“Organization of murders”: Furgal charged with governor of Khabarovsk Territory

The Investigative Committee questioned the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Sergei Furgal, who was detained on suspicion of organizing the murders of several entrepreneurs in 2004-2005. He was charged under articles on attempted murder and organizing murders. As stated in the UK, testimony against Furgal was given by his former accomplices - performers of crimes. Details are in the material RT.

The head of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergey Furgal, who sensationally won the gubernatorial election in 2018 with the long-term leader of the region, Vyacheslav Shport, was detained on the morning of July 9 and transferred to Moscow. According to the investigation, Furgal was involved in the organization of murders and attempted murders of businessmen committed by an organized criminal group in 2004-2005 in the Khabarovsk Territory and Amur Region.

According to the official representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia Svetlana Petrenko, Furgal was interrogated as an accused.

“The Chief Directorate for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Investigative Committee of Russia has been charged with the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Furgal. He is charged with committing crimes under Part 3 of Art. 30, part 3, article 33 and paragraphs “B”, “g”, “h” part 2 of article 105; h. 3 tbsp. 33, p. “A”, “b”, “g”, “h” part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code (attempted murder, organization of murders), ”said Petrenko.

Organized crime groups from the "zero"

The Investigative Committee recalled that in April 2019, criminal cases of attempted murder and murder of entrepreneurs in the Far East were transferred to the investigator of the Main Directorate for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the UK on behalf of Alexander Bastrykin.

“During the preliminary investigation, the perpetrators of a number of crimes and one of the organizers were identified. Thanks to the correct investigative tactics, the accomplices testified against Sergey Furgal as the organizer of all these crimes. Including there are testimonies of witnesses and victims. The information obtained was verified as part of the investigative actions, as a result of which sufficient evidence was collected to detain the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, ”the SC explained.

Russian FSB officers deliver detained Khabarovsk Territory Governor Sergei Furgal to Moscow
© Shot: SK RF / RIA Novosti

In addition to Furgal, “four active members of an organized group who were charged with depending on each person’s role in committing crimes” were detained and arrested last year in this multi-episode case.

The UK separately emphasized that, as part of the decriminalization of the situation in the Far East related to combating organized criminal groups, law enforcement agencies check Sergei Furgal for involvement in other particularly serious crimes committed in the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories, as well as in the Amur Region.

Crime stories

A RT source familiar with the investigation materials said that Sergey Furgal is suspected of organizing the murders of businessmen Oleg Bulatov and Yevgeny Zori. The governor is also checked for involvement in the 2004 attempt on the businessman from the Amur region, Alexander Smolsky.

According to an RT source in law enforcement agencies, the financial conflict with the leadership of Mif-Khabarovsk LLC, of which Furgal was among the founders, led to the assassination of Zori.

The source notes that the leader of the Timofeevsky organized crime group, Mikhail Timofeev, suggested that Zora “solve the problem” with Furgal, right up to its physical elimination. When he refused, Timofeev came to Furgal, offering to liquidate Zorya. He allegedly agreed. Eugene Zorya was killed on October 29, 2004.

Another killed, Oleg Bulatov, was a business partner of Furgal and, along with him, was listed as the founder of Mif-Khabarovsk LLC. According to the source, in 2005, for an unknown reason, it became inconvenient for Furgal.

Testimony against Furgal could have been given by his former business partner, ex-deputy of the Khabarovsk Regional Duma Nikolay Mistryukov, who was responsible in the group for "forceful" resolution of issues. Mistryukov was detained in November 2019. Along with him, charges of murders of entrepreneurs were brought against Marat Kadyrov, Alexander Karepov and Andrei Paley.

In addition, according to security officials, Furgal may be involved in the disappearance in 1997 of the general director of ZAO Steam, Eduard Kuchinsky, whose whereabouts have not yet been established.

According to TASS, citing a law enforcement source, Sergei Furgal did not plead guilty.

“During the detention, he said that he did not understand the reasons and what it was connected with. He didn’t plead guilty, ”the agency’s interlocutor said.

In addition, on July 9, in Khabarovsk, law enforcement authorities detained two deputies from the LDPR faction in the regional Duma, Sergei Kuznetsov and Dmitry Kozlov. They are charged with especially large-scale fraud. It is still unknown whether the detention of parliamentarians is connected with the Furgal case - sources of news agencies in the power structures give conflicting information on this issue.

“The president can make a decision”

The detention of the head of the Khabarovsk Territory on Thursday, July 9, commented on the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

“Of course, services report to the president in the prescribed manner,” Peskov said, referring to the provision of information to the head of state in the Furgal case.

He stressed that at the moment it is premature to draw any conclusions on this case.

“The decision on whether a citizen, whether Furgal or someone else, belongs to the world of crime can be made only by the court, the charges must be proved in court,” the Kremlin spokesman recalled.

A presidential spokesman refrained from evaluating Furgal’s work as governor, saying he did not consider himself entitled to give such assessments.

He also answered the question about the possible resignation of the head of the region in connection with the loss of confidence.

