Former Senator Umar Dzhabrailov committed suicide. What you need to know
Former senator and businessman Umar Dzhabrailov has died in Moscow. After a suicide attempt, he was taken to the hospital, but they could not save the 67-year-old businessman. Dzhabrailov's biography is a series of high—profile projects, political ambitions and high-profile scandals. From the oil business of the 1990s to the presidential campaign, from luxury hotels to the Epstein Files. Izvestia investigated what was behind Dzhabrailov's meteoric rise and why his name was regularly at the center of rumors.
Education and first projects
• Dzhabrailov was born on June 28, 1958 in Grozny. After graduating from high school, he went to Moscow, entered a technical college, and served in the rocket forces in the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. Then, on the second attempt, he entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), studied at the Faculty of Economics, and graduated with honors. In the early 1990s, Dzhabrailov founded and headed the Danako company, which, in particular, was engaged in the supply of petroleum products for state-owned enterprises.
According to some reports, Dzhabrailov earned his initial capital on the so-called Chechen vouchers. This was a popular fraud scheme in the 90s, which used fake bank receipts (payment notices). The fake receipts were sent to the cash settlement center, after processing, the money was credited to the bank account, and then they were quickly withdrawn. Back then, control and reconciliation were not very efficient, so the scammers had time to "dissolve" the money.
Business and politics
• In 1994, Dzhabrailov met Paul Tatum, a businessman from the United States, the head of the Intourist-RedAmer Hotel and Business Center joint Russian-American enterprise, and became the first deputy CEO of the project. The company operated the Slavyanskaya Hotel. In 1996, an acute conflict allegedly arose between the business partners: Tatum accused Dzhabrailov of trying to oust him from business management. Later that year, an American was shot dead in an underpass near the Kiev Railway Station. Dzhabrailov's involvement in the murder has not been established.
• In 1997, Dzhabrailov became the head of the Plaza Group of companies, which managed large commercial real estate facilities, including the Okhotny Ryad shopping Center and Smolensky Passage in Moscow. The holding controlled a significant share of the real estate and outdoor advertising market in the capital. There were versions in the media that Dzhabrailov used the proceeds from the business to help Chechen militants with weapons, but there was no official confirmation.
Umar Dzhabrailov was a co-founder of about 20 commercial companies. Among his business projects is the restaurant Just Cavalli, which he opened together with the Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli. He was also fond of collecting works of art and in the 2010s donated a significant part of his collection to the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. He is the author of the book "An Effective state in the context of Globalization."
• In 2000, Dzhabrailov participated in the presidential elections as an independent candidate, took the last place (received more than 78 thousand votes). Dzhabrailov's nomination was accompanied by a scandal due to the possible forgery of the subscription lists submitted by his initiative group, and a criminal case was even opened. Despite this, he was registered as a candidate.
Crime and other scandals
• In 2001, Dzhabrailov became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the First Mutual Credit Society Bank. His name was actively mentioned in connection with the disappearance of the bank's vice-president Lyudmila Krasnoger in the same year. It was believed that they had a conflict: allegedly Krasnoger objected to Dzhabrailov's ambiguous financial schemes with bank shares. Krasnoger's body was found in 2005 in a garage near the Krestovsky Bridge in Moscow — it was walled up in a concrete floor. At that time, Dzhabrailov was already a member of the Federation Council from Chechnya. He held this post from 2004 to 2009.
• Dzhabrailov was also linked to the unsuccessful assassination attempts on Joseph Ordzhonikidze in 2000 and 2002. At that time, Ordzhonikidze served as deputy head of the Moscow government and oversaw a number of economic areas. There were rumors that they had disagreements on Dzhabrailov's major projects. In 2000, Ordzhonikidze's car was shot at, he was injured, and the driver was killed. In 2002, another attempt was made on the official, as a result of which Ordzhonikidze's guard and one of the attackers were wounded. Later, a burnt—out car was found, in which the criminals fled, as well as the body of Salavat Dzhabrailov, Umar's cousin. Dzhabrailov himself stated that there had actually been no attempt, as it was allegedly staged. He also denied his brother's involvement in the assassination attempt, believing that he had been abducted, killed, and the body planted to frame him.
• At the end of August 2017, Dzhabrailov was detained at the fashionable Four Seasons Hotel in Moscow, where he opened fire with Yarygin's award-winning pistol. There were no casualties. A large amount of alcohol and white powder were found in the businessman's personal apartments, and traces of drugs were found in Dzhabrailov's blood during the examination. The businessman himself called his actions the result of a "state of passion due to provocations" allegedly committed against him by the hotel staff. According to the article of the Criminal Code on hooliganism, Dzhabrailov was detained, but soon released on his own recognizance. The court later fined him half a million rubles. This is the mildest punishment under the Criminal Code article on hooliganism with the use of weapons.
I know Epstein and P. Diddy.
• In 2025, Dzhabrailov's photo was discovered in the dossier of Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier convicted of human trafficking. The entrepreneur himself confirmed that he was familiar with Epstein, but did not maintain friendly relations with him. According to him, the photo was supposedly taken in the 1990s during karate training, but he allegedly did not remember where exactly.
Dzhabrailov called the famous American rapper P. Diddy (formerly named Sean Combs) one of his friends. According to the entrepreneur, supermodel Naomi Campbell introduced them, and communication mostly consisted of joint participation in glamorous events — loud parties and "starry" hangouts. In 2024, P. Diddy was arrested and later sentenced to prison for trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation (we wrote more about his case here). Dzhabrailov later claimed that he allegedly knew nothing about the illegal activities of his acquaintance.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
