The ex-senator of the KChR and his father received life sentences for organizing an organized crime group, ordering the murder of objectionable persons and stealing gas from Gazprom for 4.4 billion rubles.

On Tuesday, December 27, the Moscow City Court sentenced the former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia Rauf Arashukova and his father Raul to life imprisonment in the case of a criminal community and contract killings, RBC was told in court.

In early December, prosecutor Maria Semenenko requested life sentences for the father and son of the Arashukovs, and suggested that four other defendants be sentenced to terms ranging from five years in prison in a general regime colony to 24 years in a strict regime colony.

Former Head of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karachay-Cherkessia Timur Betuganov and former and about. Head of the Department of the Investigative Committee for Karachay-Cherkessia Kazbek Bulatov the court sentenced to 22 colonies. The court deprived Betuganov of the rank of colonel, and Bulatov of the rank of major general of justice.

Andrey Filippov, former investigator of the Investigative Committee for Karachay-Cherkessia, was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison. The ex-director of the branch of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol LLC Guzer Khashukaev received five years in prison.

Arashukov Jr. accused of organizing the murder deputy chairman of the public youth movement “Adyghe Khase” of the KChR Aslan Zhukov and adviser to the head of the republic Fral Shebzukhov, as well as in beating a witness to the murder.

According to investigators, an organized criminal community, which included members Arashukov clan and heads of regional branches of Gazprom, operated for about 17 years. Speaking in court as the detainees were restrained, the investigator reported that the criminal community had been functioning since 2002 on the territory of the North Caucasian Federal District. According to the investigation, Raul Arashukov, being its creator, gradually, methodically appointed his relatives to key positions in the gas industry, after which they, either personally or giving instructions to their subordinates, took actions to gas theft.

On September 23 this year, the jury pleaded guilty Arashukov proven. The jury also found the former acting director guilty of participating in a criminal group. the head of the department of the Investigative Committee for Karachay-Cherkessia, Major General of Justice Kazbek Bulatov and the ex-head of the center for countering extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Karachay-Cherkessia Timur Betuganov. The foreman of the jury added that the defendants in the case did not deserve leniency.

Most of the defendants denied guilt. It was recognized only by the defendant Guzer Khashukaev. The defendants were also found guilty of stealing gas from Gazprom’s subsidiaries in the amount of 4.4 billion rubles.

In turn, the defendants’ lawyers urged the court to decide on the dissolution of the jury, returning the case for a new trial. The defense also asked for the defendants to be acquitted.

Former Senator Rauf Arashukov was detained January 30, 2019 during a meeting of the Federation Council. Prosecutor General took part in his arrest Yuri Chaika and Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. Later, the security forces detained his father, Raul Arashukov, and several managers of Gazprom’s regional branches.

In April 2019, FSB officers detained Major General Kazbek Bulatov and Colonel Timur Betuganov, who were accused of assisting the Arashukovs in organizing contract killings.

In July 2021, the Basmanny Court of Moscow seized the property of Raul and Rauf Arashukov for 1.3 billion rubles in favor of the state. This was done at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Working in government and state-owned companies, the Arashukovs bought 75 properties, including the three-story Adiyuh Palace hotel with a restaurant and a bath complex. Also among the confiscated were three apartments, nine residential buildings, seven land plots, 14 cars.

In the history of modern criminal Russia, the cases when a father and a son were behind bars at the same time can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And the case of Rauf and Raul Arashukov, who received life sentences today, is completely unique, because both were high-ranking, influential people in the past.

The son and father were sitting (and are still sitting) in the same Lefortovo detention center and even on the same floor. Everyone roughly knows in which part of the corridor in the SIZO cell his closest relative is located, but he can only be seen in court.

The MK observer, a former member of the Public Monitoring Commission of Moscow, recalled how the father and son Arashukovs perceived their imprisonment in different periods.

The Arashukovs have already spent almost three years in Lefortovo, and this New Year will be the third in a row behind bars (however, judging by the extremely severe sentence – life imprisonment – all the rest will pass in a prison atmosphere).

I remember the first time I saw ex-senator Arashukov in the Lefortovo cell. By that time, he had spent only one night in a pre-trial detention center and, it seemed, could not fully believe what had happened. Rauf was dressed in an even prison uniform, in which he was simply unrecognizable (they gave him a sweatshirt and rubber boots). He refused prison food and asked for a “normal” cell (I had to explain to him that all cells are standard, and it won’t get any better).

It was clear that he was shocked by the conditions – there was no hot water at Lefortovo then, and he had to wash his underwear himself and in cold water (there is no laundry service). It seemed that he had never cleaned himself, so he looked at the plastic basin and the rag in bewilderment.

But the ex-senator turned out to be quite flexible and quickly adapted to new realities. To date, his camera is one of the most ideal.

“He constantly washes and cleans it,” says his defender Anna Stavitskaya. “And even the employees are forced to dry their feet before they enter the cell.

It quickly became clear that Arashukov Jr. was ready to see the positive in his current state. True, he did not rush headlong into reading literature. But on the other hand, he found a common language with all his cellmates (and there were quite a lot of them, including ex-Minister Mikhail Abyzov).

During all the following visits of members of the POC, Arashukov Jr. did not complain about anything, he simply complained about the lack of a gym. There was a moment when he went on a hunger strike in protest against the actions of the investigator (he forbade calls and visits). But his positive attitude and desire for cleanliness and order did not save him from the punishment cell, where the dignitary ended up at least three times.

For example, in February 2022, during a search in Arashuk’s cell No. 151, they found 4 perfume bottles, 2 flash drives, double-sided tape and a metal ballpoint pen. How all this got to the ex-senator, he refused to explain. In general, it is almost impossible to “drag” any of the prohibited items into such a super-strict pre-trial detention center. And he succeeded.

There were feature films on the flash drive, and, if desired, they could be watched on TV, which was in the cell. “Refused to explain – in the punishment cell!” – something like this reasoned the prison authorities, and Arashukov Jr. spent several days alone. His defenders assured that he allegedly received the eau de toilette officially in the transfer, and indeed – what’s wrong with it? Arashukov liked to smell clean and perfumed. But the toilet water was taken away (only a bar of soap was left).

For all three years, the ex-senator worried about only one thing in the pre-trial detention center – about the fate of his father. That bondage was given much harder. I remember several visits to his cell, Raul Arashukov seemed to be on the edge. All this was superimposed on a solid age and a bunch of diseases. From time to time despair rolled over him, and most of all he wanted to receive some news from his son.

By the way, it is not at all a fact that the Arashukovs will serve their sentences in the same colony for life-sentenced prisoners. But if this happens, then most likely the choice will fall on the “Black Dolphin” in the Orenburg region.