How the hockey player met the future offender
Hockey player “Ak Bars” Artur Brovkin came to court in person the day before. True, it would be difficult for those who are not interested in hockey to identify him – in a tall young man in a mask and a blue jacket, nothing betrayed a professional athlete. He did not talk to journalists, he only kept his representative Airat Khairullin. “No comment,” is the only thing the hockey player said before the trial, continuing to turn away from numerous cameras. He also did not talk to the defendant Maxim Sidorov – being once good friends, they did not even say hello in the courtroom.
The presiding judge, deputy chairman of the Novo-Savinovsky Court, Oleg Semyonov, identified the victim in the case. Brovkin said that he was 21 years old, he lives in Kazan, he has a higher education, is married, has no children. When asked about his place of work, he said: “Hockey player, OOO SKP Tatneft – Ak Bars.” His representative Khairullin asked to close the court session from the media, referring to the fact that some personal data from correspondence, as well as information about HC Ak Bars, which could be a commercial secret, could be disclosed in the process. However, the court refused this.
Brovkin’s interrogation dragged on for almost an hour. At that time, he stood behind the podium, opposite the judge, and on his right hand sat the defendant and his former friend Sidorov, who almost never looked at him. Meanwhile, Brovkin assured the judge that there were no hostile relations between them.
How Brovkin lost almost 5 million rubles – version of the investigation
According to the investigation and prosecution, Sidorov extorted money from Brovkin for a year, from April 2021 to April 2022. Sidorov, according to the investigation, thought that his friend was financially secure, and decided to make money on it. He allegedly told the hockey player a fictitious story that some criminal authorities lost on bets made according to Brovkin’s forecasts. And intimidated by a criminal authority named Ziga – they say, he can “carry out physical violence” or spread “disgraceful information.” Brovkin, frightened, began to transfer money to Sidorov. For all the time, according to the investigation, the hockey player gave his friend 4.8 million rubles. At the same time, the last tranche of 500 thousand rubles passed under the control of the security forces after Brovkin turned to the police. Upon receiving the money, Sidorov was detained.
A little later, Marat Khasanzyanov (Ziga) was detained, but soon the criminal case against him was stopped – now he is a witness in the case. In addition, the article on extortion (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which was initially presented to Sidorov, was reclassified as fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Sidorov himself at the first court session stated that he admits his guilt in part, namely in terms of damage – only 4.3 million rubles, with the exception of the “fake” 500 thousand rubles.
– What do you know about the case, tell me, please? – began the interrogation of the senior assistant prosecutor of the Novo-Savinovsky district Ramil Gilmutdinov. Looking ahead, Brovkin was actually interrogated twice in court: first, the state prosecutor asked questions, and then the judge, who literally “pulled” all the circumstances of the case out of him.
Brovkin said that he met Sidorov around 2017-2018 through a mutual friend, Aidar Nurmiev, with whom he played amateur hockey. “We didn’t communicate well with him. Nurmiev Aidar told me that he (Sidorov) was being tried for some kind of case, I don’t know the details, ”Brovkin said about Sidorov of those times. However, a criminal record did not play an important factor in their relationship, and already around 2020, Brovkin continued, he and Sidorov began to “communicate more or less well.” Their parents also talked, even became friends with families. This is probably why Brovkin unconditionally trusted Sidorov. But something went wrong.
How did you get money
“In 2021, he (Sidorov) called me and said that the groupers from the Quarter lost 2 million rubles on your forecast (for the outcome of the match). He said that they would go to the club, they would look for you and would not give you a further life, ”Brovkin recalled. The hockey player did not turn to the club or the police, because, according to him, Sidorov intimidated him. “He said that there are people in the club who communicate with these groupers, they won’t listen to you, they will throw you out with such a reputation that you won’t be able to play hockey anymore,” Brovkin recounted. “Regarding the police, he said that “drugs will be planted, and you will leave under the article.”
Ziga will decide everything: how the Ak Bars hockey talent fell victim to extortionists
At the same time, the hockey player assures that he did not make any predictions, especially for bets. “No…” here Brovkin hesitated, trying to formulate a sentence. “I admit that there were conversations, but this is connected with professional moments, not with stakes.”
The judge asked to explain this even more. “(Sidorov) told me: you said that you would win, but you lost. It has to do with professional moments, not stakes. You will ask any hockey player: “Will you win today?” – anyone will say, they say, yes, we will win, and he took advantage of this, ”the hockey player tried to chew confusedly. To a clarifying question, the judge firmly answered: he had no agreements and conversations about rates with anyone.
One way or another, the issue with the groupers had to be resolved, and Sidorov, according to Brovkin, said: “I will call Ziga (nickname of Khasanzyanov, another person involved in the case).” “He said that Ziga would solve everything. The question, in his words, was closed, but he (Ziga) asked for money for this, ”the hockey player continued to tell. So, Sidorov continued to tell his friend that Ziga solves all issues.
But then a new “problem” appeared. “In the summer, he (Sidorov) told me that the groupers from the Quarter had reached out to more serious people,” Brovkin said. The hockey player already wanted to go to the police or the club, but Sidorov laid siege to him – they say, don’t you care about your personal reputation? And he offered to solve the problems by his own methods. “(Sidorov) said that Marat, nicknamed Ziga, would now also attack (a man) named Koba, and Koba, according to him, in turn, would attack the thief in law Sych (Roman Sychev – ed. note)”, – Brovkin told a story in which he unconditionally believed.
