A week

Number 010 from 03/14/2000
Strip 014

Artem Borovik and Ziya Bazhaev died

On the morning of March 9, the Yak-40 aircraft of the Vologda United Air Squadron, which took off for Kyiv, barely took off from the runway at Sheremetyevo Airport and crashed to the ground. Five crew members and four passengers died under the rubble.

No matter how cynical it sounds, nine dead is not God knows what a disaster from a statistical point of view. So, news of one day, which everyone will forget about tomorrow. Planes crash with hundreds of passengers, fall with cargo onto residential areas... However, what happened on March 9 will certainly be included in the Russian chronicle of the most notorious air disasters. It turned out that on that day there were two very famous and influential people on the same plane.
By Russian standards, Artem Borovik could be called a major media tycoon. In 1991, the already well-known journalist Borovik replaced Yulian Semenov as editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Top Secret" and began building a holding company - one of the first media empires in Russia. In Kyiv, he was going to discuss the prospects for developing his business in Ukraine.

Ziya Bazhaev, after leaving the post of president of the Sidanco oil company in 1998, created the Alliance Group, which was engaged in anti-crisis management. Two years ago in Russia this type of activity was just beginning to take shape as a serious business. At the time, many were skeptical about this, but Bazhaev did not lose. And he flew to Kyiv because he was included in the Ukrainian government delegation in negotiations with Kazakhstan on joint oil projects: Alliance is the management company of the Kherson Oil Refinery.
Both Borovik and Bazhaev interfered with many people. And the Yak-40 is considered one of the most reliable Soviet aircraft... And now they will argue for a long time whether it was a tragic accident or a terrorist attack.

Magazine "Kommersant Power" No. 10 dated March 14, 2000, p. 14

Themes:

Plane crashes