Boss of bosses – how the night governor of St. Petersburg sits

It is one of the codes of post-Soviet Petersburg. And let you against. But only Fontanka managed to get through the prison to him. The symbol of the Russian mafia was surprised and predicted the future.

After another verdict in the spring of 2019, I managed to exchange a few words with Vladimir Kumarin in court. And he said:

– So come to me. That we, like in a zoo, are whispering.

– How?

“If you want to, you can climb through,” he replied.

Recently, the murder of the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Manevich was added to him, and today we are publishing his monologue wrapped in a dialogue. (I don’t know what you will say, but the final slammed the author like a fallen wall).

– How did you get here? They tell me – a date, but I have never had a single date in my life. I say: “You are confused.” Me: “No, no.” Me: “Show me a piece of paper, where is the date. Who has come?” And they show me your passport,” when Kumarin said this with surprised excitement, I could only smile. From him breathed a joyful commotion, as if we accidentally ran into somewhere far from St. Petersburg. Where it can’t be.

It should be important for the reader that we have known each other since the late 80s. 35 years exactly. This is more than half of our lives, so for a long time everything bad about each other was expressed and now this is not the point.

Something else spilled over. I explained what the judge allowed. They laughed, they say, if I secretly made my way, I would have ruined myself and walled it up stronger than him. We joked that we could broadcast live, because whoever needs to listen to us online anyway. Finally, they sat down, seconds of silence – and with his permission, the recording turned on. I didn’t ask permission to smoke. The camera is like a camera.

My task was to talk calmly, with four eyes, to someone who raised himself to a myth and has been talking to himself for the last 12 years.

Mediocre and worthy articles have been written about Coumarin. Even their crumpled presentation will stretch the story to the point of not being able to. How to describe the history of the Wall of China in one sentence? – It can be seen from space. So, for outsiders: before his arrest at the end of August 2007, Kumarin was the boss of all bosses.

What are you looking for in this prison? he asked me in a young voice. And then I almost averted my eyes – finally, I saw the light. In front of me sat a small, withered old man with a few teeth that had fallen out, and I felt myself smelling of health. Like a fitness trainer on a commercial. I realized that I would not go to his photo.

– You.

Our last meeting was in the summer of 2007. Then I sat across from him in the bar of the Grand Hotel Europe. Coumarin was unshaven, drunk, and I said: “Excuse me, but do you understand that you will be accepted soon? Why don’t you run?” “Where should I go, to Vietnam?” he smiled doomedly.

“You can find the Orthodox magazine Foma in this prison. There are biblical interpretations, and one issue is dedicated to Butusov. How he fell to the bottom, then rose from the bottom. It suits me very well. As he crawls through the jungle. Darkness is terrible there, fear. And far away, a light is visible. And here is the field. Rye, flowering. Flowers, smells, butterflies and bees fly. And she stands – a woman. She is waiting for you while you go. And she takes you in her arms, and you ascend with her into the unthinkable. To shock you, – he looked like “white”.

– What did God think of me when the blow of fate came? It looks like it was a question for me.

In August of this year, he will be 16 years old. Without his right hand, he bandages himself every day – the invalid is the same – almost plastic tubes stick out of his stomach. He licks himself like an old wolf in a trap.

“Volodya, remember how you then fought with Butusov,” I translated the topic from complex metaphysics to the lightness of youth. I myself heard about that stupid story.

Why did they fight then? He laughed a little, changing, becoming a little bit the same. “Nautiluses came to Leningrad, sort of from London. They had a great gig there in 1988 or ’89. I remember some of their green hats. It was the same in the tavern “Mirror” (now the hotel “St. Petersburg” – Approx. ed.). Now I’ll tell you how it turned out: what a time it was – some of our caps didn’t like them. Here Lukoshin and the guys were quickly thrown at them, and then they all sat down together at the same table and got drunk. Lukosha soon crashed in a car, and they came to the funeral, and then they wrote this song. Well you know…

A rhyme from Butusov’s song “Tear the Fabric”, which turned out to be a prophecy: “I’m more afraid of Rimbaud from Tambov than Rimbaud from Iowa.”

“Tell me, why didn’t you leave?”

– Where?

– In 2007, why didn’t you leave? I once asked you this question, and now I’m asking it out loud, not for myself.

– In terms of?

– In terms of! Excuse me, but more sense than here. Almost before the final, you were offered to sell PTK (Petersburg Fuel Company, established in 1994. In the early 2000s, control over the company passed to the Petersburg City Bank. It is believed that Vladimir Kumarin was the real beneficiary of PTK. – Approx. ed.) almost through the market, and you could rush over the cordon. treatment, for example.

– Good, Lord, to learn your law, but no.

This pissed me off for a moment, but then whipped myself – all these years he was locked up, mostly in solitary confinement. I myself can not answer that I would have endured.

“It was a noble offer that should not be refused.

