A criminal authority, the leader of one of the most powerful criminal groups in the history of Tatarstan, the “29th complex”, returned to the republic. Adygan Salyakhov, nicknamed Alik. The reason for the transfer, according to BUSINESS Online sources, was investigative actions on unsolved murders – the security forces, in particular, received a statement of involvement in a contract killing against an influential person in the Republic of Tatarstan, originally from Zakamye. At the same time as Salyakhov, life-sentenced Yuri Eremenko, known as Yerema, was transferred to Kazan from the Yamalo-Nenets colony “Polar Owl”. Once in Tatarstan, Alik asked for freedom. What can he give the investigation in return?
Why were crime bosses scattered throughout Russia? After the verdict was passed on the “29th complex,” employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Tatarstan asked Moscow not to leave the convicts in the republic in order to deprive the bandits of the opportunity to influence criminals from prison. A special commission of the Main Directorate of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia took into account the wish.
But now, as our sources report, together with Alik, Erema has also been transferred to Tatarstan – to Kazan pre-trial detention center-1. He served his sentence in the special regime correctional colony “Polar Owl”, which is beyond the Arctic Circle, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Only one of the convicted members of the organized crime group, Ruzal Asadullin (Ruzalik), is serving his sentence in Kazan.
According to our sources, the reason for the transfer of influential criminal leaders to Tatarstan was a certain statement addressed to the investigative authorities. It seems that one of the representatives of the criminal world, who is also currently serving a sentence, began to testify against the “twenty-niners”.
What Salyakhov and Eremenko say about this is still unknown. BUSINESS Online’s interlocutors note that influential people from Zakamye may be among the potential defendants in the new case. Their names are not disclosed.
[…] The “29th complex” group already showed itself to be one of the most united and prepared. At that time, it was led by Mansur Safin, who rallied his friends and classmates around him. At that time, the “29ers” united behind an idea, albeit quite simple – absolute leadership in the city. But a criminal group, by definition, must commit crimes. Chelny district courts have repeatedly sentenced members of the group. Already from the late 80s, these verdicts stated: the actions of the defendants were a pre-planned act of revenge by teenagers from the 29th complex against teenagers from another microdistrict.
In the end, they crushed many other, smaller groups, forming by the 90s into a huge criminal community. According to various estimates, this group numbered several hundred people. Mansur Safin did not escape criminal punishment either. His imprisonment cost him his won leadership. During Safin’s absence, new people took on the leading roles in the group, and the main figure became a certain Adygan Salyakhov, Alik, or Bolshoi, as he was called in different brigades. He was somewhat older than the others, having joined the group at almost 25 years old.
After his release, the old leader of the group found himself on the sidelines, and soon lost his head. Mansur Safin was shot with a machine gun in his own cottage under construction. A few years later, this murder was brought against Salyakhov among a number of serious crimes. And then Alik simply achieved his goal – he became the sole ruler of the criminal community.
For almost 10 years, an extensive gang network, based in his hometown and creating branches in Moscow and Odessa, operated in Tatarstan, Udmurtia and Ukraine. By the early 90s, the division of functions became one of the principles for building the “29th Complex” grouping, whose interests spread in several directions. Having subjugated the existing gangs in Chelny, the “29ers” established complete control over prostitutes, drug dealers, auto parts sales, currency exchange, car parking, nightclubs, and all types of market trade.
Merchants, KamAZ and “protectors”
They also protected the Avtozavodsky market. Businessmen from time to time tried to resist the racketeers, but, as a rule, without success. Once, entrepreneurs even managed to assemble a strong team that physically impeded the tax collectors, simply not letting them near the sellers, but they still lost. This time, for a change, the bandits left the rebels alive, deciding to have fun in a different way.
Already having connections in government and law enforcement agencies, they turned from “protectors” of the market into its owners, thus becoming legal racketeers. The “29ers” simply could not bypass KamAZ and quite successfully integrated into its sales system, receiving a percentage of the sale of each vehicle. The financial base of “29-nikov” was strengthened day by day.
