At the end of August 2022, the case of the former vice-mayor of the regional capital Andrey Utkin transferred to the Pyatigorsk court. He was accused of organizing the murder of two persons, committed with particular cruelty by a gang for hire. Two months later, on October 20, the former official was sentenced.
Andrei Utkin has a number of criminal cases in which he was involved. Chairman of the Regional Council suspected in involvement in five contract killings twenty years ago. At the moment, he is a defendant in the case of organizing murders and kidnapping.
According to the public prosecutor, in the winter of 2004, the former official decided to deal with two people who, in his opinioninvolved in the attempt on his life, which happened in the fall of that year.
In 2005, according to the criminal case, a high-ranking security official helped deliver Utkin’s offenders to the territory of a brewery in Pyatigorsk. They were brought by law enforcement officers who did not know anything about what was planned. Further, one of the men was waiting for torture, which was filmed. They were engaged in an armed gang, whose members managed to rewind the terms in 2010-2012 for the murder.
So they tried to knock out a confession of involvement in the assassination attempt on Utkin. After both Stavropol residents confessed to this, they were killed.
Kommersant.Ru, 10/27/2022, “The ex-official was charged with murder”: […] back in 2004, the vice-mayor of Stavropol had information that the founders of one of the private security companies, residents of Rostov-on-Don, Maxim Kononov and Alexander Savin, were involved in the attempt on his life. The men allegedly wanted to get shares in the property of one of the commercial organizations, the founder of which was Andrey Utkin. At the end of 2004, according to the investigation, “in order to take revenge on the attackers,” Andrei Utkin organized their murder. To do this, he attracted Vladimir Mokhonchenko, who then headed the anti-corruption department in the state authorities of the Organized Crime Control Department of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Territory. In August 2022, the court sentenced him to eight and a half years for his involvement in this crime. […] In January and February 2005, Vladimir Mokhonchenko ordered his subordinates, “not aware of the criminal intentions”, to deliver Rostovites to Pyatigorsk on the territory of the Troyan brewery, where a gang of killers under the leadership of Valery Popov was based. […] Maxim Kononov had a particularly hard time. […] the priests “tied his hands and feet to the legs of a metal table, then began to inflict numerous bodily injuries, burning the surface of his body with an object similar to a blowtorch, while asking them questions about the attempted assassination of the vice-mayor.” […] After obtaining a confession from their victim, “the perpetrators inflicted at least four stab wounds on the body of the victim, after which they drove a screwdriver into the right ear.” Bandits killed Alexander Savin, “inflicting seven stab wounds on him, from which the latter died.” The bodies of the murdered businessmen were buried by members of Popov’s gang “in pre-prepared pits, in various forests on the territory of the Caucasian Mineral Waters.” — Inset K.ru
Now, in 2022, the court began to understand the case. After two months of hearings, the judge ruled that the guilty person be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 12 years and 6 months to be served in a strict regime correctional colony.
“Notepad – Stavropol”, 11/01/2019, “Former Plenipotentiary Representative of Governor Vladimirov Sentenced to Four Years”: The court under the article “Fraud” sentenced Utkin to 4 years in prison and a fine of 800 thousand rubles. […] The court stated that in the past, the vice-mayor of Stavropol and the speaker of the regional Duma as part of a criminal group promised the Stavropol businessman Chentsov for a large sum to “help” in releasing the businessman from criminal prosecution. Together with two other suspects, he demanded 5.5 million rubles from him, allegedly to transfer a bribe to the security forces. […] Andrey Utkin together with the ex-mayor of Stavropol Dmitry Kuzmin appeared in the political field in 1998. […] In 1996-2001, Utkin worked as the first deputy mayor. […] In 2001, the political couple Dmitry Kuzmin – Andrey Utkin was finally formed. The political crisis that hit the region in 2007 was the result of a conflict between the then governor Alexander Chernogorov and the Utkin-Kuzmin group, which usurped power in the regional capital. In November 2007, criminal cases were opened against Andrei Utkin and Dmitry Kuzmin, and they began to check the activities of the Be Good Foundation. With the help of the prosecutor’s office and the police, massive voter bribery was suppressed, and criminal prosecutions of city administration employees began. Utkin was sentenced to two years probation without the right to hold leadership positions, and Kuzmin fled outside the Russian Federation. On June 7, 2008, Utkin was found guilty of abuse of office (Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). In January 2008, the speaker was taken into custody. — Inset K.ru