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After 12 years, the suspect in the murder of Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Mikhail Manevich confessed to everything himself

This high-profile crime has already begun to be forgotten: over the past twelve years, detectives have not made any progress in its investigation. 37-year-old Mikhail Manevich is the vice-governor of St. Petersburg, who headed the city committee for managing ...

This high-profile crime has already begun to be forgotten: over the past twelve years, detectives have not made any progress in its investigation.

37-year-old Mikhail Manevich - vice-governor of St. Petersburg, who headed the city committee for state property management and worked in a team with the mayor of the Northern capital Anatoly Sobchak and Vladimir Putin (then deputy chairman of the city government), and then - governor Vladimir Yakovlev - was killed on August 18 1997. Service Volvo shot at 9 am in the center of St. Petersburg.

Even for St. Petersburg in the late 90s, covered in blood and not without reason known as "gangster", this murder was defiant. At Manevich's funeral, his close friend from the student bench, Anatoly Chubais, vowed to find and punish those who ordered and organized the murder.

Over the past years, people suspected of involvement in the death of Manevich have been detained more than once. But not the same all the time.

The investigation, which had been stalling for twelve years, suddenly moved off the ground in early November 2009. Unexpected, and therefore almost sensational confessions against himself were given by 38-year-old Aleksey Gardotsky, who has been in St. Petersburg Detention Center No. 4 since October 25, 2007 on charges of other crimes.

Two years ago, Gardotsky was detained as a member of an organized criminal group led by Sergei Zaripov. Ten members of Zaripov's group, who were arrested in late 2007, have recently been charged with banditry and murder.

During interrogation (for a completely different reason), Gardotsky called himself the direct perpetrator of the high-profile murder and told him who ordered the liquidation of Manevich, how the preparations for the crime were carried out and how it was committed. According to law enforcement agencies, the defendant Aleksey Gardotsky allegedly said that Andrey Zaripov, the brother of the arrested Sergei Zaripov, ordered him to eliminate Manevich. They prepared for the crime for several months. They trained at a training ground specially arranged for this in the Leningrad Region.

As Novaya Gazeta learned from its own sources, Gardotsky allegedly stated that he did not kill the vice-governor alone. Andrey Zaripov was on duty nearby on Rubinshtein Street, who gave the shooter commands over the radio station. Two more people tracked the path of the vice-governor. Nothing is known about these two. Andrey Zaripov died back in 1999: a grenade exploded in his hands. After that, the brother of the deceased Sergey became the head of the group.

Both Andrei and Sergei Zaripov, according to the investigating authorities, were "foreman" of an organized criminal group subordinate to Yuri Shutov. Shutov, a former adviser to Anatoly Sobchak, ex-deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, chairman of the RF State Duma Commission for analyzing the results of privatization, was prosecuted several times in his life and became the only person in Russia who managed to win elections to the State Duma while sitting in prison. On February 17, 2006, Yuri Shutov was sentenced to capital punishment - life imprisonment.

The version of involvement in the murder of Manevich Yuri Shutov was considered from the very first days.

In 1996, the governor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev, insisted that Vice-Governor Mikhail Manevich introduce Yuri Shutov to the board of directors of the Petersburg Fuel Company. Manevich categorically did not want to do this. In addition, a high-ranking official prevented Shutov's intentions to privatize valuable city real estate, and most importantly, the St. Petersburg commercial port and other enterprises.

But the law enforcement agencies searched unsuccessfully for a connection between Shutov’s activities and the murder of Manevich. However, now Gardotsky’s testimony has appeared in the case ...

Both the FSB and the St. Petersburg prosecutor's office refused to comment on the information about Mr. Gardotsky's confession to the murder of Vice-Governor Manevich.

“The case of the murder of Manevich is being investigated by the central apparatus of the FSB,” Sergei Kapitonov, senior assistant to the head of the investigative committee at the city prosecutor's office, explained to Novaya Gazeta. - We have only a part of the Shutov case concerning the Zaripov group. She is charged with several murders, but not Manevich.

Until now, only Chubais has repeatedly stated that the investigation knows (and for a long time) all the organizers and customers of the murder of the St. Petersburg vice-governor. The first time was back in 2005. And after the trial of Shutov, on the tenth anniversary of the death of Manevich, Anatoly Borisovich noted with satisfaction at his grave: “Exactly what I promised was done: all the organizers and customers of the murder are sitting. They sit for life. They won't come out!"

- Anatoly Borisovich said the maximum that he could say, - added Chubais' ally Andrei Trapeznikov. “But the fact remains: the killers of Manevich are imprisoned for life, although for other crimes. They have not yet been charged with this murder, but this will definitely happen.