The leaders of "Kvarton" do not live long
Yesterday in St. Petersburg, Nikolai Yarulov, general director of the Kvarton concern, one of the largest light industry enterprises in Russia, was found hanged in his office. The previous head of Kvarton, Gennady Ivanov, died at the hands of a killer six months ago.

OJSC "Concern 'Kvarton'" was created in 1994 on the basis of the St. Petersburg spinning and thread mill "Sovetskaya Zvezda" and the "Red Thread" factory. In 1996-1997, the concern included five more Russian light industry enterprises, including the Pskov Hosiery Factory and the Moscow Mosnitki Factory. Currently, the concern is Russia's largest manufacturer of sewing threads, hosiery and knitwear products.

The corpse of the general director was found by Quarton employees in the toilet at about one o'clock in the afternoon. According to colleagues, Nikolai Yarulov came to work early in the morning and they did not notice anything unusual in his behavior.
Three letters were found next to the corpse - to the board of directors of Quarton, to the workforce and to the family. In them, as a Kommersant correspondent was told by the already appointed acting... O. General Director of the enterprise Yuri Kaplun, Mr. Yarulov wrote that he was leaving this life voluntarily and that the reasons for this were personal. According to Mr. Kaplun, the letter to the board of directors contained a mysterious phrase that the suicide “doubts the correctness of his actions.” However, he did not specify which ones exactly. According to Yuri Kaplun, he learned about what happened at the hospital: one of the members of the board of directors called and asked to immediately come to the central office of Quarton.
Mr. Kaplun says that 52-year-old Nikolai Yarulov was not only his boss, but also a friend: “Nikolai Mikhailovich was a very cheerful, although outwardly a little gloomy person. As far as is known, no cataclysms have recently occurred in his personal life, and everything was fine in the concern. It was hard, of course, to work, but I can’t imagine what could have prompted him to take this step.”
When asked by a Kommersant correspondent whether this could simply be a staged suicide, Mr. Kaplun replied: “We have no grounds for such assumptions.”
Before being appointed general director of Kvarton, Mr. Yarulov worked for six months as a deputy to his previous boss, Gennady Ivanov, and before that he was a technical inspector in the trade union for many years. He was appointed director of Kvarton as unexpectedly as Mr. Kaplun himself—literally the day after the murder of Gennady Ivanov. He led the concern from the first days of its existence and was its “founding father.” On April 4 of this year, at the intersection of Stachek Avenue and Trefoleva Street, a killer opened fire on the car in which the general director of Kvarton was traveling. Gennady Ivanov was killed on the spot, but his driver miraculously escaped injury.
The murder has still not been solved. However, law enforcement agencies have no doubt that it was related to the professional activities of the murdered man. Moreover, both versions related to competition are being worked out (Kvarton acted aggressively in the market - in particular, it bought shares of dying light industry enterprises for next to nothing) and internal conflicts in the management of the concern. The death of the second head of the enterprise fits well with this version. According to the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office, a few days ago a search was carried out at Mr. Yarulov's apartment as part of the investigation into the murder of the previous general director of Quarton. And it is quite possible that Nikolai Yarulov still had reasons to commit suicide.

CRIME DEPARTMENT

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 188 dated 10/07/2000, p. 8