The Case of the Skopinsky Pope
Employees of the Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Ryazan Region arrested the criminal "authority" Vyacheslav Kuzin. The criminal community he organized ruled over the regional center of Skopin for several years, imposing tribute not only on all local entrepreneurs, but even on the Skopin Automotive Aggregate Plant (SAAZ), which is Russia’s largest manufacturer of shock absorbers and the exclusive supplier of AvtoVAZ.

Game warden's wolves
Vyacheslav Kuzin, who in Skopin is called the owner of the city and simply the Pope, worked for a long time in the fire department, and recently was listed as a game warden in the neighboring Pronsky district.
According to local police officers, he formed his gang together with his son Eduard at the end of 1993. They started by robbing truck drivers transporting shock absorbers from SAAZ. Soon, almost all large stores, cafes, restaurants, service stations, as well as several city gas stations were under the control of the group. There are 18 different structures in total. If somewhere they refused to pay, the bandits burned down shops and commercial tents. The victims were afraid to write a complaint to the police against the extortionists, preferring to pay off.
It wasn’t just the businessmen who suffered from Kuzin’s bandits. For example, once they set fire to the house of a teacher at a local agricultural college. The teacher’s whole fault was that he refused to give the girlfriend of one of the bandits a good grade in the exams.
In February 1994, employees of the Skopino OBOP opened an operational case called “Wolves” against Vyacheslav and Eduard Kuzin and members of their gang. A few months later, operatives managed to catch six members of the group red-handed when they tried to steal a large batch of shock absorbers from the plant. However, the court sentenced the thieves only to fines.
Law enforcement agencies took the Kuzin gang seriously only when it came to armed conflict. Kuzin fighters staged a shootout in the center of Skopin with a rival group of Caucasians, and then almost finished off three Ryazan bandits. Ryazan "authorities", having heard about the group from Skopin, sent their militants to the regional center to restore order. But the cousins ambushed them and shot them with machine guns. The Ryazan residents miraculously survived - each of them received several bullet wounds. In May 1997, Eduard Kuzin was arrested, but the court soon released him on bail. Taking advantage of this, the bandit fled to Moscow. We managed to take it only the other day.

Dinner with a shootout
After the first arrest of Kuzin Jr., the police came to grips with the retail outlets controlled by the Kuzin group. Most stores had their liquor licenses confiscated, and gas stations were fined for lack of accounting and financial documentation. Thus, the police say, they managed to undermine the economic base of the criminal group. However, workers at the same SAAZ admitted to a Kommersant correspondent that, despite the security guards sent from Moscow, the theft of shock absorbers and blanks from the plant continues even now.
In July 1997, Vyacheslav Kuzin also briefly went to jail. Here is how it was. A group of employees of the Ryazan regional police department arrived in Skopin to conduct some kind of special operation. In the evening, two of them went to have dinner at the restaurant of the Verda Hotel. As soon as the order was made, Kuzin Sr. and his militants burst into the establishment. They immediately didn’t like the plainclothes policemen for some reason, and Kuzin ordered his men to throw them out into the street. The operatives, who did not know who was boss in the city, took out pistols and pointedly put them on the table.
The bandits turned around and left. An hour later, the restaurant windows were shattered by machine gun fire. The operatives were saved by their reaction: they managed to throw themselves on the floor, and the bullets passed by. When we ran out into the street, we only saw the side lights of a car moving away.
It was not difficult to find Kuzin, and he was accused of attempted murder of police officers and illegal possession of ammunition: during a search of his home, 30 machine gun cartridges were found. Kuzin left after 15 days. And soon the case brought against him was dropped with the strange wording “for reconciliation of the parties.” How much it cost Cousin, one can only guess.

From prison to power
The Skopin prosecutor's office also dropped cases against other members of the group. At the same time, the following decisions were made: “the measures taken in the case are illegal, since the department for organized crime does not have the right to conduct checks on applications from citizens.” This was the case, for example, with the case of the previously convicted Yuri Shaikhutdinov. Together with a friend, he robbed one of the local residents, after which he forced the victim to transfer his house to him. Soon Shaikhutdinov was arrested, but the prosecutor's office dropped the case. Prosecutors also refused to open a criminal case against the minor son of Vyacheslav Kuzin, who hit a pedestrian. In this case, the victim received serious bodily injuries, and Kuzin’s son drove the car without any documents.
In February 1999, Vyacheslav Kuzin was charged again - this time with organizing a criminal community. For a long time he went under subscription, hoping that this case would soon be stopped, but the other day he was arrested and, no longer believing in the triumph of local justice, he was sent to the Ryazan pre-trial detention center.
By the way, while in prison, Kuzin is going to run for the post of head of the Skopinsky district administration (elections will take place in December). Before this, members of his group had already tried to seize power in the city, but failed. The referendum they held “On the unification of the administrations of the city of Skopin and the Skopinsky district” failed, and they failed to make their own person the head of the united administration.
After the arrest of Kuzin Sr., the leadership of the Ryazan police turned to the regional prosecutor’s office with a request to check the validity of the termination of criminal cases against Kuzin’s bandits. Of almost two dozen cases, only one has reached the court so far - about extorting money from saleswomen of a hardware store.

OLEG KUTASOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 144 dated 08/13/1999, p. 5