Gray wolf

As an action movie from the St. Petersburg gangs of the 90s became a deputy-and then lost everything. The story of Denis Volchek as a mirror of modern Russia

In the biography of the ex-deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation from the LDPR Denis Volchek, all the political and economic processes that have taken place in Russia from the beginning of the 90s to the present day have been displayed. He began in a gang group by an ordinary action movie, but quickly gained weight and brought the business into a legal plane. In the late 1990s, he was noted in corruption scandals. In the early 2000s he became a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and acquired a reputation as a trusted person Boris Berezovsky. According to the party lists of the LDPR, he penetrated the State Duma, but quarreled with Vladimir Zhirinovsky. He tried to join another party and stay in the "political party", but it did not work. Volchek was suspected of fraud on millions of dollars, in the give of bribes, in the theft of cultural values, in wholesale supply of drugs to the northwestern region of Russia, in raider seizures, in financing custom-made criminal cases. But it was possible to condemn him only in 2021 - and even then for only three years. The New Gazeta Europe tells the story of Volchek.

"I vouch for my son!"

Denis Gennadievich Volchek - the indigenous Petersburg, was born on May 10, 1971 in Leningrad. In school years, he seriously engaged in boxing, reached the level of master of sports. He was read a serious sports career, but the restructuring came first, then the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the country was not up to sports.

Denis's father Gennady started his own business during the development of cooperatives. JSC "Fathers and Children" was engaged in organizing concerts, wedding and anniversary events, later closely collaborated with television. Since 1992, Volchek Jr. was listed there as deputy general director for economics. But, apparently, neither the economy nor the concert activity of Denis Gennadievich at that time was interested. Because more often than with his father, he was seen in the retinue of Igor Savin nicknamed the sledgehammer.

As we wrote earlier , Savin, together with Konstantin Yakovlev (Kostya-Mogil) and Evgeny Toporov, created an organized criminal group (organized crime group) for the “roofing” of cooperators in the mid-80s. In the mid-90s, the organized crime group turned into a powerful criminal community, which affects not only the criminal world of the North-Western region, but also on power structures. In his youth, Savin was engaged in boxing, just like Volchek, he became a master of sports and gained mainly athletes to his brigade - while Toporov and Yakovlev were made at those who lived according to the “thieves' law”.

In 1993, Toporov was killed in Sweden. On July 31 of the same year, the sledgehammer organized an attempt on a costume-mogil, trying to become the sole leader of the criminal empire. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the answer was not long in coming. On August 16, 1993, three people spoke Savin's car. Currently, the organization of this murder is charged with Vladimir Kulibab.

After the death of Savin, the question arose of what would now be with his brigade. The grave did not want to leave a potential “fifth column” in his team-after all, one of the former “Squwings” fighters could well bear plans for revenge. And with the one who was aware of the preparation of the attempt on the grave, not everything was clear.

In those days, such doubts were allowed simply: "There is no person - there is no problem." The prospect was looming over the Volchek that if they did not kill him, they would not be allowed to be allowed to be allowed to be more precisely.

Gennady Volchek, who was familiar with his father and mother of authority, stood up for his son. He entrusted himself to the grave that Denis did not know anything about the impending attempt. Yes, and painted the offspring as a very promising guy. Yakovlev became interested in a 22-year-old boxer and, in order to take a closer look, made him a personal driver. By the way, it was then that a black cat ran for the first time between the two associates of the grave (Volchek and Kulibababa). The former best friend of Savina-Kulda (who organized, according to law enforcement agencies, his murder) Kulibab, from all the "South-offers" fighters, was ready to entrust only to Dmitry Skvortsov. He did not want to see Volchek surrounded by Yakovlev. But the grave acted in his own way and did not regret it. Four years later, Volchek was already responsible for many monetary projects of the community, and Yakovlev called Volchek a younger brother. Kulibab by that time crushed the power block of the group under himself. In February 1994, the grave tried to reconcile his assistants by establishing with them AOZT Sirius C. As further events showed, the attempt was unsuccessful. Too unlike a friend, Volchek and Kulibab were a friend.

