The smog of old: who killed the crime boss in the Yellow Submarine 20 years ago
20 years after the murder of criminal boss Vakhtang Kardava and two other people in the Moscow restaurant "Yellow Submarine", the defendants appeared in the case. One of the alleged participants in the crime has been hiding from the investigation since 2005 — he did not use bank cards, and did not officially work anywhere. The accused, whose case has been sent to court, faces life imprisonment, experts say. The details of the case are in the Izvestia article.
How Vakha Sukhumsky was killed
For more than 20 years, one of the alleged participants in the murder of crime boss Vakhtang Kardava, nicknamed Vakha Sukhumsky, who was shot dead in 2005 in the center of Moscow, managed to hide, investigators told Izvestia. The accused lived on a fake passport, did not have an official job, his own phone number, or a bank card. According to Izvestia, the suspect's name is Mukhamed Balakhov.
The murder at the Yellow Submarine restaurant was committed on April 25, 2005: four armed men arrived at 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Lane in a car, broke into the restaurant, opened fire with submachine guns with silencers in the direction of Kardava sitting at the table and disappeared.
— A criminal case has been opened into the murder of three people. Among them was the so—called criminal boss Vakha Sukhumsky, his distant relative and a security guard," Valentin Koshkin, senior investigator of the department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Department for the Central Administrative District of the GSU TFR in Moscow, told Izvestia. — Several members of the organized group have now been identified. At least four people were directly involved in the attack, one was the driver. Customers are being identified.
Kardava was one of the most influential leaders of the criminal environment. Vakha Sukhumsky and his henchmen aggressively took control of new business areas, harshly ousting competitors. He controlled the underground trade in precious metals and stones.
During an inspection of the scene, forensic experts counted dozens of bullet holes in the walls of the institution and found almost a hundred shell casings. The attackers used, in particular, foreign-made machine guns.
"It has been established from which weapon the so—called control shot was fired," the investigator said. — In this case, it was a Makarov pistol with a homemade silencer.
A distant relative of the crime boss died on the spot. The third victim was the driver Nikolai Krutikov, a former Afghan fighter who was trying to protect Kardava. His widow Irina told Izvestia that at that time her husband was planning to change jobs.
—He said he wanted to change jobs," she shared. "I'm probably going to leave," he told me. "Sometime in May, I'll probably be looking for a new job starting in May." Because he didn't like something there.
Employees of a private security company were in the same restaurant with Kardava. However, they did not shoot back immediately, witnesses said that two of them hid behind the bar. It was only when the attackers started running away that the guards started shooting after them.
The criminals received various gunshot wounds, Valentin Koshkin added. But, covering their tracks, they did not immediately contact medical organizations.
"The attackers fled the territory of the Moscow region and only there turned to medical institutions under the guise of participating in festive events," he said. — In the future, one of the main evidence in the case was the conclusions of the forensic medical examinations, which indicated that the injuries were caused by pistol shots fired by the guards of the Vakha.
A few years ago, the investigation identified another possible participant in the shootout, Aslan Kodzokov, who is now wanted. According to law enforcement agencies, he was one of the shooters in the restaurant, and Balakhov was supposed to stay at the entrance to the restaurant and monitor the situation.
"He did not fire the weapon he had with him at the scene of the crime," the senior investigator said. — At the same time, he took an active part in the preparation of the crime, and also fulfilled the role assigned to him by the criminal plan directly during the commission of the murder.
Now Balakhov is trying to prove that he is not guilty of the murder. According to him, he was led to the crime scene by deception — allegedly he was supposed to make sure that a business meeting in a restaurant was held without incident, and did not hear a word about the impending execution.
The criminal case with the approved indictment has been sent to the court for consideration on the merits. In addition to the murder of three people, Balakhov was charged under articles on the illegal trafficking of firearms, ammunition and the use of a deliberately forged passport.
What threatens the accused
Not all particularly serious crimes, especially murders, are solved in hot pursuit, recalled Igor Bushmanov, honorary lawyer of the Moscow Region Bar Association, former investigator for particularly important cases of the Moscow Region Prosecutor's Office.
"Especially since they were committed during a period when there was no universal digitalization, which now makes it possible to solve many crimes without leaving the office," the expert noted. — Sometimes it takes years, and sometimes even decades, to investigate a case and identify those involved in crimes.
However, many crimes of the past years are solved not as a result of systematic long-term work, but absolutely by accident. For example, one of the criminals, feeling a load of guilt, told his casual drinking companion about the incident, and he had already spread the information that had become the property of law enforcement agencies.
In accordance with Article 78 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person is released from criminal liability if 15 years have passed since the date of the crime, lawyer Mikhail Sazanov recalled.
"But everyone forgets about the most important note: the statute of limitations is suspended if the person who committed the crime evades investigation and trial," he said. — In this case, the detainee was charged with the murder of three persons committed in a generally dangerous way — for hire. The punishment can be up to life imprisonment.
Sergey Zorin, a lawyer at the MUR Law Firm, agreed with him. According to him, it is difficult to estimate how long it will take for the case to be considered in court, but if Balakhov is found guilty, the court will have no reason to release him from criminal liability.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