– I, in general, am not afraid of my future, none. Absolutely. What does this say? That I’m not afraid of my past. None. That if I’m not afraid of my future, then I’m not afraid of the past. I have nothing to be afraid of. Believe me, this is not a defense of self-affirmation. It is so indeed. I understand everything. And to leave … Stop being. Well, maybe we are all strong in hindsight. Now I would have left … I ask Him questions, questions and get an answer: just don’t be a bastard. That’s all.

Those who remember that time remember you. They remember differently. Many say that they have not seen you stronger. And this is said by people who were capable of many dangerous things.

Many, how many?

– If you count from the powerful to the street, then two percent of them, you can say that you are still for you. Are experiencing.

– Two out of a hundred. I’ve had enough. Two out of a hundred in my situation is a chance.

– How do you react to the accusations of the state?

— Investigators no end. Everyone comes and comes: “I want to interrogate you.” Go ahead and ask. And to me, in general, on the drum. Cognitive dissonance is not for me.

– Can you joke now?

– I’m even on the last word …

– I heard.

– Yes, I said at the trial to the prosecutor: “Mercy is higher than justice.” She could have asked for 25, but she asked for 24.5. Well, it’s mercy after all.

Whether it was a mockery, or really he appreciated it. It’s hard to understand even when you know the person and don’t look away.

– There will be a real court, it’s a must. My consciousness with death is not combined. Simply – he died. How is that? Have you thought about it? I am yes. As you imagine, here you are dead and you are gone. Listen: the receiver, or rather, the translator, was turned off, but the wave is still going on. So the soul left the body, and this interval of years can be a thousand or ten thousand. There is the 93rd psalm of Moses: Blessed is he who listens to the reproofs of the Lord. Every day I ask the Lord to extend for me the days that I spent not in exile, but in patience. The harder it is, the easier it is for me to endure it all.

“Maybe you’re angry, you’re standing here in freedom, but as soon as they let you out, you exhale, as if you threw off the barbell from your shoulders and crumble?”

– I spent a lot of time alone and I have no one to show off to, I confess three times a month, although here I am innocent and there is nothing special to sin. He even prayed for Shengelia when he was killed.

Badri Shengelia is also a phenomenon of St. Petersburg – a man who deceived all the raiders, the security forces. He gave those testimonies against Kumarin that allowed him to be arrested for a start. Hired assassins caught up with him.

– I’m sitting in a cell, half of this cell, I watch TV about Shengelia, I see you, what you say on the news. Suddenly the door opens: “Excuse me, Vladimir Sergeevich, we need to search you.” And I told them: “Do you want to find my phone, by which I gave the command to remove Shengelia?”

I laughed, he didn’t.

– Do they let the wife in?

-Where?

– To you.

– Punishment can happen. Here, there is a punishment for women. I will answer differently: one morning a policeman comes into my cell and says: “Remove the cover from the window. I only ask you to take it off, it’s not allowed.” And there is no ventilation, and the eyes are blinding. I ask: “With one hand left with me, can I block my face from the sun? Allowed? The most terrible torture was to tie to a pole so that the sun would burn.

Do we remember anything nice?

– Let’s!

– About the Soviet, when no one knew who the future would divide us into.

– The USSR issued a quality mark, and our construction team completed the construction of a facility in Gatchina in September. I nailed the first quality mark. And they wrote in the newspaper. institutional past.

– How many bullets were put into you in 1994? Eleven, point-blank from a Kalashnikov?

On this day, the Velikoluksky clan decided to put an end to the Tambovskaya. We started with Coumarin. For this, almost all the “Velikoluksky” ended up in cemeteries.

– A lot of. Exactly 10 years later, on the same day, I was again operated on by Valery Parfenov, I don’t remember the middle name – now one of the chief doctors, Janelidze. He pulled out five more, another one sits in the heart. I got a lot of bullets then.

Who then performed?

“They were killed while I was in a coma. Killer Valerik was also killed.

Who then started first?

“The Lord rewarded everyone,” Coumarin replied religiously, and I immediately remembered the quote attributed to Al Capone: “God will forgive our enemies. Our task is to organize a meeting with them.”

Did you repay with vengeance?

Sheep one way, goats the other. Gospel of Matthew.

– I often discussed with those who understand that you have been betrayed by all your friends: Fish, Baskak, Zinka, Khokhol.

Deputies for various delicate issues of Kumarin are listed: ex-deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region Rybkin (deceased); in his youth, world wrestling champion Baskakov (deceased); Kumarin’s fellow countryman from Tambov Drokov (recently released), ex-deputy of the State Duma Glushchenko (while in jail on the case of the murder of Galina Starovoitova).

Yes, scary tales. Some I haven’t even heard of. In 2008–2009–2010, I was given five injections in a vein a night. I was dying, and the Lord saved me to save my soul, and I said to them all: “Save yourself as you can.”

– It’s hard to judge, but what kind of mafia is this, if all the immediate environment … – I did not have time to finish.