“Kulibaba and Volchek were, as it were, from different ends of the same world,” the former bodyguard of the Volchek Arkady K. (the surname is available in the editorial office) told the Novo-Europe. - Volodya (kulibaba) straight, like a nail, sharp, but with a sort of peasant cunning. Volchek - sophisticated, well -read, well -versed in art, a secular lion. In any case, he tried to seem like that. And at the same time with the teeth. And after one case, Kulibab sometimes even began to respond to Volcheka with respect. It was either in the 94th, or in the 95th, now I can’t remember. We went to the whole community to the Finnish bay. Barbecue, ride on water scooters, discuss issues. In general, they took it on the chest, and something between Volchek and Kulibababa began. Volodya Denis two heads higher and much more powerful (although the wolf is also far from suffocation), it would seem where Volchek against Kulibaba in direct sparring. And there the brazier was arranged in a stationary, with a brick pipe, and a brick in two rows. So Volchek, in response to the next mockery of Kulibaba, turned around and with all the dope smeared his fist on this pipe. The brick sprayed in all directions. And Volchek turns to the awesome kulibaba and says: "Next time it will be your eggs." Kostya-Mogil intervened and repaid the quarrel, but after that incident, Kulibab stopped holding Volchek for the lousy intellectual.

An option that arranged all

As we already wrote, Kostya-Mogil has been raising plans to get the whole business from the shadows since the beginning of the 90s and become a legal businessman, and not looking around St. Petersburg. Therefore, from the “thieves' crown” (he was offered to crown into thieves in law several times) invariably refused. But the times were such that real power belonged to the bandits and thieves in law. Therefore, Konstantin Yakovlev could not get out of crime completely from crime.

At the end of the spring of 1996, Boris Berezovsky came to Kosta-Mogil, who at that time was engaged in the electoral company Boris Yeltsin.

With the filing of the wolf senior structure, the bone-mogila bone-mogila raised several television channels for themselves, broadcasting on St. Petersburg and the region, established several cable, controlled about 70% of advertising time in the region

And they were already close to the distribution of advertising on federal channels. Which subsequently happened: Yakovlev became the co -owner of the company "Prime Minister of St. Sergei Lisovsky, and then the president of the television development fund.

Berezovsky needed to enlist the support of the St. Petersburg media space. Kostya-Mogil did not want to climb into a big policy, but Moscow thieves in law asked him to help the oligarch, on which Konstantin Karolevich depended quite hard. Without their help and support, he could not resist the rapidly gaining power to the “Tambov” organized criminal community (OPS). Berezovsky also did not really want to shine in the company of a very ambiguous figure of bone-mogila, but he needed St. Petersburg television. The option, which arranged both, was Denis Volchek, with whom Berezovsky later conducted all things.

Despite the difference in age and status, the oligarch and the former personal driver of the bone-mogily quickly found a common language and even made friends. However, it is quite possible that Berezovsky and Volchek were familiar long before 1996. In 1990, Denis Volchek received Israeli citizenship. According to the data in the passport, Volchek was registered in the apartment of 9 houses 10 on Herzl Street in the town of Bat-Yam (suburb of Tel Aviva). And in the house opposite (No. 15) of the same street, Boris Berezovsky was registered.

Be that as it may, but through the Berezovsky Volchek he joined the political party, made some useful acquaintances, imbued with there and began to seriously think about a political career. In the end, three prominent “Tambovites” (Mikhail Glushchenko, Mikhail Monastyrsky and Vyacheslav Shevchenko) in 1995 were elected to the State Duma of the Russian Federation and acquired deputy immunity, and what is worse?

“Despite the fact that the guys were deputies, no one took them seriously in the State Duma,” the new-European correspondent in 2020 told the lawyer Mikhail Glushchenko Alexander Afanasyev. - Misha (Glushchenko) told me how this happened. They went there four: besides those three, Cyril Sadchikov tried to become a deputy. Glushchenko, who in 1994 bought a certificate of assistant Zhirinovsky for 25 thousand dollars and even met him a couple of times, said that at first Zhirik called the price of 250 thousand dollars per mandate. Misha raised money, rammed a large diplomat and went to Moscow. There he came to Zhirik in the office of his party and simply dumped the money in front of him on the table. As Glushchenko told me, Zhirinovsky even stunned a little from that. Then, however, something changed there, and for this money it was possible to buy only three mandates, so Sadchikov did not become a deputy. And those who passed were only listed by deputies. And in the party of Zhirinovsky and in the Duma, everyone knew that they were like bandits, they remained them. So the attitude towards them was appropriate.

Help "New-Europe"

Alexander Yakovlevich Afanasyev studied at LSU in the same group with Vladimir Putin. In the advocacy since 1975. It was considered one of the most experienced lawyers in St. Petersburg. He defended the gambling king of the north-west of Mikhail Mirilashvili (Misha Kutaisky) in the case of the murder of the abductors of Mirilashvili Sr.. For a long time he was a lawyer Mikhail Glushchenko. He died after a serious illness in February 2021.