“If and when the president makes such a decision (on dismissal of Furgal), and he can make such a decision on the basis of materials that will be presented to him from the investigation, we will inform you about this,” Peskov said.

Even if Furgal’s resignation takes place in the near future, it will not be possible to hold new elections in the Khabarovsk Territory on a single voting day on September 13.

“In case of early termination of the powers of a senior official, elections shall be held on the next single voting day. Taking into account the term of the election (election campaigns. - RT ), of course, now no elections of the highest official can be appointed, ”said Maya Grishina, CEC Secretary.

“The governor is not a criminal”

In the LDPR, the detention of one of the prominent party members reacted emotionally.

“The detention was not in the most correct form: it was not necessary to handcuff, the governor is not a criminal and will not run away. One could offer to get into the car and drive on, ”RIA Novosti quotes party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky as saying.

He expressed bewilderment over the fact that law enforcement officials for 15 years did not respond to the alleged crimes of Furgal, giving the politician the opportunity to take part in several election campaigns at various levels.

Zhirinovsky also threatened to leave the Liberal Democratic Party from the State Duma.

“The LDPR faction will surrender its powers and leave here, let the whole world know what kind of mess in the country. We can withdraw all deputies of the LDPR faction to Lefortovo and stand there until Furgal is released, we can ask our governors to resign from solidarity - Smolensk, Vladimir, to resign from the CEC, the Audit Chamber, ”he said at a meeting of the State Duma in Thursday.

According to Zhirinovsky, the detained governor will not be expelled from the party.

In response, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called the behavior of the LDPR leader blackmail.

“You cannot blackmail and you cannot translate dialogue into the theme of revolution, into the theme of threats. This is how states collapse. You and I should not go this way. Because there is a story that shows that this is a tragedy. We need to prevent this, ”Volodin said, noting that“ no matter what badge the party’s governor wears, the deputy is equal before the law. ”

“His relations with organized crime groups in the region are well known.”

Alexander Khinshtein, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, in an interview with RT, expressed surprise not at the fact that Furgal was detained, but at the fact that it happened too late.

“The region is well aware of its ties to organized crime. The fact of detention and subsequent conviction, including under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Organization of the criminal community) Mr. Timofeev, aka Timokh, who was the official assistant to Sergei Furgal as a deputy of the State Duma. Timokha was one of the criminal authorities of Khabarovsk, ”said Hinshtein.

Sergey Furgal at the inauguration ceremony
RIA News

“Furgal, being a deputy of the State Duma, advancing to the governors, continued to do business, there were shares in companies that were engaged in non-transparent activities: processing and buying up scrap metal. I think that in the framework of the investigation, all these facts will be evaluated, they will be given an appropriate legal assessment. Unfortunately, “greetings” from the dashing 90s will still haunt us, ”the parliamentarian explained.

Hinstein also recalled that Furgal’s entire election campaign was based on criticism of the authorities. Therefore, any publication of information about his ties at that time would hardly have a dramatic effect on the position of voters, the State Duma member added.

Protest candidate

Sergey Furgal became the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory in the fall of 2018, before that, since 2007 he had been a deputy from the LDPR in the State Duma. He ran for the Liberal Democratic Party and was not considered a favorite, but he unexpectedly was able to first enter the second round, in which he won about 70% of the vote, defeating the current head of the region, candidate from United Russia, Vyacheslav Shport.

Many experts after the election noted that a protest vote took place in the region.

As follows from the last officially published income statement of the official for 2018, Sergey Furgal owns three land plots with a total area of more than 5.5 thousand square meters, two residential buildings, two apartments, two cars, two motor boats.

According to the Kontur.Fokus database, on July 9, 2020 Sergey Furgal was a co-founder of two enterprises, LLC Akulma and LLC Dalpromsnab, which were led by Nikolai Mistryukov. In both enterprises, since 2018, he owned a 25% stake, which was held in trust by Scrap Far LLC.

In 2019, the net profit of LLC Alkuma amounted to 3.2 million rubles, the net profit of LLC Dalpromsnab - 13 million rubles.

In 2018, Furgal declared almost 5.46 million rubles as annual income, which is 810 thousand more than in 2017 when he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Earlier, Sergey Furgal was a co-founder of ANO “Football Club“ MIF-Khabarovsk ”, LLC“ VOSTOK LOM ”, LLC“ Modern City ”, LLC“ PK “Khabarovskmetalltorg”.

According to Kontur Focus, Sergey Furgal’s wife Larisa Starodubova, along with Nikolai Mistryukov, is the head and founder of five enterprises: Stalkom LLC, Dialog LLC, Toreks LLC, Toreks-Khabarovsk LLC, UK-Amurstal LLC ". The net profit of the three enterprises LLC Stalkom, LLC Toreks, LLC Toreks-Khabarovsk in 2019 amounted to 594 million rubles.

At the same time, in early 2020, unconfirmed information about the divorce of Starodubova and Furgal appeared in social networks. Allegedly, they divorced back in 2013. However, all official documents of the governor still indicate that he is married.