Three Russian Crime Bosses Killed in Ukraine – Bellingcat

In the war in Ukraine, three criminal authorities from Russia were killed. They lead criminal gangs, which, among other things, engage in contract killings. On Monday, February 13, Bellingcat wrote.

The article says that one of those killed was Andrey Berezhnykh. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2013 for murders and other offenses committed during his leadership of a gang in the Saratov region from 1994 to 2011. He was also tried for the attempted murder of 10 people.

At first, his organized crime group was engaged in arms trade, but this activity was not limited – they, together with their “companion” Andrey Kurpach, attacked a group of young people with rifles , which killed three. During the nearly 20 years of operation of the criminal group, its members have committed several other murders, and local businessmen have also been their targets. In 2003, the organized criminal group pleaded guilty to an attack on a television company in Saratov using an RPG-26 grenade launcher.

The network is spreading information that Berezhnykh was killed on December 8, 2022 – a month after he was recruited by the “Wagnerites”. In honor of the death of the criminal during Christmas, a service was organized in the Balakovo Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in the Saratov region.

According to Bellingcat, the second killed authority was Sergey Maksimenko. He was liquidated in the war in Ukraine in December 2022. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for being the leader of the Olympia criminal group, which was involved in pimping, extortion and murder throughout the 1990s and 2000s.

This organized crime group has committed many murders – mostly business owners and leaders of rival gangs. In 2003, gang members armed with baseball bats and hunting rifles attacked seven men and their wives at a local bar.

Bellingcat also writes that Igor Kusk, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, was also killed at the front. He created his criminal gang in Tatarstan in 1998. In its ranks there is a large number of veterans like him.

The gang initially engaged in low-profile contract killings, but later it attacked two general directors of the Tatsantekhmontazh construction company. The business began to cooperate with organized crime groups, and such murders were associated with attempts by general directors to become “independent” from the group.

Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the enemy was suffering heavy losses on the front.

Wagnerites killed their wounded commander with a sledgehammer in Donbass – social networks