Kirill Ivanovich Sadchikov, President of the Virilis Insurance Company, a member of the Board of Directors of Lenagrotrans, the founder of the International Humanitarian Institute, a co -owner of a dozen different firms. He was one of the foremen of the Tambov OPS. Shot the killers on November 15, 2001 at the Shogun restaurant. Murder is still considered unsolved.

Volchek did not want to be a "gangster deputy." Therefore, he did not simply buy a mandate, but observed all the necessary body movements like agitation, elections, etc. Although the LDPR chose a platform for a political take -off in the same way as the “Tambovtsy”. But it will be already in the early 2000s. In the meantime, Volchek hastily earned money, realizing that a pass into a political party would cost him much more than a million dollars.

Rembrandt - not Rembrandt, and Stradivarre - not Stradivari

In 1998, Volchek became chairman of the board of directors of the RusMed insurance company. The next step is the acquisition of one of the largest pharmaceutical plants in Russia Pharmacak (according to some reports, the cost of the plant was very underestimated, which means that we can talk about the banal raider seizure) and the privatization of the network of state pharmacies in St. Petersburg. The buyer was acted by the Covey Pharm company, with which Volchek seemed to be unlikely, in any case, officially. But in the Pharmacon tax return for 2002, which became public as a result of the “insulin case”, it is indicated that “Rusmed” and “Neva Media” (the chain of the founders makes it clear that the true owners are Volchek and a couple of people known as members of the “Mogilovsky OPS) are owned by 53% of Pharmacon’s shares.

At the end of 2000, the Petersburg Control and Accounts published the results of the audit of the Health Committee. It turned out that the chairman of the committee and vice-governor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Kagan authorized the purchase of insulin from Pharmacon at a price 2.6 times higher than the cost of the drug in the market. The prices for the viramun antiviral drug and some other drugs purchased for budget money and issued according to social (free) recipes were also overstated.

The damage to the budget amounted to several tens of millions of rubles. Several criminal cases were instituted, several officials and businessmen working in the field of healthcare were detained,

But no one was sentenced to real terms of imprisonment. The authorities of St. Petersburg were simply “silent” quietly “hesitated”, although Anatoly Kagan had to leave his post and return to the post of chief doctor of the children's city hospital No. 1, which Kagan himself, according to him, was only glad.

While the police tried to figure out the intricacies of the state order, the Pharmaceutical Baron (this was what Volchek in the media was called after he became part of the board of directors of Pharmacon) declared war on drug distributors. Moreover, he did this as a deputy from the municipality of Terlevo and the chairman of the municipal chamber of St. Petersburg.

The municipal chamber did not possess any power. In fact, it was an ordinary public organization uniting municipal deputies. But with the arrival of Volchek, the wolf chamber began to actively “promote” the media controlled by the Mogilovites. Citizens were invited to call the “hot line” of the municipal chamber and report on the points of drug trafficking. Then the people of Volchek checked the signal, and if they really traded drugs there, they reported the address to the police. The assaults of such points were almost always covered by television. The most actively chairman of the chamber acted in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg, where, in fact, Volchek was going to run for ZAS.

In this area, the municipal chamber not only fought drugs, but also began to spend holidays with the distribution of gifts to veterans, helped repair clinics, kindergartens, schools. And this was not always done for the sake of PR. The following case is known: the head of the kindergarten from the Vyborg region was looking for a municipal deputy in the ward of "his", and stumbled upon Volchek. To whom she told a terrible story that children were cold in kindergarten because the windows were dry and constantly blowing from them. Like, the municipal deputy promised to talk with his colleague from Zaks of St. Petersburg, but something disappeared. Denis Gennadievich, who was in a hurry somewhere, turned to the assistant, nodded at the woman, quit: “Do it as it should,” and quickly left. And a week later, expensive double -glazed windows were already in kindergarten. Moreover, everything was done quietly, without the involvement of the media and other tinsel.

In 2001, Volchek headed the St. Petersburg branch of the LDPR and began to hold an election campaign in the Sachs of St. Petersburg. Before the finish, when almost no one doubted that Volchek’s deputy mandate was already in his pocket, he almost cut his wings. In 2002, three months before the vote,

The writer Vladimir Shali turned to the police, who stated that Volchek had taken a picture from him for examination, and never returned the canvas. And it was a question, no less, about the self -portrait of Rembrandt ($ 30–40 million at auctions).

The 12th ("antique") department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the region instantly made a rack. A criminal case was opened under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Assignment or embezzlement”), orders were received for searches of the apartments and offices of Volchek. During the searches, they were seized: a violin with a stigma “Stradivari” (from 2.5 to 15 million dollars), a picture of a naked woman with the signature of “Renoir” ($ 20-30 million), the ancient scrolls of the Torah, the first edition of the “first” publishing house Suvorin. The Rembrandt was not found, and they lost all Volchek himself - saying that he had fled through the window.

