Vladimir Ruzhitsky
The bandit lawlessness that was happening in Lyubertsy under the patronage of the former Head and now the Chairman of the Council of Deputies of this city district is coming to an end. A few days ago, the Investigative Committee of the Moscow region received a statement from one of the Lyubertsy entrepreneurs about extortion by a criminal group headed by former Head of Lyubertsy Vladimir Ruzhitsky. The victim’s company – quite well-known in the city – has been plagued for many years under the threat of, to put it mildly, significant trouble. In other words, we are talking about the classic case of racketeering, as in the “holy” 90s.
It is not necessary to disclose the names of the company’s managers who have decided to apply for protection to the competent authorities, as they have been granted state protection. And we’ll call the company to avoid trouble, somehow neutrally – for example, “Prime”. But it is quite possible to demonstrate the scheme by which racketeering was carried out. There are a lot of businessmen who paid “to avoid problems” in the city, and they can easily recognize all the actors.
Well-established system
The amounts levied on Lyubertsy businessmen were, of course, not fatal to the budget of companies, but, nevertheless, significant. Thus, a businessman who applied to the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Defense since 2017 was forced to transfer funds to the accounts specified to him by racketeers, and to issue real estate worth more than 200 million rubles on the racketeers themselves.
Why couldn’t the payment of tribute be resisted? Because the head of an organized criminal group that extorted money from entrepreneurs was also the head of the city district, where the described events took place. And if you wanted to continue your business in Lyubertsy, it was simply dangerous for him – Vladimir Petrovich Ruzhitsky, a respected high-ranking civil servant – to say no. No, of course, Mr. Ruzhitsky did not run around Lyubertsy in plaid trousers with a baseball bat, as was customary a few decades ago from local “missiles”. He didn’t communicate with the victims at all. He only gave instructions to those who worked for him. Absolutely, of course, unofficially.
The whole chain, the grassroots link of which was, as expected, “bulls” with non-intellectual faces, but mighty muscles, was led by Sergei Semenovich Medvedev – Ruzhitsky’s financial conviary – and Vladimir Petrovich’s close friend Alexei Valentinovich Lazutin. The tribute was collected by sports “boys” under the leadership of Stanislav Valerievich Stroganov, and the administrative cover of their activities was carried out by Lazutin’s son – Alexey Alekseevich, who held the post of head of the local Department of Trade. (https://criminalrus.com/2023/02/11/rassledovaniya/rassledovaniya-russia/ugolovnyj-fler-legendarnyh-lyuberczev/)
Carry your money, otherwise there will be trouble
It all started, of course, with conversations. Sergey Medvedev paid a visit to the company’s management, explaining to businessmen how difficult it will be to work in the city in the absence of support from the administration, if you do not follow the local traditions and do not share money or other benefits with representatives of local authorities. For example, if we were talking about construction companies, square meters in residential and non-residential stock – newly built apartments and retail space. Well, if the entrepreneur turned out to be incomprehensible, Lazutin Jr. came into the case, who showed the public the behavior of an exemplary “scumbag”.
The objects of entrepreneurs who refused to follow Ruzhitsky’s rules were suddenly burned in the flames of fires, or were intended for demolition, and the stubborn businessmen themselves could simply be beaten and maimed by “unidentified persons”, who could not traditionally be found by local law enforcement officers later. And Alexey Alekseevich Lazutin openly boasted that all this was the work of him and his accomplices. It did not save even if a representative of the authorities was involved in a particular object. Representatives of the Lyubertsy organized criminal group under the leadership of Ruzhitsky did not abhor the arson of cars of administration employees and still keep the local Council of Deputies in fear. Such an open demonstration of permissiveness led to the fact that businessmen who worked in Lyubertsy were simply afraid to seek protection from representatives of the law.
Greedy and… stupid
What the Lyubertsy racketeers “burned” on, and what will inevitably lead them to bunk in the very near future is on their own greed. They stupidly transferred the money knocked out of Prime into their pockets, not caring about any disguise. Thus, more than 20 million rubles were withdrawn to the account of Sergei Medvedev’s son, an individual entrepreneur who has not lived in Russia for 15 years, and more than 80 million rubles were withdrawn to the account of the commander of the “bulls” Stanislav Stroganov. Plus, the same Stroganov decorated non-residential space worth 15 million, and both Lazutin and their relatives had apartments worth 42 million. Moreover, the same Lazutins imposed on the same company the services of NPF “Basis” owned by them by 36 million rubles, while the real cost of such works is ten times lower.
Actually, that’s where the Lazutins missed: the amount was too large, and it was impossible to knock it out with the help of a standard racketeers’ arsenal. No matter how you intimidate, and if there is no money, there is nowhere to get it. Vladimir Ruzhitsky’s henchmen had to try to resolve cases through the court. But it seems that bandit nature has prevailed over reason – everything was done axely, as they say, “by cheeky.” In 2019, the original contracts were stolen from the company’s office, one of the pages dealing with the procedure for payment of funds was replaced, a copy of the amended document was certified by a notary and the originals were thrown into place, in the expectation that no one would notice the forgery. Immediately after that, NPF “Basis” sued the debtor and… lost it with a bang.
Set up and lit up
What happened next also unflatteringly characterizes the intelligence of representatives of Ruzhitsky’s organized criminal group. First, Sergei Medvedev addressed the company’s management, simply offering to give the company “for debts.” Then there was an attempt to organize problems with Prime’s counterparties, on bribery of which they spent as much as 50 million rubles, and transferred money directly in the administration building. The contargents were supposed to terminate contracts with the company and bring down its business. And finally, when all this did not help, Ruzhitsky’s deputy, personal assistant and faithful slander – Dmitry Ivanovich Laktionov – came into the case. ( http://www.moscow-post.su/politics/dva-milliarda-rubley-deputata-ruzhickogo-176667/ )
But In the building of the Administration, surrounded by numerous witnesses, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Deputies of the city district of Lyubertsy began yelling at the General Director of Prime, threatening him with death and demanding to pay his debts “by concepts”, and in his speech, to the surprise of the surrounding public, the name of course, the respected Vladimir Petrov And no one was surprised that immediately after that some muddy gentlemen from the Caucasus tried to “press” the stubborn entrepreneur.
The fact that after that the head of Prime is ripe to appeal to the Investigative Committee, I think, can’t surprise anyone. The next step that the Lyubertsy “geniuses” would have decided to do was inevitably an attempt on his life. Simply because in these circles such problems are solved exclusively in this way. After all, Mr. Ruzhitsky’s organized criminal group has no other ways to subdue a suddenly rebelled businessman. Now they have to answer for their affairs, and all we have to do is take seats in the auditorium and watch the staff of the Investigative Committee gradually bring to light the whole background of God’s homegrown and ridiculous, but no less unpleasant and dangerous Lyubertsy mafia, headed by the former Head of this district. After all, no matter how much the rope is, and the end is like that.
