The case of Vladimir Kulibaba. What was the crime boss from the 1990s sentenced for?

A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced criminal boss Vladimir Kulebaba to 10 years in prison. He was found guilty of a double murder committed in 1993. His involvement in the deaths of ex-State Duma deputy Mark Goryachev and a member of his own gang, Alexander Bobrov, is also being investigated. At the same time, in 2012, Kulebaba was already acquitted in another murder case. What is known about his criminal past is in the Izvestia article.

What was Kulibaba accused of?

• Vladimir Kulibaba was accused of leading a criminal gang and organizing the murder of criminal boss Igor Savin (Kuvalda) and his guard Kirill Ugolnikov, who worked concurrently as commander of the patrol and guard service of the Kirovsky police Department of St. Petersburg. Vladimir Karpinsky and Anatoly Motyl, who were also accused of double murder and participation in the Kulibaba gang, were also involved in the process.

• The verdict against the defendants was delivered in February by a jury of eight jurors. They decided that Kulibaba had organized the murder of Savin and Ugolnikov and led a gang that included Karpinsky and Motyl. Motyl's complicity in the murder was proven, but Karpinski's involvement in the same crime was not proven.

• Based on the verdict of the jury, the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced Kulibaba to 10 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony. Karpinsky and Motyl were acquitted, and their right to rehabilitation was recognized. The criminal case of organizing and participating in a criminal gang against all three was terminated due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

How the double murder case unfolded

• The double murder of the authority Savin and the policeman Ugolnikov was committed late in the evening on August 16, 1993. They were shot with two Kalashnikov assault rifles in a car near the house number 16 on Frunze Street in St. Petersburg, where they allegedly came to buy Rolex watches. Savin was hit by 27 bullets, Ugolnikov by 16. They were accompanied by another bodyguard, Dmitry Skvortsov (later an assistant to the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and a member of the Kulibaba gang), but he was able to escape and was not injured.

• The prosecution assumed that Kulibaba was the organizer of the murder. Karpinsky allegedly fired from a single Kalashnikov assault rifle. The second weapon was operated by Marat Aristov, who has been hiding from the investigation since 2021 and is on the international wanted list. Motyl was supposed to provide the killers with a getaway car.

The reason for the massacre was allegedly revenge for the failed assassination attempt on Konstantin Yakovlev (Grave), one of the main criminal authorities in St. Petersburg and the leader of his own Mogilev group. On July 31, 1993, three people carried out an armed attack on his office, but Yakovlev remained alive. The attempt on his life could have been connected with the refusal of the Savin brigade to hand over profits to the collective of the Mogilev organized crime group, to which it belonged.

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At the same time, the alleged accomplice of Vladimir Kulibaba was acquitted by the court.

• It is assumed that one of the three attackers was soon found by members of Yakovlev's gang and found out the name of the customer from him. Then Kulibaba, allegedly intending to curry favor with the authority and get a promotion, decided to punish Savin. They were on friendly terms, so Kulibaba knew the victim's daily routine. Savin was shot 16 days later.

• The investigation of the double murder immediately reached a dead end. Investigators found no evidence of Yakovlev's involvement, and after a year and a half, the criminal case was suspended. However, on December 7, 2021, Kulibaba, Karpinsky and Motyl were detained. The basis for reopening the case was the testimony of an undercover witness who pointed out the guilt of all three in the murder of almost 20 years ago.

What is known about Kulibaba

• Kulibaba was born in 1969 in Odessa. In his youth, he was involved in wrestling. In the late 1980s, Kulibaba moved to Leningrad to study at the Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture, but he never completed his studies. He met Yakovlev and allegedly became one of the prominent members of his group responsible for internal security.

• In the 2000s, Kulibaba became involved in public activities. In 2000, he became vice-president of the St. Petersburg Freestyle Wrestling Federation, and seven years later he headed the organization. He was also an assistant to the President of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev. Kulibaba was the vice-president of the Academy of National Security (he received the post after the murder of Oleg Taran in 2001) and headed the coordinating council of the youth movement "Russia".

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• In 2021, Kulibaba entered politics in Moldova. He co—founded the People's Union platform, which supported the bloc of Communists and Socialists, the main rivals of President Maia Sandu's Action and Solidarity party. In Moldova, Kulibaba was also chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions of Workers in the field of physical culture, sports and tourism SindSport.

What other criminal cases does Kulibaba have?

• Kulibaba had previously been involved in a high-profile murder case. On April 24, 2008, Vadim Chechel, CEO of the Cascade security company, was killed in St. Petersburg. At that moment, he was leaving the house of his fiancee Maria Stroganova (Tyagachev's alleged girlfriend). The killer shot the businessman with a pistol and tried to escape, but was soon caught. It turned out to be the killer of the Mogilev organized crime group, Alexander Druzhinin. A year later, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

• In court, Druzhinin stated that the murder was ordered by State Duma deputy Denis Volchek, who was Yakovlev's partner and allegedly received a communal apartment after his death in 2003. However, the investigators did not find any evidence for this version. Druzhinin then reported that Kulibaba had ordered the murder, paying not only for the crime, but also for Volchek's slander. Kulibaba was arrested in 2010, but two years later a jury acquitted him.

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• In February 2025, Kulibaba was also charged with the murder of a member of his own gang, Alexander Bobrov. The investigation believes that in 1995, Kulibaba instructed Skvortsov (Savin's surviving guard) to find a killer who eventually eliminated Bobrov in his own apartment.

• Kulibaba may also be involved in the death of businessman and politician Mark Goryachev, who disappeared in 1997. The investigation believes that on his instructions, the former State Duma deputy was abducted, killed and dismembered. His body was drowned in the Gulf of Finland. Later, the body of an unidentified man without a head and hands was found at this place.