikova and handed over to them advance money. To facilitate the carrying out of these crimes, he gave photos and addresses of the complainants in Moscow, which he had earlier received from Gorin S.V.”
The investigation and the court found out that the home address of Kostina, where the bomb was delivered, had been taken from the archive of the Yukos human resources – these documents were delivered to the office of Nevzlin, with Alexey Pichugin present there.
From the materials of the case:
“HE CONDUCTED NEGOTIATIONS CONCERNING THE REWARD FOR KILLING KOSTINA TO THE AMOUNT OF 15,000 U.S. DOLLARS”
“With the purpose of realizing criminal intentions, Pichugin, having assumed the duty of one of the masterminds of murders and acting on direct instructions of Nevzlin L.B., proposed to Gorin to find persons ready for a reward to commit this crime. Moreover, Pichugin, in order to facilitate the execution of this crime, handed to Gorin the photo of the complainant, indicated the place of residence of Kostina in Moscow, carried out the negotiations about the amount of the reward for killing Kostina to the tune of 15,000 U.S, dollars (118 575 rubles at the exchange rate of that time), as well as the terms of its commitment".
“WAS ADJUDGED GUILTY ON THE WHOLE SERIES OF CRIMES…”
On March 30, 2005, on the totality of the committed crimes, on the basis of the verdict of a jury trial, about which Pichugin had himself asked, “the Tambov connection” Alexey Peshkun was pleaded guilty of organizing the assault on the office manager of the CJSC “Rosprom” Sergei Kolesov in 19998 and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment.
Alexey Pichugin was adjudged guilty of the whole series of crimes. According to the operative part of the verdict, the court imposed the following sentences:
- for organizing of the assault of Viktor Kolesov – 5 years in colony;
- for organizing the attempted murder of Olga Kostina – 12 years;
- for organizing the murders of the residents of Tambov Olga and Sergei Kostin in 2002 – 17 years.
“By way of partial addition of the terms, Alexey Pichugin was finally sentenced to 20 years in a maximum-security penalty colony. Later, within the frameworks of new cases, already without jurors, and on other episodes, the court admeasured the penalty – life imprisonment. Life imprisonment (in absentia) received also escaped to Israel Leonid Nevzlin, the criminal instructions of whom carried out Pichugin”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, Yukos played an American card”. How the conversation with Steven Michael Theede, president of “Yukos-Moskva” was passed off as an interrogation. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on November 27, 2003.
