SHOT Crime has released the second episode of a podcast about the Tver Wolves organized crime group and the murder of Mikhail Krug

The second issue of the SHOT Crime project deals with the crime of the 2000s and the criminal group that controlled Tver at that time. The episode is dedicated to one of the most dangerous and influential organized criminal groups in the Tver region, the Lomovskiye group, also known as the Tver Wolves. For decades, this organized criminal group has been building its own vertical of power in Tver, promoting its people to municipal, city and law enforcement agencies.

The issue focuses on the story of the murder of chansonnier Mikhail Krug, his close friendship with a representative of the criminal world, a thief in law and Sasha Severov, who was watching Tver at the time. Journalist Anton Starkov, crime reporter and SHOT journalist Anastasia Lugovskaya, as well as Irina Chikunova, a close friend of Krug, reconstruct the course of events, discuss numerous versions of the investigation (there were more than a hundred of them) and reveal the details of the tragedy step by step, supplementing the story with exclusive information.

In 2012, one of the members of the organized crime group, Alexander Osipov, nicknamed the Wolf, after a long silence confessed to the group's involvement in the murder. Irina Chikunova also tells about what happened on July 1, 2002: two gang members broke into Mikhail Krug's house to steal antique icons. First they ran into the musician's mother—in-law, and then into the Circle itself. A shootout ensued, as a result of which Mikhail Krug received two gunshot wounds and died the next day.

The investigation considered various versions, including contract murder, and also suspected Krug's wife Irina, but this version was later officially ruled out. When the perpetrators reported the incident to the head of the gang, Alexander Kostenko (Crowbar), he sent the criminals out of the city to hide their tracks. To allay suspicion, he announced a reward for information about the crime and personally joined the search.

The gang said, "If you can't subdue a person directly, you need to make them turn to you for help." This logic lay at the heart of the planned crime: it was assumed that the believer Mikhail Krug would turn to Crowbar for help in finding icons, but due to a combination of circumstances, everything ended with the death of the performer.