But Sidorov’s plan failed – the “quarter” allegedly suddenly got ahead of them. “According to him, groupers from the Quarter went to Sych and offered 6 million for my head. Oh, 5 million rubles, ”Brovkin calmly said. Sidorov, according to him, immediately found a solution to the problem: you have to pay more, that is, outbid the thief in law. And he even allegedly volunteered to help himself: they say, when Sidorov had problems (it was necessary to pay money to the victims by court order), Brovkin helped him, and now Sidorov is ready to help the hockey player as a token of gratitude. Moreover, in a rather interesting way: according to Brovkin, Sidorov told him that “from that case” (about fraud with telephones for which he was tried) he had an impressive amount left – 6 million rubles. They were allegedly kept in a safe deposit box in the bank, issued to his godmother. For the sake of Brovkin, Sidorov was ready to print this cell.
But here’s the bad luck: the bank took a commission from him for the early closure of the cell, and instead of 6 million rubles, Sidorov allegedly received only 4.8 million rubles in his hands. There’s nothing you can do – you have to add, Sidorov told Brovkin. “You will need to pay extra so that Sych goes for us, and not for the groupers from the Quarter,” Sidorov allegedly said. He asked to throw another “150-300 thousand” on top. “This money was needed to give Sych, so that Sych would go for me,” he explained to the clarifying question of the state prosecutor. In his testimony, which was later read out by the prosecutor, Brovkin explained this even more logically: “Because the quarterly groupers offered 5.1 million rubles for me, and it was necessary to offer a larger amount.”
By the way, they scared me not only with the “head”, but also with some preventive measures. “(Sidorov) constantly told me that they would shoot me in the knees, that I wouldn’t be able to play hockey, he said that they would do a “prevention” for you,” as if Brovkin complained in court. “(He said that) if you don’t find the money, then they will shoot you in the knees – they won’t kill you, but they will make sure that you don’t return to hockey.”
“My father told me that I was not far off”
At some point, Brovkin finally had doubts, and he asked Sidorov to show him at least some evidence that money was being shaken from him. “He said that there are screenshots of messages, but he never showed them,” Brovkin said. According to him, he saw these screenshots only once, but even then he noticed that “one person writes, and the same person answers.” Brovkin immediately realized that this was a fake, but Sidorov came up with an indistinct explanation for this: “There are authoritative people there, they will take their word for it, but no one will even listen to you, they won’t conduct any examinations, you will still remain guilty.” Brovkin believed it again.
By the way, the story did not end with Sych, and now some Moscow authorities have already appeared in it – however, Sidorov did not name them to Brovkin. “According to him (Sidorov), he contacted the Moscow thieves in law, and these thieves in law constantly resolved issues with groupers from the Quarter. They also turned to someone … And here they are all the time, ”said Brovkin. At the same time, in response to a clarifying question from the judge, he stated that he was not familiar with either Ziga, or Koba, or Sych, and had never seen them, apart from photos of Ziga in the messenger, and did not communicate.
The last amount that Sidorov announced to the hockey player was 500 thousand rubles. According to Brovkin, despite the fact that a friend considered him rich (an athlete, after all), he had no money – his parents even took out loans. One of them Brovkin asked to take his mother.
“On July 2, 2022, in order to give money to Sidorov, I asked my mother to take out a loan under the pretext that I had lost my money in Finiko,” Brovkin said during the investigation, and explained in court: “I told (my mother) that I had borrowed money from comrades, what should be given. He didn’t say anything about Sidorov.” Of this loan money, Brovkin “borrowed” 450,000 rubles from his mother and handed it over in cash to Sidorov.
But for the last tranche, he apparently did not have enough strength, not money, and he decided to confess to his parents. “Since there was no money left at all, I went and told my father (about this situation). To which my father told me that I was “not far off”, we went to the police,” Brovkin admitted self-critically. And he handed over the last tranche to Sidorov already under the control of police officers: according to him, of all the bills, only 11 thousand rubles were real, the rest were a doll. Moreover, it is interesting that Sidorov already seemed to assume that he might be detained: at the last moment he changed the meeting place, and before taking the money, he got out of the car and looked around. Did not help.
Brovkin said that he suffered damage of 4.3 million rubles, with the proviso “if I’m not mistaken.” Meanwhile, the prosecution and the investigation are talking about the damage of 4.8 million rubles – taking into account the last tranche of 500 thousand rubles, which were a dummy.
“I gave him 500 thousand a month, although I also had problems, loans!”
Sidorov’s lawyer, Bulat Mardanov, specified that negotiations are now underway with Brovkin on compensation for damages. Brovkin himself said that Sidorov returned him only 20 thousand rubles in August of this year. But so far the negotiations have not yielded any results. “(They offer to pay out) 25 thousand a month. No (I did not agree to this). I gave him not 25 thousand a month, but 500 thousand a month, 300 thousand, 700 thousand. Although I also had problems, loans, I had a payment of 150 thousand a month!” Sidorov said.
As the state prosecutor later lists, Brovkin really transferred to him rather big sums per month, and not in one tranche, but in dozens – sometimes 2 thousand a day, sometimes tens of thousands. And so it accumulated an impressive amount. Sidorov asked to transfer money to his mother’s card so as not to “shine” his own. Moreover, it follows from Brovkin’s testimony that Sidorov demanded that he provide for Ziga almost in general – one of the money transfers, for example, allegedly went to repair his apartment, another 50 thousand rubles – to the funeral of his father-in-law …
The judge clarified whether the defendant Sidorov confirms the words of the victim Brovkin. “Partially,” he answered uncertainly, hiding behind a folder from the cameras.
– What do you disagree with? the judge asked him.
“We would like to later, during the interrogation (to tell) …” Sidorov said, repeating the lawyer’s prompt, but the judge insisted: since the victim has come, we need to find out. – I completely agree with the amount (damage). With rates (disagree).
– And what about the rates? the judge asked, but did not receive an answer, Sidorov once again insisted that he would testify in the process.
It is planned to call witnesses for the next court session – Khasanzyanov, nicknamed Ziga, may be among them.
