A ONE-ARMED multi-millionaire, who is alleged to be the last of the Russian crime bosses of the 1990s to stay in business, has gone on trial in Moscow, accused of ordering a botched attempt to murder a rival in his silver Rolls-Royce.
Vladimir Barsukov, 53, who is rumoured to have had links in the past to Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, is also charged with setting up a crime syndicate once seen as the most powerful mafia gang in St Petersburg, the country’s crime capital in the years after the fall of communism.
At the height of his power he had 2,000 foot soldiers under his command, security experts say.
Read full article here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6395870.ece
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
A Mobster Trial, and a Flash of a Violent Past
T. PETERSBURG, Russia — Vladimir S. Barsukov has been called St. Petersburg’s “night governor.”
A leader of one of the country’s most powerful criminal syndicates, the one-armed mobster — who has a bullet lodged in his chest from a failed assassination attempt — amassed authority and influence through the bloody gang wars of the 1990s and once rivaled St. Petersburg’s elected leaders for control over Russia’s imperial capital.
Now, Mr. Barsukov is on trial in Moscow, charged with illegal corporate raiding, extortion, fraud and attempted murder, among other crimes. His arrest by itself appears to be a victory for Russian authorities over a remaining vestige of the powerful criminal clans that once held this city hostage at gunpoint.
Read full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/world/europe/14mobster.html?_r=2&ref=world
A leader of one of the country’s most powerful criminal syndicates, the one-armed mobster — who has a bullet lodged in his chest from a failed assassination attempt — amassed authority and influence through the bloody gang wars of the 1990s and once rivaled St. Petersburg’s elected leaders for control over Russia’s imperial capital.
Now, Mr. Barsukov is on trial in Moscow, charged with illegal corporate raiding, extortion, fraud and attempted murder, among other crimes. His arrest by itself appears to be a victory for Russian authorities over a remaining vestige of the powerful criminal clans that once held this city hostage at gunpoint.
Read full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/world/europe/14mobster.html?_r=2&ref=world
Monday, April 27, 2009
Requiem For A Godfather
In St. Petersburg they called him the "Nighttime Governor," and the moniker fit.
Throughout the 1990s and for a good part of the current decade, Vladimir Barsukov appeared to be the true ruler of Russia's second city regardless of who was formally in power.
Officially he served since 1998 as vice president of the St. Petersburg Fuel Company. But Barsukov -- who was known as Vladimir Kumarin until he changed his name in the late 1990s just prior to that appointment -- derived his true power as the alleged leader of a highly feared and politically connected criminal gang called the "Tambovskaya gruppirovka" or the Tambov Gang.
Read full article here: http://www.rferl.org/content/Requiem_For_A_Godfather/1617107.html
Throughout the 1990s and for a good part of the current decade, Vladimir Barsukov appeared to be the true ruler of Russia's second city regardless of who was formally in power.
Officially he served since 1998 as vice president of the St. Petersburg Fuel Company. But Barsukov -- who was known as Vladimir Kumarin until he changed his name in the late 1990s just prior to that appointment -- derived his true power as the alleged leader of a highly feared and politically connected criminal gang called the "Tambovskaya gruppirovka" or the Tambov Gang.
Read full article here: http://www.rferl.org/content/Requiem_For_A_Godfather/1617107.html
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Trial of Russian Mobster to Begin
The trial of Vladimir Barsukov (aka Vladimir Kumarin), head of St. Peterburg's most powerful organized crime group, will begin in Moscow this week. Barsukov was arrested in August 2007 at his home outside St. Petersburg in a raid involving dozens of officers from the country's Special Purpose Police Squad. He faces charges of money laundering and the illegal takeover of businesses and properties.
Preliminary hearings are scheduled to begin Thursday. Citing threats to Barsukov's safety, prosecutors filed a motion to have the trial moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Barsukov's attorney, however, has fought the move, calling it illegal. Local media have suggested that the reasons behind the relocation could involve an attempt on the part of authorities to shield the trial from public scrutiny.
Read full article here: http://reportingproject.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=243&Itemid=43
Preliminary hearings are scheduled to begin Thursday. Citing threats to Barsukov's safety, prosecutors filed a motion to have the trial moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Barsukov's attorney, however, has fought the move, calling it illegal. Local media have suggested that the reasons behind the relocation could involve an attempt on the part of authorities to shield the trial from public scrutiny.
Read full article here: http://reportingproject.net/new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=243&Itemid=43
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)