That week, the Russian Investigative Committee filed another charge against Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin. The criminal case of the murder of Georgy Pozdnyakov and Yan Gurevsky has finally gone to court. What exactly is the former “night governor” of St. Petersburg accused of, and why the investigation was able to finish the case only on the third attempt, the editors of Kompromat.grupp found out.
Not a recent accusation
The accusation of Kumarin in the murder of these persons is by no means fresh. The murder itself occurred almost 15 years ago, and the indictment in the first edition fell into the hands of the defense in 2022. The accusation itself came to light in 2021, from an investigator for especially important cases of the 2nd investigative department of the Directorate for the Investigation of Cases Against Persons and Public Safety of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
The charge against Kumarin-Barsukov looks like this:
Further, the investigation writes that “during the preliminary investigation, grounds arose for changing the charges brought and issuing a new resolution to charge him as an accused.”
In particular, according to the investigation, Barsukov committed incitement and complicity in the murder of two persons by an organized group for hire, associated with banditry.
According to investigators, the situation developed as follows.
As numerous media outlets later wrote, in order to eliminate his associates, Vladimir Kumarin allegedly met with Roma Marshal (Rustam Ravilov) several times. Allegedly, Kumarin even paid separately for the purchase of a machine gun to shoot Gurevsky and personally bought cartridges to kill Pozdnyakov. However, as we wrote in our previous material, initially completely different people were involved in operational developments, and there was no smell of Kumarin there at all. This opinion began with some testimony from another crime boss Oleg Makovoz.
Delirium of crime
The personal driver of the leader of the Tambov gang, Georgy Pozdnyakov, was shot at the sports complex in Konny Lane on April 25, 2000. The killers knew that he went there regularly and lay in wait near the pool. Pozdnyakov received six bullets. The killer also did not forget about the control shot in the head. Two months later, Yan Gurevsky was also shot. If the murder of the driver was not very clear, then the murder of Gurevsky was a big blow to the Tambovites. After all, many business schemes were focused on him, and in general he had a decent “weight” in the organization.
As the famous crime boss Fima Banshchik later said, the killers’ calculations were correct. Barsukov at that time had no one closer to these two people. These executions were nothing more than a kind of “black mark” for the “night governor” himself.
But the investigation, as we know, has a different opinion. The case contains the names of those who allegedly committed the crimes. Killer Dolgushin, accomplices Avdeev, Duev, Ravilov.
For example, it is officially believed that Kumarin did not skimp on the murders, and allegedly paid as much as 10 thousand US dollars for Gurevsky’s death.
Unspecified time, place and circumstances are, of course, a strong argument for the court.
That is why the defense believes that the indictment is complete nonsense. After all, the Moscow City Court established a couple of years ago that all investigative actions were carried out in the case before 2010, and since then nothing conceptually new has appeared in the case.
Well forgotten old
The lawyers in the Kumarin case are frankly bored. All deadlines for criminal prosecution in this case have long passed, and the evidence base is also not so great. The investigation is trying to make the very old testimony of Makovoz, which is possible, crumble in court like broken beads, into something significant.
Perhaps the state prosecution also understands this. After all, since 2021, the prosecutor’s office has returned the case to the investigation three times “to eliminate shortcomings” and the defense could not wait for the stage of Art. 217 and the case will finally go to court. After all, time after time, the defense signed the indictment with discipline. The current “accusation” of the prosecutor is already for the third time. But the lawyers of the former “night governor” believe that nothing has changed there. Kumarin himself can’t wait for the court hearings to finally begin. However, as insiders predict, the position of the Investigative Committee in this matter may be sad. As we have already mentioned, the statute of limitations in this case is already “singing and dancing,” and the reputable businessman has already served 2/3 of his sentence. In about two years, the most odious resident of St. Petersburg will turn 70 years old. Lawyers hope that by his anniversary, the “night governor” will be able to quietly live out his days in freedom. Will their wish come true?
