| The Prosecutor General's Office has completed the investigation of another wet Yukos case. Former Yukos security officer Alexey Pichugin will soon appear before the Moscow City Court again. Yesterday, First Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Biryukov approved his indictment, and the case went to court. Already convicted of several attempts and murders, Alexei Pichugin will this time be responsible for a number of murders (including the mayor of Nefteyugansk Vladimir Petukhov) and attempts on businessmen, organized by him, according to investigators, in 1998-1999. Along with Pichugin, five other people are involved in this case. And the direct orderer of all these crimes, according to investigators, was one of the YUKOS shareholders Leonid Nevzlin, who is on the international wanted list and has been living in Israel for several years.
A year ago, the former head of the 4th Department of the Internal and Economic Security Service of the Yukos Oil Company, Alexey Pichugin, was found guilty by the jury of organizing the murder of the Gorins' spouses in Tambov, the attempted murder of the former head of Rosprom CJSC Sergei Kolesov and the attempted murder of a former MFO employee “Menatep” by Olga Kostina. For this he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. But a few months later, in early July, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov loudly announced the completion of the investigation into yet another Pichugin case, and yesterday the indictment was approved and transferred to the Moscow City Court. The Prosecutor General's Office added four more crimes to the crimes already on Mr. Pichugin's "record". Thus, according to investigators, in 1998 he organized the murder of the director of the Phoenix Trade Fund LLP Valentina Korneeva, “who refused to accept a commercial offer to sell the premises she owned in the center of Moscow to Menatep Bank.” In the same year, according to the prosecution, Mr. Pichugin also organized the murder of the head of the Nefteyugansk administration, Vladimir Petukhov, who “demanded from the Yukos Oil Company the return of hidden taxes and fees to the federal, regional and local budgets.” The official threatened the oil corporation with criminal cases, and this, according to investigators, was the cause of his death. At the same time, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Leonid Nevzlin ordered the “removal” of the mayor, and Pichugin recruited Sergei Gorin (later killed at the direction of the same Pichugin), Vladimir Goritovsky (also killed during a gangster shootout six years ago in Saratov), to carry out the planned crime. Evgenia Reshetnikova, Vladimir Shapiro and Gennady Tsygelnik (these three are currently accomplices in the new Pichugin case). Vladimir Petukhov was shot by bandits in June 1998, while going to work at the mayor's office.
“In addition, in 1998 and 1999, Pichugin organized several attempts on the life of businessman Evgeniy Rybin, who filed a number of lawsuits to recover damages caused to his company by the illegal activities of the Yukos Oil Company,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said yesterday. Austrian company East Pertolium Handelsges m.b.H. (IPH), the head of which was Mr. Rybin, at one time entered into a long-term contract with Tomskneft, but after the sale of the latter to YUKOS, the contract was terminated, and IPH suffered losses estimated by Mr. Rybin at $100 million. On Evgeniy Rybin attacked twice, and both times he miraculously managed to escape from machine gun fire, although during the second attempt one of his guards was killed and two others were injured. Then the entrepreneur openly stated that YUKOS was behind these crimes, but at that time the Prosecutor General’s Office, oddly enough, did not react to this, as well as to a similar version expressed after the murder of Petukhov. By the way, one of the perpetrators of the assassination attempt on Rybin, Evgeny Reshetnikov, has already been convicted of this crime.
In addition to Reshetnikov, Shapiro and Tsigelnikov, two more alleged perpetrators of assassination attempts will be in the dock along with a former YUKOS employee - Mikhail Ovsyannikov and Vladislav Levin, and in total the criminal group of killers included 11 people, and all of them were either killed, or are under investigation, or have already been convicted, such as, for example, the main witness in the first Pichugin case (and now, apparently, in the second) Igor Korovnikov, who is serving a life sentence for murder and rape.
“Pichugin organized all these crimes on the instructions of Leonid Nevzlin, a member of the board of directors of OJSC NK YUKOS,” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement. Back in June last year, materials on his extradition were transferred to Interpol.
“We are confident in our client’s innocence,” said lawyer Georgy Kaganer. - There is no evidence of his guilt. Everything is built on “one uncle said it,” and this “uncle” has been dead for a long time.” Who this “uncle” is is still unknown, since Pichugin’s lawyers signed a non-disclosure agreement at the very beginning of the investigation and therefore do not have the right to speak openly about their position. And if the trial in Pichugin’s second case this time is held behind closed doors, then we will never know either this name, or the names of other persons involved in this case, or the details of the crimes themselves, unless, of course, the Prosecutor General’s Office withdraws another documentary masterpiece about his exploits. Ekaterina BUTORINA |
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