The Gray Shift: who is behind the beating of the Izvestia journalist

Dealers of "beautiful" license plates for cars who beat up Izvestia correspondent Alexei Poltoranin could sell more than 5,000 state signs over the past 10 years. Given that the cost of such rooms reaches several million rubles, we are talking about a business worth billions, which probably passed beyond the field of view of the tax authorities. At the same time, two defendants in the case have already been tried for beatings and arbitrariness. They are now detained, and on March 27 they will be given a preventive measure. If the court finds them guilty, they will spend at least five years in prison, and the maximum sentence may be 15 years, lawyers believe.

How the attackers worked

The people detained for beating Alexei Poltoranin were actively selling "beautiful" numbers on specialized websites on the Internet. In total, 5,228 numbers have been put up for sale from three accounts that probably belonged to them since October 2016, Izvestia calculated.

Sellers followed a well—established pattern: they found cars with "special" license plate combinations — 666, 777, AMR, and others - and resold them at multiple margins. The donor cars themselves are still standing in the parking lot in front of the office.

According to experts, the shadow market of "beautiful" license plates in Russia amounts to tens of billions of rubles. Informal schemes make it possible to circumvent the law, and the proceeds end up in the accounts of companies whose employees, as the investigation showed, felt virtually beyond their jurisdiction.

According to Izvestia, the investigation believes that the journalist was attacked by the owner of the Rusnomer company (which also worked under the name "Beautiful Series") Pavel Poghosyan and his business partners Alexander Fomin and Artur Davydov. The latter had previous convictions: Fomin for a drunken brawl in a bar in November 2012, Davydov for arbitrariness in 2005. Now all three are detained.

The beating took place on March 25. On that day, Alexey Poltoranin came to the office of RUSnumber under cover, as he studied their activities for a report. According to the correspondent, the staff suspected that he was not a client, but a journalist. Then they started beating him, keeping him in his office for an hour and a half.

— At least five to six [blows] to the face. One of the strong blows landed on the stomach," Alexey Poltoranin said. — I told them that I was injured after a fracture. They knew I was a journalist.

The correspondent was wounded in the SVO zone, where he worked as a military commander. Alexey Poltoranin recalls that during the beating he was worried that he would start bleeding internally and his vital organs might be damaged.

Even in the journalist's office, his phone and documents, including a press card, were taken away. Then he was forcibly put into a car and taken to Podolsk station. There, the attackers forced the journalist to record in writing that he had no complaints against them, and then threatened to cut off his fingers.

— They threatened, they asked: "Do you have a family, do you have a wife, do you have a child? Do you know that there will be problems with the child, children, and wife?" I spoke, obeyed every word, I was afraid," the victim added.

After the attack, the correspondent needed medical help. At the hospital, he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and an abdominal injury.

The investigators have already conducted interrogations and confrontations.

Poghosyan was already the hero of the Izvestia investigation in September 2025. Back then, he confidently promised to get any number and behaved as if he could get away with anything, as if there was someone behind his back who was covering for him. As experts say, such schemes simply do not work without support.

"They are used to the fact that at the local level, local authorities always cover for them, they are allowed to do everything," said Pavel Zaitsev, a former senior investigator for particularly important cases at the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Who is Pavel Poghosyan and his accomplices

Pavel Poghosyan was born in 1988 in Moscow and lives in Podolsk. He studied at the local school No. 28, is married, has a young daughter. In the past, he was the co—founder and CEO of two now-liquidated retail and wholesale companies, Diamond Clarity LLC (presumably involved in the sale of Kirby brand vacuum cleaners) and Bersi LLC. Kristall Line LLC was also registered at his home address, where, according to tax reports, he earned about 11-12 thousand rubles per month.

According to Izvestia, at least 424 license plates and 76 cars of various brands, from VAZ to Porsche, have been registered on Poghosyan since 2017. Among the license plates there are notable ones like U050UU77, A500AA50, A666MR90.

Since 2012, Poghosyan has been involved in at least 14 road accidents — it is possible that he participated in schemes to defraud insurance companies. Judging by the name he is listed on other people's phones (according to the Get Contact application), he could act as a kind of intermediary in the relationship between motorists and the local interdistrict registration and examination department of the traffic police - entries like "Pasha Mreo Podolsk", "Pasha Mreo", "Pasha Gai" and many others hint at this..

Poghosyan's accomplice, Alexander Fomin, has an account on the largest number sales platform, autonomera777, where he ranks 25th in the ranking with 672 numbers posted. Fomin is 30 years old, holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the Russian State Social University, and worked for several years as a caretaker at a Moscow college. Fomin's personal Telegram channel contains 1,716 stories, mostly numbers for sale.

Artur Davydov is married to Poghosyan's sister. He hails from Derbent, holds a bachelor's degree in economics and accounting from the Orel State University of Economics and Trade. Like Poghosyan, he was listed as an employee at Crystal Line. He was the CEO of the now-liquidated LLC "Intersvyaz" and "Fleur".

RUSnumber has its own website (it stopped working on March 26, but there is an archived version), a VK page and a group with a bot in Telegram (it is also not working now). The company says that it has been operating since 2013, but its network platforms were created only at the end of 2018. The company does not provide any official information about itself.

Poghosyan's company is represented on the platform for trading banners autonomera777.net . Izvestia correspondents found the accounts of KILLER-7, KILLER-7 and Foma77 in the seller rating (they had been deleted by the time of publication). The latter may have been registered by Alexander Fomin. In total, 5,228 numbers have been put up for sale from three accounts since October 2016, Izvestia correspondents have calculated. The most expensive lot in March 2026 was r777or777 for 7.3 million rubles.

All the numbers being sold, judging by the tags in the ads, are "in storage." This may indicate that the dealers are using a "preponderance" scheme through the fictitious sale of a car.

What threatens the attackers

In the near future, business partners Pavel Poghosyan, Alexander Fomin and Artur Davydov will be charged and a measure of restraint will be chosen, the Investigative Committee said.

Lawyers interviewed by Izvestia believe that they will also be charged with kidnapping. In addition, the case may include causing serious harm to health by a group of people.

According to lawyer Maxim Silvestri, all the attackers will spend at least five years in prison.

— There is definitely a real deprivation of liberty here. I think even more than five years in prison," he told Izvestia.

The attackers face up to six years in prison for beating a journalist while performing their professional duties, lawyer Vadim Bagaturia explained. They could also be charged with unlawful imprisonment instead of kidnapping, he added.

— It all depends on what the investigation sees more. In any case, nothing good threatens these people if all the evidence of the crime is available," he said.

The sentence may also be aggravated by the fact that the journalist's phone was taken away, which may contain a legally protected secret, for example, a medical one, Maxim Silvestri noted.

Punishments for crimes will add up, but the total will not be able to exceed one and a half penalties for the most serious crime, Vadim Bagaturia explained. At the same time, lawyer Maxim Silvestri believes that the maximum sentence will be up to 15 years in prison.

But the attackers will not bear any responsibility for the sale of "beautiful" rooms, Vadim Bagaturia said.

— No one can legally sell the numbers, because the registration number is the property of the state. But you can sell the right to use this registration number," the lawyer explained. — In this case, the suspects act as agents between those who use these numbers and those who want to buy them.

According to him, legally it is formalized as the sale of one vehicle with a "beautiful" license plate to another. Then this car is removed from the register, and the numbers are left to the new owner, who can attach them to his car.

At the same time, it is still possible to prove the illegal nature of this activity, since there could be violations in the business itself, Maxim Silvestri believes. Some license plates are sold for large sums, and the money is spent past the cash register. This makes it possible to attract for non-payment of taxes, he added.