Accused of contract killing of the co-owner of the famous Metropol, Mikhail Glushchenko caught a wave with the judge, and the consideration of the case moved forward. The jury listened to the daughter of the murdered Vyacheslav Shevchenko and decided to clarify why Misha Khokhl needed a bloody massacre in Cyprus.
The meeting began almost without delay – the last time Glushchenko was called an ambulance, he could hardly move, barely speak and practically did not understand what the judge was asking him about. This time, the defendant looked much more cheerful and even seemed to be neater, although he did not shave, although he heard from the lawyer a recommendation to put himself in order so as not to look like an old man – his lawyer agreed with the impressions of the correspondent from the image of Glushchenko.
The defendant himself also at some point nodded towards the journalist – apparently, he knows the content of the article about a three-hour attempt to start a judicial investigation, at least in retelling. It even sounded from Glushchenko that he “needs to finish quickly” with the next verdict. This time he did not particularly complain about his health, he only noted that he was bitten by mosquitoes, and the nightly struggle with them did not allow him to sleep off.
The judicial investigation, with a disastrous start, when it was not even possible to invite the jury into the hall, continued with compliments. Glushchenko somehow immediately felt that now he and the presiding judge were on the same wavelength, and even complimented the stately judge Dmitry Khamadiyev, saying that you look great, your honor. And then he asked to call Putin.
Glushchenko tried to develop an idea from the previous meeting: he allegedly knows some information of “national importance” about some people in Lvov who are preparing an assassination attempt on the president. Therefore, he needs to contact the head of Putin’s security service. “There used to be Zolotov… But the president put you here, you can call him,” the defendant broadcast his picture of the world. Khamadiev resisted the “we can screw everything up” and, with all due seriousness, recommended that Glushchenko discuss this issue with his lawyers.
Finally, respected jurors were invited into the hall – four alternates, six main ones. Mostly elegant middle-aged ladies who are hardly deeply immersed in the biographies of the characters who rumbled in gangster times. From the prosecutor they heard a presentation of the indictment in a free and understandable form and with a preamble that the court would take them to the events of the 90s.
During these same years, Glushchenko met the Shevchenko brothers, the elder Vyacheslav and the younger Sergei. For those who, like the jury, are not in the know: Glushchenko, aka Misha Khokhol, was on the team of Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin, the leader of the once most powerful Tambov community. After an almost accidental arrest in 2009, he repeatedly testified against him, including naming Kumarin as the customer behind the murder of Galina Starovoitova – he himself is in jail for organizing this murder and for extorting Shevchenko.
Until the early 2000s, Glushchenko, the prosecutor said, protected Shevchenko’s business – and this is Metropol, restaurants, a nightclub, and a number of other commercial enterprises. For services he received 10 thousand dollars, closer to the murder of Shevchenko Sr. – already 50, a month.
In 2003, the situation changed dramatically, and Glushchenko himself did not live in Russia for several years. Vyacheslav Shevchenko, it follows from the words of the prosecutor, wanted to get rid of the monthly tribute, to which Glushchenko offered to pay him a $10 million compensation or sell Metropol shares for a symbolic $100,000 for such a business. Glushchenko threatened, Shevchenko, as his daughter told the court, increased security, but did not pay. In March 2004, Shevchenko, along with his friend Yuri Zorin and translator-secretary Valentina Tretyakova, was in his Cypriot house, where he left almost incognito. The prosecution believes that Glushchenko followed them, hired Viktor Krupitsa and someone else. All three were stabbed to death in the house, they tried to wash away the blood and hide the bodies. But they didn’t. On the day of the murder, Shevchenko was supposed to meet with his lawyer living in Cyprus, who managed the offshores of the murdered. He came to the house with the police.
The defendant’s lawyers spoke briefly, promising the jurors to convince them that Glushchenko had nothing to do with all this, and that the case lacked objectivity, rationality and logic. Glushchenko continued in the same manner and said that of the dead, only Shevchenko knew closely, they had long-standing friendships and a common business, they were State Duma deputies together. “After the murder, I stopped receiving money from our business, and it was not profitable for me. It was beneficial only to Sergei, who got our entire business, ”Glushchenko hinted in which direction to look.
As Fontanka wrote, the defendant’s statement was attached to the case, in which he called Kumarin the customer.
