"Order" masters

The intelligence services are on the trail of the alleged killers of Igor Klimov

Russian intelligence services are on the trail of the largest group of professional killers exposed in recent years, which, as operatives suspect, is responsible for dozens of high-profile murders. According to the Vremya Novostey newspaper, so far the special services have managed to arrest two gang members - Sergei Berezner and Ilya Rozhnov. Moreover, the police already have every reason to say that the latter could have participated in the sensational assassination attempt. General Director of the defense holding Concern Air Defense Almaz-Antey Igor Klimov. Now the investigative group receives information almost every day from different cities of Russia and CIS countries about the involvement of detainees and their accomplices in various contract killings.

The group was identified during an investigation into an attack on a businessman in Ryazan. On September 13 of this year, when the head of private private enterprise “Starchenkov” Alexander Starchenkov drove up to his house in a car, a killer ran up to him and opened fire with a revolver. Investigators found that IChP was supplying coffee and tea to Ryazan and was considered very successful, but recently conflicts began between Starchenkov and his deputy, a 31-year-old woman. The businesswoman was immediately detained, and during interrogations all the details of the crime were revealed. As it turned out, a 25-year-old friend undertook to help the woman eliminate her partner, who, in turn, passed the “order” to one of the members of the Orekhovsk criminal group, Sergei Berezner. The latter allegedly asked for 10 thousand dollars for the work. Berezner himself did not fulfill the “order”, entrusting it to a certain professional. Soon, employees of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District managed to arrest the killer himself in Moscow. At first, he presented a fake passport, but when investigators checked his fingerprints, they found out that they had got a person who had long been hunted by the intelligence services of not only Russia, but also many CIS countries.

According to intelligence services, 24-year-old Ilya Rozhnov, while still a youth, received three years for robbery and was released in 2000. According to detectives, it was then that he and two accomplices began carrying out contract killings. The group’s assignments came from the same Berezner, other members of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group and several other “dispatchers”. “Rozhnov acted very professionally,” representatives of the investigation team told us. - He sometimes prepared for crimes for weeks, and managed to find places to carry out “orders” where there should be many witnesses, but almost no one ever noticed Rozhnov. In addition, he is very strong - only five people were able to twist him.” According to detectives, Rozhnov acted not only throughout Russia, but also in the CIS. “One Uzbek entrepreneur opened a large company in Moscow, and then he had a conflict with his partners,” investigators said. “He went to his homeland, and Rozhnov went after him and shot him there. The killer returned with a large sum. The group’s “services” cost from 10 to 50 thousand dollars, depending on the wealth of the customer and the position of the victim. We believe she has dozens of murders to her name. Already, in addition to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, we have received information from five Russian regions, and new information about the group’s activities is constantly coming in.”

The main thing, which representatives of law enforcement agencies have almost no doubt about, is that it was Rozhnov who participated in the assassination attempt on the general director of the defense holding Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, Igor Klimov. On June 6 of this year, when the head of a defense company was leaving his house in Moscow, a killer ran up to him and shot him with a revolver hidden in a bag. “We cannot disclose all the details yet,” said representatives of the investigative team, “but we have real reasons to suspect him of this. Firstly, we have operational information from various sources on this matter. Secondly, the murder of Klimov was absolutely identical to the execution of Starchenkov. Of course, it is too early to talk about those who ordered the murder of Klimov. First, we need to collect more detailed information and detain other members of the group. We think Rozhnov himself does not know his direct customers - he simply received another task, which, it is possible, came from the same Berezner.”

Alexander SHVAREV