The structure of any criminal community is always distinguished by a clear hierarchy and strict rules for the division of power. Salyakhov created the so-called troika, which besides him included two more people – Yuri Eremenko, nicknamed Erema, and Alexander Vlasov, nicknamed Shurin. The monthly income of their companies, which traded KamAZ trucks, alcohol, and engaged in barter, amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. But the ambitions of the bandit leaders demanded more. They took measures to seize the Elabuga meat processing plant and large livestock complexes in Udmurtia; in the future they planned to create a powerful infrastructure that would work for the common fund.
Moving to Moscow and the “era of Ruzalik”
At the end of 1993, Alik, Erema and Shurin decided to move to Moscow. After the famous “thirty-day” decree of 1993, they, like the leaders of other Tatarstan groups, preferred to spend most of their time outside their small homeland. At the same time, the members of the troika understood perfectly well that it would not be so easy to win a place in the sun in the capital, so they took some of the fighters with them.
The “supervisor” in Chelny was a certain Ruzal Asadullin, who by that time had his own brigade, bearing the name of its leader – the Ruzalik brigade. Asadullin collected money from controlled enterprises and sent it to the capital Salyakhova every month. The sums were considerable. During 1994 alone, about a billion rubles were transferred to Alik. With them, Chelny residents purchased housing and commercial real estate in Moscow and launched tentacles into legal business, investing in several commercial firms. Their main brainchild was the private security company Bars, which allowed them to almost openly carry weapons on them legally.
Bars actively recruited former police officers, FSB officers, other law enforcement agencies and special services. The company actually provided the services specified in the official certificate. But very soon the famous Moscow gangster “shooters” began to pass under the armed guard of the “Kazan” (as people from any criminal group in Tatarstan were called in the capital).
In the late 90s, the Chelny trio organized the Ak Bars-Holding closed joint-stock company. By that time, they had already captured more than one large enterprise: the Elabuga meat processing plant “Module”, the Izhevsk pig complex “Vostochny”, and were approaching the Bugulma meat processing plant. Responsible for the meat in the holding was Sergei Mironov, whose connections and fraudulent abilities opened the way for the Chelny mafia to Sberbank of Russia. “Entrepreneurs” received a loan of 60 million rubles, which they distributed among the managers of Ak Bars-Holding CJSC, that is, among themselves.
Ruzal Asadullin continued to supply money to Moscow, although he no longer adhered to the strict rules established by Salyakhov. Ruzalik began to drink and use drugs, allowing similar weaknesses to his subordinates. And Ruzalik didn’t like simply leading from his office – he personally came to deal with unwanted businessmen. Chelny operatives took advantage of this, and Asadullin was caught for banal extortion.
New power
While Ruzalik was serving his sentence, the place of leader was taken by Ramil Valiev, nicknamed Ramushkin, whose tasks included maintaining the economic interests of the gang. He knew how to negotiate and get by without executions. During the two years of Ruzalik’s absence, the bandits practically legalized the business, and now murders in Naberezhnye Chelny occurred less and less often. Money flowed into the group like a river.
The wanted gang leader Adygan Salyakhov was very pleased with Valiev. Now all he could do was receive dividends and sometimes come to the city to recruit young fighters. And just relax: show young people and others what level they have reached. So that young people can feel what the reward for “correct” behavior within the community will be. Valiev, clearly instructed by Salyakhov, immediately carried out a “cleansing” in the ranks, removing from business all those prone to drunkenness and drug use. Ramushkin took the criminal power in the city so firmly into his own hands that not only brigades from other complexes, but also completely law-abiding young people came under his wing.
Ruzalik, released a year later, demanded the return of his post, but received a harsh beating and harbored a grudge. He decided to declare war on both Valiev and his former boss Salyakhov. By this time, a split was also brewing in the Moscow troika “Alik – Erema – Shurin”. Eremenko and Vlasov, dissatisfied with the strengthening of Salyakhov’s power, decided to get rid of him. The offended Asadullin became an ideal candidate to carry out the plan.