“They invented everything wrong, they thought for 12 years or 14. All these people who gave me a term for extortion testified against Kumarin, then against me. And for money. They say, give 30 thousand and we will not give (testimony), – Glushchenko expressed his attitude to the charge and added that he did not admit guilt: – The people who killed, where are they? Where?” This, by the way, is unknown. The aforementioned Krupitsa is wanted, other accomplices in the murder have not been identified.
The court gave the word to the victim, the daughter of Vyacheslav Shevchenko, Elizabeth. A slight stupor in the victim was caused by the judge’s question about whether she has a hostile attitude towards the defendant. “A difficult question, he killed my father,” Elizabeth said with confidence and noted that this did not prevent her from giving evidence.
At the time of the events described, she was a student, with her father, according to her, she had a warm relationship. Almost all property and business were registered in her name.
She saw Glushchenko for the first time at the station when she saw off her father to Moscow after his victory in the Duma elections. Then he regularly appeared both at home and at Shevchenko’s office. The woman is convinced that he did not take part in the business of her father and brother, but only protected the brothers, she cannot call their relationship friendly. She knows about the transfer of money from the words of her uncle, he said that her father paid with Glushchenko through a lawyer, sometimes through transfers to a card, someone from the defendant came several times for money. She also saw Kumarin, who, along with Glushchenko, was a regular at her father’s restaurant Hollywood on Nevsky, 46 (now there is Bukvoed). “According to rumors, they scared away all the visitors, and the restaurant had to be closed,” said Elizabeth.
According to the impressions of the victim, Glushchenko exerted moral pressure on her father. She asked her dad why he pays him, in response she heard “be quiet, it’s necessary.” “Glushchenko is Glushchenko, the 90s, who doesn’t know him …” the woman conveyed the atmosphere. She also knows about the threats from the words, she personally did not receive them and did not hear them, but her father instructed her, and also strengthened his security. Elizabeth had no bodyguards. Glushchenko tried to ask a question about his role in beefing up security, but essentially just said that he had given Shevchenko his armored Mercedes.
The victim’s daughter also spoke about a house in the suburbs of Paphos. According to the victim, her father built it in a hard-to-reach place, it is impossible to find it without knowing exactly where to go – she herself lost the right turn more than once, which in the conditions of the 2000s, when there were no navigators, became a quest. The building is a structure of one and a half floors on a mountain slope, the lower semi-basement floor overlooks the garden. Windows to the floor, the alarm was set only after the murder. The Ukrainian housekeeper was called in as needed, the gardener came twice a week. Garbage was taken out with the same frequency – Elizabeth remembers that the killers put out a container with bloody things for public utilities. There was nothing particularly valuable in the house, but the ring, cross and watch that her father wore were gone.
One autumn in the early 2000s, she came to Cyprus to visit her father and saw Glushchenko in the house. Upon her return, she told her mother about this, which made the woman very excited. “What are you doing, why did you show him the house, he will kill you there,” the victim quoted the conversation between Shevchenko and his wife and turned to Glushchenko: “Yes, Mikhail Ivanovich?” He reacted later during the break and somehow with anguish said that he did not remember Elizabeth at all. “But I remember you,” the victim snapped. Glushchenko managed to say that he was sorry for the girl who had lost her father.
According to Elizabeth, after threats from the defendant, her father wrote a note in which he indicated that only Glushchenko could be guilty of his murder. Shevchenko gave the note to “comrade Sbitnev” for safekeeping. Slightly deviating from the topic: Igor Sbitnev is a person from the same world, the members of his group were suspected of a number of violent crimes, including murders. As Fontanka wrote, Glushchenko left Russia shortly after Sbitnev was detained. He himself was acquitted.
There were two questions “why”. The first one is from lawyer Glushchenko about the shares of Metropol. Elizabeth suggested that Glushchenko was going to make money this way, because he claimed to be a ready-made business. “Economically, I don’t know how to work, I have sports, boxing,” commented from the “aquarium” master of sports of international class Glushchenko.
The second “why” was of interest to the jury, who had 7 questions, mostly clarifying. Elizaveta sees the point for Glushchenko to kill her father is to confirm her authority, scare her uncle and “get her own.”
Judge Khamadiyev closed the session, it seems, almost joyfully, with the words “well done”. “Thank you for coming,” Glushchenko addressed the jury and bowed.