Volchek himself, in an interview with the author of these lines (the conversation took place in 2002) described the situation:

- They called me and asked me to bring the keys to my gallery. Well, the Gallery, of course, is said loudly - just a large apartment in which I kept art items and invited friends to look at them. I arrived, we went with the police with the police, they began to search, describe objects. I go to the elder and ask: "I don't need me anymore?" He shook his head, and I calmly went out and went about my business. Only the next day, already quite far from St. Petersburg (the trip was planned long before those events and I could not cancel it), I suddenly find out that I was running out of custody.

Be that as it may, but having learned that he was put on the wanted list, Volchek did not hurry to the police. Instead of him, he came there ... Kostya-Mogila, who brought the desired picture. She was given to the Hermitage for examination. They carefully examined and soon issued a conclusion. The canvas itself is really the 17th century, and Rembrandt is really depicted on it. However, the portrait was written in the middle of the 19th century, on top of a picture of the 17th century. So, there was no way to belong to the brush of the great Dutchman.

The violin was manufactured in 1950 by the German Stradivari Plant. The picture of a naked woman, although it was written at the beginning of the 20th century, was not belonging to Renoir's brushes, but was only an imitation of the work of the French artist. The criminal case ended with a “zilch”, and Volchek became a deputy.

To Moscow, to Moscow ...

В мае 2003 года в Москве был застрелен Константин Яковлев по кличке Могила. Казалось бы, смерть Могилы должна пойти Волчеку на пользу: исчезло главное звено, связывающее его с криминалом. Но на самом деле со смертью Константина Яковлева Волчек лишился поддержки московских воров в законе, которые готовы были вести дела со смотрящим, пусть он и не был «коронован» по воровским законам. А Волчек еще не достиг того уровня, чтобы в той «тусовке» его принимали как равного. Так что со смертью Кости-Могилы «Фармацевтический барон» лишился б о льшей части того ресурса, который мог задействовать только его босс.

К тому же в среде «Могиловского» сообщества началось серьезное бурление. Дележом оставшейся после смерти «короля» империи не все остались довольны. В частности, Владимир Кулибаба, хоть и приобрел единоличный контроль над некоторыми ранее общими предприятиями, но чувствовал себя обделенным. Причем вину за это он возлагал на Волчека. Так что последнему пришлось сильно постараться, чтобы вывернуться из щекотливой ситуации с наименьшими потерями.

В феврале 2006 года Волчек был замечен в числе гостей на праздновании 50-летия Владимира Барсукова/Кумарина. На том юбилее причудливо переплелись политическая, криминальная и светская тусовки. На увидевшей через несколько лет свет видеопленке есть забавные сценки. Вот будущий глава Карелии Андрей Нелидов (в настоящее время отбывает срок за взятку) распивает водочку в компании Владимира Винокура и Алимджана Тохтахунова (Тайванчик, криминальный авторитет). Журналист и будущий директор по PR «Роснефти» Михаил Леонтьев что-то живенько обсуждает с Сергеем Михайловым (Михась, лидер «солнцевской» ОПГ). А в другом углу зала два депутата Госдумы — Александр Розенбаум и Алексей Митрофанов — о чем-то спорят с Константином Васильевым (Костя-Шрам, вор в законе) и Николаем Кравченко (Коля-Бес, лидер «новгородской» ОПГ).

Сам факт приглашения на этот юбилей говорит о многом. А потому, когда там появился Денис Волчек, кое-кто поспешил сделать вывод, что после смерти Могилы его «младший брат» переметнулся к «тамбовцам». И именно Барсуков/Кумарин обеспечил Волчеку место в списке ЛДПР через Митрофанова. Однако более тщательный анализ последовавших за тем юбилеем событий говорит, что это, вероятно, не так.

Выборы в Государственную Думу 5 созыва состоялись в декабре 2007 года. К тому времени Кумарин уже четыре месяца как находился под арестом. Так что если бы Волчек действительно переметнулся бы к «тамбовцам», то в Думу его, скорее всего, не пустили бы. Да и Митрофанов к тому времени разругался с однопартийцами, вышел из ЛДПР и баллотировался (неудачно) по спискам «Справедливой России». Возможная поддержка этих двоих скорее сыграла бы Волчеку в минус, чем в плюс.

Чьей бы поддержкой ни заручился Денис Геннадьевич, но он попал в яблочко и стал-таки депутатом Государственной Думы. Более того, занял кресло заместителя председателя Комитета ГД по финансовому рынку.

