Kermen Suite

The police organized the false murder of the rector of the Polar Academy

Law enforcement agencies in St. Petersburg yesterday reported the completion of the hoax they organized, as a result of which the contract killing of the rector of the State Polar Academy Kermen Basangova was prevented. The news of her death spread across the Russian media on Tuesday evening - the police department reported that a pregnant woman was stabbed to death by an unknown criminal right in the courtyard of the university she headed on Voronezhskaya Street. But yesterday morning the leadership of the St. Petersburg police announced that the “victim” was alive, and the incident in the courtyard of the Polar Academy was part of a carefully developed operational combination. As it turned out, the operatives managed to recruit a killer who received an “order” for the rector. As a result, it was possible to prevent the murder and detain all its participants.

According to investigators, the assassination attempt on Ms. Basangova was prepared by her colleagues at the academy - 70-year-old vice-rector of the university Vladimir Lukin, 53-year-old head of the department for economic and material support Vladimir Zhavoronkov and his 21-year-old son Mikhail Zhavoronkov, who worked at the academy driver. All three, as reported by the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, have already confessed. The motive for the assassination attempt was fear of exposure of the financial frauds that the suspects were involved in at the Polar Academy. In this regard, the investigation is now considering the initiation of a number of new criminal cases of a purely economic nature.

Kermen Basangova herself took part in this operation from the very beginning, while she was nine months pregnant. She told Vremya Novostei that the decision to stage her own death was difficult for her: “It wasn’t even a matter of fear for my own safety, but the fact that law enforcement agencies forbade me to tell my relatives and friends about the essence of the operation. And many of them have heart problems. And today I had to spend a lot of time making calls.”

As Alexander Klaus, first deputy head of the SKP department for St. Petersburg, told Vremya Novostei, operatives received information that an assassination attempt on the rector of the Polar Academy might be being prepared a week ago. A criminal case was opened on April 20, when it became clear that the customers did not intend to retreat. According to Mr. Klaus, only the heads of the SKP and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate knew about the essence of the entire operation.

According to the deputy head of the criminal investigation department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, Igor Paradeev, the success of the operation was ensured by the criminal investigation officers, who “gained confidence” in a previously convicted citizen who received an order to liquidate Kermen Basangova from Mikhail Zhavoronkov. He, in turn, as it turned out, was carrying out his father’s instructions, which came from Vice-Rector Lukin. “Kermen Basangova agreed to help us,” said Mr. Paradeev. “But until the last moment we doubted the identities and number of organizers of the crime. Therefore, even the criminal investigation operatives and criminologists who were called to the “murder” of Basangova did not know about the staging. We trusted only to the doctors of the 26th City Hospital, who announced on Tuesday evening that the woman had died from her wounds.”

The culmination of the operation was the transfer of money to the “killer”. The first to be detained was the driver of the university, Mikhail Zhavoronkov, who brought him a bag with 500 thousand rubles. He brought the investigation to his father, Vladimir Zhavoronkov, who is in charge of the material and economic support of the university. And he already pointed to his immediate superior - Vice-Rector Vladimir Lukin, who, according to the investigation, was the main initiator of the assassination attempt.

As Kermen Basangova explained, having become the rector of the Polar Academy last December, she initiated an audit of the financial and economic activities of the university: “Not all documents were in order. I began to suspect that over the past six months at least 6 million rubles were stolen. All contracts for construction and repair work were drawn up by Vladimir Lukin, the husband of my predecessor and founder of the university, Azurget Shaukenbaeva. To confirm my suspicions, I called a commission from the Ministry of Education. The assassination attempt was planned by those who were afraid of the upcoming inspection.”

Vladimir Lukin denies his wife’s involvement in everything that happened. It is only known that Azurget Shaukenbaeva is 71 years old. By law, she could no longer be rector, like her 70-year-old husband. Therefore, they supported Kermen Basangova in the elections. But she did not lobby for their interests.

As Vremya Novostei learned, Kermen Basangova was already at work yesterday. She is preparing for a meeting of a commission from the Ministry of Education and Science, which, apparently, will now be joined by law enforcement officials.

The Polar Academy has existed since 1991. In 1998, the Russian government awarded it the status of a state university. Azurget Shaukenbaeva is considered the founder of the academy. Particular attention at the academy is paid to training specialists for the administrations of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East from among indigenous peoples.

Mikhail TELEKHOV, St. Petersburg