Translated material
Touched by Izmestiev
'Demoted' senator arrested on suspicion of murder
The Prosecutor General's Office initiated a new high-profile investigation into a contract killing, the main suspect in which was already a former member of the Federation Council from Bashkiria, Igor Izmestyev . Yesterday, the Basmanny Court of Moscow issued a warrant for his arrest, satisfying the request of the Prosecutor General's Office. A day earlier, as it turned out, the ex-senator was transported to the capital from the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek, where he was detained immediately upon arrival from Geneva.“I was kidnapped. It's only about money. They used measures of mental and physical violence,” Mr. Izmestyev argued in court. The detainee’s lawyer, Vladimir Sementsov, also confirmed that his client at the Bishkek airport “was demanded about 80 million rubles for the opportunity to be released.” However, recently the name of the ex-senator has been increasingly mentioned in connection with high-profile scandals and criminal cases - tax evasion, bribery and an investigation into the so-called Kingisepp group of killers, which included Alexander Pumane. However, these stories were related to the events of the period when Mr. Izmestyev was a member of the Federation Council, had immunity, and investigators could not bring charges against him. Now the Prosecutor General’s Office has information about Mr. Izmestyev’s involvement in a crime that was committed five months before he assumed the “untouchable” position.
In December last year, the Senate prematurely terminated the powers of Igor Izmestyev, who represented the State Assembly (Kurultai) of Bashkiria in the Senate, at his personal request. The senator was forced to resign (at first he denied all accusations and did not recognize the legal powers of the State Assembly of Bashkiria to early recall him from the Federation Council) by Bashkir deputies from United Russia. In their opinion, while working in the Federation Council, Izmestyev was engaged in business, being the general director of Brock Trade Oil LLC, registered in Moscow, which is illegal.
After resigning as a senator, he went abroad without handing over his service certificate. But, since the “authorities” had a lot of questions for Izmestyev, the special services began searching for him. He was detained on Wednesday at the Bishkek airport, where he arrived from Geneva at the invitation of the acting deputy. Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Felix Kulov. According to intelligence services, Mr. Izmestyev actually negotiated with the republican authorities about opening an oil refinery. But, according to a source close to the investigation, this time the invitation to the acting the prime minister was just an excuse to lure the ex-senator out.
How the detention took place is still known only from the words of Izmestyev himself and his lawyers. At the exit from the customs control zone, people in camouflage attacked him and his assistant, twisted their arms and took them to a room. There he was interrogated for five hours by unknown people who introduced themselves as members of the Kyrgyz security service. According to the ex-senator, “physical and mental violence” was used against him. Then Izmestyev was taken on board a plane flying to Novosibirsk, and from there he was taken to Moscow. A car was waiting for Izmestyev at the plane’s ramp, in which he was taken first to the Prosecutor General’s Office, and then to the temporary detention center on Petrovka, 38.
An investigator from the Prosecutor General's Office, during a conversation with Izmestiev and his lawyer Vladimir Sementsov, said that the former senator is suspected of organizing the murder in 2001 in Moscow of notary Galina Perepelkina, the wife of his former business partner Yuri Bushaev. It is noteworthy that, according to the intelligence services, it was Bushaev who was destined for the mine, which was brought to the capital in September 2004 by former submarine officer Alexander Pumane . According to the investigation, Pumane (after his arrest he was beaten to death during interrogation at the Presnensky police station in Moscow) was part of the Kingisepp group , which specialized in contract killings. Now the Moscow City Court is holding hearings on the case of the participants of this organized crime group. They are accused, among other things, of the murder of two Bashkir entrepreneurs - Salavat Gainanov (production director of the Novo-Ufa Oil Refinery) and Valery Speransky (chief accountant of Bashneftekhimtorg CJSC). All this happened during a time of struggle for spheres of influence and control over Bashkir oil companies, and Igor Izmestyev, according to local intelligence services, had interests in this business. In addition, according to detectives, the brother of the head of the group, Sergei Finagin, Mikhail, could head the security service of the oil company Korus-Holding OJSC. Before being elected senator, Izmestyev was its general director. Izmestyev himself stated that the company never had a security service.
Another criminal case in which Izmestyev appeared was an investigation into tax evasion by subsidiaries of Korus Holding. According to it, Izmestyev was interrogated at his workplace in the Senate in 2005. And in 2006, a scandal erupted after a court decision to demolish the former senator’s house on Ilinskoye Highway near Vladimir Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogarevo.
Meanwhile, according to Igor Izmestyev himself, all these cases were initiated by people who, using a raider scheme with the support of “werewolves in uniform,” are trying to seize the Korus company, and the investigation has no real evidence.