– Why are the old “Crosses” good – the floors are stone – there are no rats. And in the new “Crosses” – wooden. For them, all cameras become walk-through. And if you poison a rat, it dies. Therefore, it is necessary to break the floors, take it and carry it away, otherwise the smell is guaranteed.

– Beautiful. Is your daughter writing?

— No, there is no correspondence.

– By e-mail official prison, who writes to you?

Nobody, no email.

– Why?

– Simply no. At our meeting, I did not believe that they gave me a date. Never-nothing. No, once, in 2016, the investigator said to me: “Now you can have both a phone call and a date.” Then already 8 years have passed or 9. So what? Call your wife? Am I going to ask her? How are you, Marina? – Fine. And yours, Volodya? – Fine.

– Refused?

Zhenya, the coolest thing for me right now is a time machine. I haven’t held a phone in 12 years. Now on TV about some G5. I don’t know half. How do I get through this? You know, it wasn’t possible before. And then, when it became possible, I realized that nothing would change from this. Our soul is immortal.

– Did you influence St. Petersburg? What do you think?

– I think that there is a message in this, but much is inflated, inflated. In fact, everything is not so.
I did not personally realize the scale that is attributed to me.

— You and I went through the 90s.

It was, and it wasn’t. It was and when they took revenge. But it also happened when I played football for the Leningrad plant at the Crossing tournament. I had just come to study at LITMO.

– By whom?

– Attackers.

– What is your favorite book?

— Now, the Gospels, it is clear. And so “Jean Green – Untouchable” (a Soviet parody of a spy detective).

What about a song about a beauty queen? Is everything still?

He looks at me point-blank, without blinking, sings: “Summer is wandering along the alleys, the sun is pouring straight from the roofs …”.

– What about the movie?

– With Belmondo loved films. “No amount of money can buy the past” – remember? In-o-o-you think, I see it in my eyes.

During this conversation, I still did not know that once in the House of Leningrad Youth he accidentally met a special director Kira Muratova (there was a film festival) and ordered a banquet for her and her comrades. If I knew, I would ask – outwardly they have a contradictory aesthetic.

– And from people from the cosmic level? Who in the world would you like to talk to?

“But it doesn’t matter who we love, we will definitely see them in the next world.”

– With whom?

– Leo Tolstoy, he was repudiated, but he has thoughts on how to get to heaven.

It’s not easy for me to grasp your answers.

– And my hostel was opposite the temple on Karpovka. Father Tikhon was my confessor there, and I often came to him, and nearby they sold watermelons. Here I go there with a good mood and order right into the queue: “Whoever reads Pushkin, I will buy a bottle of good wine.” The men are turned on! And I bought them then 20 bottles. Pushkin read! – suddenly, on an exhalation, Vladimir Sergeevich joyfully recalled. Of course, this was another mystery. Through me to you.

Is there something you definitely didn’t want to do?

— Yes, there are many.

– Do you have any friends?

– Maybe.

– Are you a happy person?

“Happiness… You can’t be happy alone. That’s when you bathe with someone with some ideas and thoughts. Here is happiness.

Are you hoping to be released?

It’s better not to think about it. One should not be deceived by too good thoughts. Get bogged down and miss something.

– What do you say to God? I said too quickly and easily.

Coumarin gently turned away to the window.

— Volodya, what will you tell Him? I rapped out every word slowly and heavily.

He turned his head and spoke as if an important unpleasant meeting had taken place between us: “The Apostle Peter meets me in front of the gate, reads all my sins to me and says: “Where are you going ?!” And I told him: “Wait! Yes, I am a robber, everything you read to me is all true, but didn’t you deny Christ three times after his arrest? And the Lord forgave. And after that you will show me? Yes, who am I?!”

Kumarin took a break, waited with rapture, and I managed to remain silent – I almost betrayed, they say, Volodya is an arrow.

“And the gates of Paradise opened before the sinner,” he said.

“You don’t even know what you just said.” I abruptly walked over to the window into the vast prison yard. I thought: “This is just the end of the most powerful saga … He is ready to at least pull the Moon to the Last Judgment.”

– Are you afraid of death? – such a question needs to be heard in the recording. Otherwise, in writing, it may seem intonationally incorrect.

Zhenya, we talked about this for a long time.

Let’s imagine that you are free. And suddenly something began to happen in the country. It bubbled up again.

I wanted to present some new revolutionary processes. Ask if he’s ready to dive back into thick reality again. In February 2019, he turned 63 years old. Today is 67.

“Let’s talk about death,” he slashed at my fantasies.

We soon said goodbye. I should have said something else. Didn’t want to quit about luck.

“You will catch a cold at my funeral.”

He winked at you.

To be honest, after our meeting at Kresty in May 2019, the author was waiting for the final act in the fate of Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin. No matter how strong he is inside, well, a deeply disabled person cannot overcome imprisonment indefinitely. This text was born several years ago and was waiting for the hourglass to count down the intentional. I couldn’t resist and you read it.