Criminal parity: the court will determine the guilt of the ex-head of the "Mogilov" OCG

A jury in St. Petersburg will deliver a verdict against Vladimir Kulibaba, former assistant to the president of the Russian Olympic Committee and former president of the Freestyle Wrestling Federation of the Northern Capital. He is accused of double murder 30 years ago and participation in an organized crime group. The investigation calls him the leader of one of the largest gangs in St. Petersburg - the "Mogilov gang", which has a record of robbery, banditry and dozens of murders, in particular - former State Duma deputy Mark Goryachev in 1997. Due to the lack of evidence, Kulibaba remained at large until 2021. About how it was possible to attract him after three decades - in the material "Izvestia".

Who is Vladimir Kulibaba

In the St. Petersburg City Court on Thursday, February 13, the jury will announce the verdict of the well-known criminal authority Vladimir Kulibaba. He is accused of double murder, attempted murder, as well as participation and leadership of a stable armed group - "Mogilov" organized crime group, which operated in the city in the 1990s and 2000s.

Together with him in the dock are two more accomplices, members of the same group, Vladimir Karpinsky and Anatoly Motyl. According to the investigation, Karpinsky shot at a member of the same OCG Igor Savin (Kuvalda), and Motyl drove Kulibaba, who organized the attack, to the scene of the crime. All three deny their guilt.

As told "Izvestia" senior investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia in St. Petersburg Matvey Saulov, in the nineties and noughties "Mogilovsky" was one of the largest organized crime communities in St. Petersburg. The group was headed by Kostya Mogila (Vladimir Yakovlev), who was called the "godfather" of the Northern Capital. During Mogila's lifetime, Kulibaba, according to the investigator, was his right-hand man and was responsible for the "power block," and after his death in 2003, took over the leadership of the group.

- In the 1990s, "Mogilovsky" had a huge administrative resource in the city, and Kulibaba's name, along with Yakovlev's, appears in many operational reports, - said the investigator. - However, to realize this operational information, the investigators lacked evidence, especially witness testimony. In those years, people were afraid to testify against OCG members, so many cases on them are still suspended.

Criminal "career" candidate for master of sports Kulibaba managed to combine with public workload - from 2000 to 2006 he held the position of ex-president of the Federation of Freestyle Wrestling of St. Petersburg, and in 2007 headed it. Kulibaba was also assistant to the chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee, vice-president of the Academy of National Security, founder of the trade union "Profsport" and the sports club "Orlyonok".

Vladimir Kulibaba was first arrested in November 2010 on charges of murdering Vadim Chechel, director of the security company Cascade, two years earlier. Then Kulibaba managed to escape punishment - in 2013 the jury found him not guilty.

The former sports official was detained again only in December 2021 and charged with the murder of a "colleague" in the organized crime group Igor Savin, police officer Kirill Ugolnikov, attempted murder of ex-assistant deputy minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dmitry Skvortsov and participation in the criminal gang - for the entire period of its existence.

Took him to the grave

Igor Savin was shot in August 1993 on Frunze Street near one of the residential houses. Together with him in a foreign car was a police officer Kirill Ugolnikov, he worked part-time for Savin as a security guard. Both men died on the spot. The second bodyguard of Kuvalda Dmitry Skvortsov managed to escape. Now the colonel and former assistant head of the investigative department of the Russian Interior Ministry is on the wanted list, he is accused in absentia of contract killings.

According to the investigation, the criminals did not plan to kill the policeman, their target was Savin. His murder was a personal revenge of Kostya Mogila. Once Savin decided to make some money - together with his accomplices he stole a large batch of vodka from merchants, they complained to the "roof", which turned out to be the Kazan organized crime group. Kostya Mogila had to have an unpleasant conversation with his "colleagues".

According to Matvey Saulov, Savin was afraid that he would be punished for this "blatant undermining of criminal discipline", and decided to play a proactive game - sent killers to the chief. However, Mogila survived and sent killers to Savin.

