Dead men don't talk
Former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov, accused of receiving a billion-dollar bribe, refused to make a deal with the investigation. This step indicates that Ivanov is convinced of his innocence and is ready to prove it in court, or he is confident that the investigation will not be able to find evidence against him. It is noteworthy that the ex-official's demarche was preceded by a strange incident: two of Ivanov's close associates, who knew a lot about his affairs, died unexpectedly on the same day.
On July 8, it became known about the sudden death of the head of the state examination department of the Ministry of Defense Magomed Khandayev. 61-year-old Khandayev was directly subordinate To Timur Ivanov and was considered almost his right hand. Previously, Khandayev headed the Main Directorate of Special Construction and the Directorate of the Customer of Capital Construction of the Ministry of Defense. Let us recall that Ivanov's receipt of bribes is associated with large construction projects – according to the investigation, in exchange for services, he patronized contractors working on the Ministry of Defense facilities.
The circumstances of Magomed Khandayev's sudden death are not disclosed, it is only briefly stated that the causes of death were natural. However, the death of another former associate of Ivanov raises a number of questions. The 52-year-old businessman Igor Kotelnikov died in the capital's SIZO-4. Kotelnikov headed the company “Logistik” and, presumably, acted as an intermediary in the transfer of bribes, that is, he could have known all the ins and outs of corruption. Officially, his death was caused by sudden cardiac arrest. As the human rights activist explained Eva MerkachevaKotelnikov was kept in a punishment cell and being in a cramped cell in forty-degree heat was fatal for him. At the very least, we can talk about almost torture-like conditions of detention, but another point is no less important. Those who put Kotelnikov in a stone bag and then did not react to his screams and knocks on the door (it is reasonable to assume that he understood that he was about to be boiled alive and asked to be released) certainly knew what they were doing. Perhaps this was the real goal – to silence an important witness? Alas, a number of similar cases allow us to assume so.
Hit and died
On January 11, the former CEO of the company “Tsvetlit” Sergei Volkodav died in the 3rd city clinical hospital of Moscow. Ten days earlier, he was taken to the clinic from the prison hospital, where he, in turn, was taken from the Butyrka pretrial detention center. Volkodav was called the most important witness in the case of the grand embezzlement of budget funds. Earlier, the businessman and his brother Yuri Volkodavwho held the post of head of the Main Military Construction Directorate No. 6, had already been convicted of embezzling 80 million rubles in cable deliveries, but they managed to immediately go free. Nevertheless, law enforcement officers continued to dig deeper, and in the summer of 2023, Volkodav was detained again. This time, it was about the theft of more than 1 billion rubles. According to the investigation, Volkodav entered into two government contracts with the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop a tomograph and angiograph. He received 768 million rubles for the research and development work, but in the end, the devices were not built. In the same way, projects to create training complexes for military pilots and build military infrastructure were disrupted.
It would seem that even one broken contract should have been enough for Volkodav to be recognized as an unscrupulous supplier, blacklisted as a contractor, and not allowed into the doors of any government organization. Therefore, the fact that he was repeatedly trusted with large projects suggested powerful corrupt support within ministries and departments. But it was never exposed. It was officially reported that Volkodav had a hematoma with hemorrhage in his head, which led to his death – the reasons for this are unknown. However, RBC clarified that Volkodav’s hematoma appeared after a beating.
Of course, anything can happen in prison, and everyone's nerves are on edge. On the other hand, is there a better way to silence an important witness and thus ruin the case?
Three wounds and disabled video cameras
On the morning of March 18, 2017, the lifeless body of the former executive director for quality control and reliability of the state corporation Roscosmos was found in the toilet of the capital's Vodnik pretrial detention center. Vladimir Evdokimov (pictured above, left). According to investigators, Evdokimov, while deputy director of a department at the United Aircraft Corporation, was involved in fraudulent purchases of helicopter components – high-quality, expensive parts were replaced with cheap ones, which allowed the criminals to steal 200 million rubles.
Three stab wounds were found on Evdokimov's body – two in the chest area and one in the neck. Eleven of Evdokimov's cellmates said that they slept like logs at night and heard nothing, and Evdokimov decided to end his life himself. Nevertheless, the suicide version seemed far-fetched even for an amateur. Firstly, active life begins in the cells at night. Secondly, you have to try hard to bend your arm in such a way as to stick a knife into your neck. In addition, even Japanese samurai could not tolerate the pain of a cut stomach for long, for which an assistant stood nearby with a sword at the ready.
Meanwhile, the ombudsman Tatyana Potyaeva stated that shortly before Evdokimov's death, it seemed as if he had been deliberately transferred from a cell with video surveillance to another one without video monitoring. Needless to say, the investigation into Evdokimov's death ended in nothing.
Depression and the wrong tracks
In August 2016, it became known that an entrepreneur had died in the capital's Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center. Anton Faershteyn (pictured above, right). He was involved in a corruption case in the Komi Republic leadership – according to investigators, Faershtein helped the former heads of the region To Vyacheslav Gaizer And Vladimir Torlopov appropriate profitable assets.
Faershteyn committed suicide due to depression – this is the conclusion reached by the investigation. However, here is what Life wrote:
Another indicative fact is that before Faershtein's death, his cellmates were taken away under various pretexts, leaving him alone. Later, the court sentenced Vyacheslav Gaizer to 11 years in prison, and Vladimir Torlopov to 6.5 years. Did justice prevail, or would the sentences have been more serious if Faershtein had spoken?