But I was unable to complete the order.

Yesterday morning in Togliatti, an attempt was made on the life of Alexander Druzhinin, director of the municipal unitary enterprise PO Kommunalnoe Khozaistvo, and city Duma deputy. The official received several gunshot wounds, but survived. Now the investigation is considering the commercial activities of Mr. Druzhinin as the main version of the crime. According to the Togliatti Department of Internal Affairs, yesterday at the beginning of nine in the morning, the director of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise PO "Kommunalnoe Khozyaystvo" (MUP POKH), City Duma deputy Alexander Druzhinin left for work from his home, located in the private sector of the Central District of Tolyatti. The official’s personal driver was driving the Skoda car; Mr. Druzhinin himself was sitting in the back seat. Driving from 10th Parkovy Lane onto Komsomolskaya Street, the driver stopped to let cars moving along the main road pass. At that moment, from the side of house No. 29 on Komsomolskaya Street, a young man approached the official’s foreign car and opened fire on the rear side window. The exact number of shots he fired is still being clarified. It is impossible to count them by the holes in the glass, since one large hole with a diameter of approximately 20 cm has formed in it. According to preliminary data, the criminal fired from a Makarov pistol. No weapon was found at the crime scene. The ambulance team took the victim to the surgical department of Medgorodok. Mr. Druzhinin received four gunshot wounds to the chest, stomach and right forearm. An hour after the assassination attempt, Alexander Druzhinin underwent surgery, after which he was sent to intensive care. Doctors assess the deputy’s condition as stable.
As Kommersant was told by the Togliatti Department of Internal Affairs, the killer was aware of his schedule and route of movement. He also knew that Mr. Druzhinin did not have personal security, and after the attack there would be no prosecution, therefore, fleeing the crime scene, he did not even use the car, but simply ran away. The investigation will have to find out, first of all, the motives for the assassination attempt on Alexander Druzhinin. To do this, prosecutors will have to study in detail the activities of the victim as director of the municipal unitary enterprise POKH as a politician and businessman.
The company, which was headed by the victim, provides municipal institutions and apartments in the Central and Komsomolsky districts of the city with heat and water. Over the last nine months alone, the municipal unitary enterprise has received a “net” profit of 30 million rubles. As a source close to the official told Kommersant, “representatives of the mayor’s office have repeatedly pointed out to Druzhinin that the tariffs are too high. However, in this direction of his activity he did not cross anyone’s path.” As Kommersant was able to find out, there is another area of activity for Alexander Druzhinin as head of the municipal unitary enterprise. The fact is that several months ago the municipality took the initiative to transfer the municipal enterprise “Spetsavtokhozyaistvo”, which was engaged in the collection and removal of household waste from the city, to the jurisdiction of Pokkh. This did not suit everyone, since the “garbage business” brings considerable profit to Tolyatti: recycling one cubic meter of waste costs more than 200 rubles. According to unofficial data, this business in the city is now controlled by a Tatar organized crime group. According to Kommersant’s source in the Tolyatti Internal Affairs Directorate, “about two dozen people were killed and maimed in the garbage fight - from officials to members of criminal gangs.” Recently, city authorities decided to organize a landfill behind the buildings of KuibyshevAzot OJSC. In addition, the authorities planned to purchase recycling presses and about 10 new garbage trucks. This would cut costs almost in half. Moreover, it was planned to transfer both the landfill itself and the disposal to the responsibility of PoKH. The new landfill was supposed to start operating next spring.
As for the political career of the official, who was successfully elected to the City Duma in August of this year, he was considered by analysts as one of the contenders for the post of speaker (who will occupy this chair will become clear in a few days, since the entire Duma was elected only last weekend and so far did not start work - “Kommersant”). We note that just a few hours after the assassination attempt, ex-Speaker of the City Duma Alexander Drobotov, who was also vying for this post, stated that nothing in Mr. Druzhinin’s parliamentary activities could have become the reason for the assassination attempt.
“The very fact of an attempt on the life of a person, the head of a large municipal enterprise, is an unacceptable situation,” said the mayor of the city, Nikolai Utkin. - Shooting is not a method of resolving issues. But what is most alarming and concerning is that such facts have recently become more frequent, but not all of them have received a legal assessment. “I believe that this crime must be solved.”
Deputy Prosecutor of the Samara Region Evgeny Novozhilov noted that “the crime is clearly ordered and well organized. The main direction of the investigation is the commercial activities of the utility worker as director of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise POKH.”
Let us note that this is not the first attempt on the life of an official in Togliatti. In November, the regional prosecutor's office managed to prevent the impending murder of the city's vice-mayor Nikolai Renz. In January, the prosecutor's office plans to bring this criminal case to court on charges of businessman Sergei Svitinsky of organizing an assassination attempt on Mr. Renz and City Duma deputy, general director of the Father's House construction corporation, Alexander Kobets.
GRIGORY ORLOV

Kommersant (Samara) No. 240 dated 12/23/2004

The killer studied the official's route