Bloody side of Yukos. Alexey Pichugin, an employee of Yukos security service, was apprehended within the framework of the criminal case No 18/325507-04 on suspicion of organizing a double murder. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 19, 2003.
On this day 20 years ago, on June 19, 2003, investigators of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia accompanied by members of the special task force detained Pichugin Alexey Vladimirovich, born 1962, the head of the department of inner economic security of the oil company Yukos. He was apprehended on suspicion of organizing a double murder of the business man from the town Tambov Sergey Gorin and his wife Olga Gorina. They were killed in November 2002 in the Tambov Area – it was like this that Leonid Nevzlin and Alexey Pichugin had been eliminating witnesses and accomplices of Yukos shady activity, connected with a series of contract murders and attempted murders.
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin was neutralizing witnesses”).
Luckless “non-indifferent public”, together with human rights activists, warmed up by Khodorkovsky’s* money, turned out to be in a trap of its own unscrupulousness. As soon as it became known that the detained Pichugin was an employee of the oil company Yukos, reports of the apprehension of this person acquired an epic scale. Procedural steps were called “an intimidating action”, and suspicions with regard to Pichugin – “impossible”.
The detained Pichugin was delivered to the pre-trial detention center “Lefortovo”, as he in the past had served in the security service of the state. For the same reason, in the apprehension of the defendant took part members of special forces.
And, on June 21, 2003, a level of restriction was chosen for Pichugin – detention in custody. Such a measure was chosen because, being at large, the defendant could hide himself from the investigation, could exercise pressure on potential witnesses and could destroy traces of this criminal activity. It’s worth saying, there was every reason of that – in Yukos, they rather frenetically were discussing “possible scenarios” – the killing of the Gorins was not the sole episode at all.
DOUBLE MURDER AND ATTEMPTED MURDERS
In the end, on June 26, 2003, within the frameworks of the criminal case No 18/325507-04, a charge was filed against Alexey Pichugin of murdering the director of the CJSC “Don-Group” Sergey Gorin and his wife Olga Gorina.
A bit later, in August 2003, other episodes were added to the charges against Pichugin of the organizing of the killing of the Gorins.
- on October 5, 1998, beatings were inflicted on Viktor Kolesov, an employee of the company “Rosprom”;
- on November 28, 1998, an attempted murder was committed against Olga Kostina, an employee of the Moscow City Hall – near the apartment of her parents a bomb went off.
(See also the article “On this day, Nevzlin’s gang blew up the apartment of a councilor of Moscow’s mayor”).
The fourth episode imputed to Alexey Pichugin – “a threat of murder” against the businessman Sergey Lobikov, was dated 2002. During the court proceedings that took place in 2004, on a motion of the defense, this episode was dismissed “because the expiry of the term of limitation”.
“The investigation was supposed to work on the first series of the criminal activity of Alexey Pichugin and bandits for hire. They worked under the guidance of Leonid Nevzlin. The materials of the case comprised three dozens of volumes, part of the documents were “confidential”. On June 4, 2004, the first part of the accusations – one double murder and two attempted murders – organized by Pichugin and executed by the bandits, was transferred to the Moscow City Court to evaluate the criminal case in substance”, notes the website Prigovor.ru.
(See also the previous article “On this day, Yukos was fighting for the taxes stolen from the state”. Lawyers volte-face. The lost case on collecting 99.375 billion rubles. The website Prigovor.ru reminds its readers of what happened on June 18, 2004).