According to the investigation, Vladimir Kulibaba organized the elimination of Kuvalda, but he did not admit guilt in the incriminated crime. According to him, he was abroad at the time of the murder, while he spent a lot of time with Kostya Mohyla, as he was his relative.

- I categorically deny my involvement in the murders and participation in the gang," he said.

The prosecutor insisted that Kulibaba held the highest position in the hierarchy of the criminal group, which numbered from 150 to 500 people in different years.

- Kulibaba gave orders on an equal footing with the ringleader, was the most loyal and close," the prosecutor said. - He also monitored the finances of the gang, the degree of trust of the first person to him was the highest.

Two other defendants, Karpinsky and Motyl, according to the prosecutor, occupied high places in the hierarchy and were subordinate to Kulibaba.

What Kulibaba told

This dispute continued during the debate of the parties. The prosecutor argued to the jury that Kulibaba's version about his non-participation in the gang and his foreign trip was untenable, while the defendant continued to insist on his own.

- The prosecution puts everything upside down. The prosecutor has a lot of assumptions: "it's possible", "I assume", "obviously", "I believe". Are we in a courtroom, after all, or a literary café? - resented the key defendant.

In fact, the closest to the literary genre was Kulibaba's lawyer Yuri Novolodsky. Speaking to the jury, he called the prosecutor's words "fantasies that cannot be taken seriously" and urged the jury "to oppose this lawlessness of imaginary reality with their acquittal verdict".

The defense counsel argued that the charges of gangsterism were based on rumors and speculation, and called the OCG members a collective.

- The existence of a gang is not a fact that it was created for attacking citizens and banditry," the lawyer said. - If it was a gang of murderers, why were charges brought only in two murders? Why were the others not disclosed by the prosecutor?

The defense of the defendant Karpinski said that on the day of the crime he "was in Chisinau - he went to his mother's anniversary". And in the defendants got only because he "could not make a deal with his conscience" and did not give "the testimony needed by the investigation.

- Motyl two weeks after his arrest lied to his friends, Kulibaba and Karpinski, after which he was released from custody, - said the lawyer. - But Karpinski is not such a person, he did not lie about someone with whom he had nothing to do for the last 25 years.

Karpinsky himself said that, judging by the case materials, Savin was killed by professionals, while he had only "a young fighter's course and a couple of shots". And that he, "just like Motyl", was tried "to force him to say testimony convenient to the investigation". But he did not do so, because he had "worked and lived honestly all his life".

- In my testimony, I do not stigmatize anyone, I do not want to intentionally harm anyone. The truth is the truth," Motyl replied to the accusations of former associates.

He admitted to the jury that he worked as a part-time driver for Kulibaba, but, according to him, he was not a member of the gang and had nothing to do with the murder.

- Why I was dragged into this story by Kulibaba, I still don't understand," he said.

"He was my relative and a solver..."

Vladimir Kulibaba also gave his last word.

- I found myself in the dock because Yakovlev was my relative and a well-known solver in the city," he said. - But for 30 years no one from his entourage has been charged for banditry. The whole picture that I am guilty started from the media, information blackmail and slagging was created. I am a grown man and have done bad things, but here I am accused of something I did not do.

Vladimir Kulibaba may face up to life imprisonment for participation in the murder of two or more persons by generally dangerous means, as well as the leadership of the gang, believes Ilya Drozdov, a lawyer of the law firm Makeev and Partners.

- However, if the jury finds him guilty of the crime, but deserving leniency, the court will not apply life imprisonment to him," said the lawyer.

According to investigator Matvei Saulov, the episode with the shooting of Kuvalda is only the tip of the crimes committed by the "Mogilovsky" in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. Among them is the 1997 murder of Mark Goryachev, a St. Petersburg billionaire and member of the State Duma of the first convocation, which the investigation also believes Kulibaba was involved in. According to the investigation, Goryachev was brutally murdered and his remains were drowned in the Gulf of Finland. However, there is not even a criminal case on this crime, as Goryachev's body was never found, explained the investigator.

Now Kulibaba's name appears in more than 23 episodes of solved and proven contract killings, the investigator explained. Another six to eight cases of such "orders" are under development.