Old grievances

Investigators found the first ill-wishers of Deputy Yushenkov

The first person detained in the case of the murder of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov, who was shot dead on March 17 in Moscow near his home, appeared on Tuesday evening. Investigators captured a certain Artem Stefanov, who looks like an identikit of the killer and had reason to harbor a grudge against the parliamentarian. Stefanov’s father once sent Mr. Yushenkov a threatening letter, for which he spent six months in prison. Also yesterday, investigators interrogated the son of Sergei Yushenkov, Alexey.

According to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, on April 22, late in the evening, police and prosecutors arrived at the Stefanovs’ apartment on Irina Levchenko Street, conducted a search, and detained 20-year-old Artem Stefanov, a 1st-year student at the Academy of Entrepreneurship and Law. Back in 1995, the head of the family, Alexander Stefanov, wrote and sent a letter threatening Yushenkov in connection with the parliamentarian’s tough position on the actions of federal forces in Chechnya. This is how the author of the message himself later spoke about it on the pages of the newspaper “Zavtra”. “On that February day, when the war was at the very beginning and Russian soldiers were dying, something broke in me, or, as it is fashionable to say, I went a little crazy from these monstrous shots. That’s when I wrote this stupid letter to Yushenkov.” As Sergei Yushenkov’s son Alexey told us, the anonymous letter, which contained threats not only against the deputy, but also his entire family, was immediately transferred to the special services.

“It was because of this letter that the FSB assigned security to my father and our entire family. I was met and escorted from school by armed people,” Alexey Yushenkov told us, “and the special services even suggested that my dad’s driver should carry a machine gun with him just in case.” According to Alexey Yushenkov, he learned from his father that chance helped him identify the anonymous person. Alexander Stefanov and his family decided to move permanently to Greece (he is Greek by nationality), began filling out a form at the OVIR, and his handwriting coincided with the handwriting of the anonymous author. Alexander Stefanov was immediately arrested, spent six months in prison, and then a trial took place.

“My father specifically asked the judges not to punish this man strictly and to assign him a term that he had already served,” said Alexey Yushenkov. As a result, the court decided so.

However, upon his release, Alexander Stefanov found himself in a difficult situation - he lost his job, and his health completely collapsed in prison. It is clear that the Stefanovs could harbor a grudge against Yushenkov, and Artem Stefanov is also very similar to the man who shot the deputy. However, according to our information, yesterday evening a friend of the detainee, Pavel Maslov, came to the prosecutor's office and said that at the time of the murder he saw Artem at the Oktyabr stadium, where he was training - Stefanov Jr. is fond of karate.

Alexey Yushenkov, in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper, also expressed doubt that Stefanov could have carried out the murder. “The crime was prepared very well, and clearly more than one person took part in it. The killers followed their father, knew his daily routine, and fled in a silver BMW. The Stefanov family does not live well, and they are unlikely to be able to organize such a crime,” said Yushenkov Jr. According to Alexey, yesterday investigators interrogated him. “They asked me whether there were threats to my father, what I did on the day of the murder, they asked about my acquaintances, including Anna Gebel and Andrei Sukhankin (investigators conducted searches of them on Monday and Tuesday. - Ed. ). I don’t think he said anything particularly new,” Alexey Yushenkov told us.

Alexander SHVAREV