Переехал в Москву и первое время исправно появлялся на заседаниях. Но чем дольше он «крутился» в политической тусовке, тем реже его видели в здании Совета труда и обороны (именно там заседает Дума). Волчек осуществил мечту Могилы и полностью легализовался. Ну а статус депутата направил Волчека в сторону той части бизнеса, где предприниматель ничего не производит, а деньги зарабатывает путем «решения вопросов».

Без «бумажки» ты мошенник

Партнером Волчека в Москве становится уроженец Ингушетии 27-летний Зураб Плиев, который стал гендиректором фирмы «Совюрком». Компания предлагала юридические и консультационные услуги банкам, попавшим в сложную ситуацию. Волчек даже не поскупился официально аккредитовать фирму в Агентстве по страхованию вкладов (АСВ).

В Думу 6 созыва Волчек попал, уже особо не заморачиваясь собственным пиаром, хотя саму партию в Петербурге и соседних областях рекламировали довольно активно.

Впрочем, если вспомнить, что большинство рекламных фирм так или иначе были связаны со структурами «могиловского» ОПС, то, скорее всего, данная реклама обошлась Волчеку не очень дорого. Во время своего второго депутатского срока Волчек вообще перестал появляться в Думе, чем вызвал неудовольствие у Жириновского. Недовольство переросло в конфликт и Волчек покинул ЛДПР. Пойдя по пути Митрофанова (тот в 2011 году всё-таки смог вернуться в Госдуму от «Справедливой России»), Волчек заключил договор с Сергеем Мироновым. Денис Геннадьевич взял на себя финансирование избирательной кампании СР в Петербурге и области на выборах 2016 года. И с треском проиграл.

Несмотря на отсутствие депутатского мандата и лобби в Комитете по финансовому рынку, фирма «Совюрком» и дальше предлагала банкам решать их проблемы. В 2019 году Волчек и Плиев предложили совладельцу банка «Ренессанс» Андрею Розову посодействовать в том, чтобы в отношении Розова не возбуждалось уголовное дело.

Банк «Ренессанс» лишился лицензии в декабре 2015 года. За несколько дней до отзыва лицензии руководство банка обратилось в полицию с заявлением о том, что из филиала банка в Курске было украдено 500 миллионов рублей (чуть меньше 10 млн долларов). В правоохранительных органах банкирам не поверили и дело не возбудили. А после отзыва лицензии пресловутые 500 млн рублей стали фигурировать в качестве денег, которые увели из банка сами банкиры.

Волчек и Плиев заявили Розову: у них имеется информация о том, что обвинение в мошенничестве будет предъявлено со дня на день. Но еще есть возможность не войти в число обвиняемых: в том случае, если Розов заключит договор об оказании консультационных услуг с фирмой «Совюрком». Консультации должны были обойтись господину Розову в 1,4 млн долларов, плюс символический подарок — часы марки «Патэк Филипп» стоимостью 100 тысяч долларов.

22 апреля 2020 года курьер принес в офис «Совюркома» в Москве две коробки: одну обычную, вторую фирменную, с часами «Патэк Филипп». Офис-менеджер заглянула в обычную коробку, увидела там ровные пачки денег и спросила у курьера, от кого. Тот ответил, что от Розова, женщина кивнула, взяла обе коробки и отправилась звонить шефам: Волчеку и Плиеву, которые в тот день находились в Петербурге.

Дистанцирование от места, где состоялась передача денег, бывшему депутату и его партнеру не помогло. Факт передачи денег, кивок сотрудницы фирмы (явно была предупреждена) и звонки в Питер были зафиксированы сотрудниками ФСБ. Через полчаса после того, как две коробки оказались в офисе «Совюркома», Волчек и Плиев наблюдали за обысками в своих домах и квартирах уже лично, поскольку были задержаны. А еще через пару часов их сопроводили на Московский вокзал и посадили в поезд до Москвы, где предъявили обвинение по части 3 статьи 30 УК РФ и части 4 статьи 159 УК РФ («Покушение на мошенничество в особо крупном размере») и заключили под стражу. В мае 2021 года Волчек был приговорен к 3 годам лишения свободы.

С учетом времени, проведенного в СИЗО (в следственном изоляторе один день считается за полтора в колонии общего режима), Денис Геннадьевич уже должен был освободиться. Но связаться с ним по прежним телефонам не получилось. Так же, как не получилось дозвониться ни до его отца, ни до жены. Вполне возможно, что, выйдя из-за решетки, Волчек посчитал за лучшее покинуть страну. Благо, выбор, куда поехать, у него имеется: в наличии у Волчека не только паспорт Израиля, но и документ, позволяющий жить ему в Греции.