"Dashing nineties": description, history and interesting facts. "Dashing nineties": description, history and interesting facts Criminal organized crime groups of the 90s

As a rule, girlfriends of criminal authorities, and simply criminals of those years, became all sorts of “miss” of something. Simply put, long-legged beauties, hungry for money. We will not argue - maybe there was a place for sincere love. For the most part, their lives ended as quickly and tragically as those of the bandits themselves. And sometimes at the same time.

Corpse in a suitcase

Perhaps the loudest story on our topic is the terrible murder of a killer Alexandra Solonik and his mistresses Svetlana Kotova.

Sasha Solonik, aka Macedonian (he got this nickname thanks to the ability to shoot in Macedonian - with two hands), belonged to the Kurgan organized criminal group. In 1987, he was sentenced to eight years in a strict regime colony for rape. Then he ran away.

In 1990, the killer fulfilled the first order for the murder - he shot the head of the Ishim group - Nicholas Prichinich.

Solonik was detained on October 6, 1994 at the Petrovsky-Razumovsky market of the capital. At the police station, while trying to escape, Solonik wounded three police officers and was wounded in the kidney. From the hospital, Makedonsky was taken to Matrosskaya Tishina for investigation. But eight months after his arrest, Solonik escaped from the pre-trial detention center. By the way, in the entire history of the famous prison, he became the only person who succeeded.

Under the new name, Solonik settled in Greece, where his people from the Kurgan OPG were already located. In Langonisi, not far from Athens, the bandits rented three luxurious mansions.

Macedonian, according to neighbors, was greedy for women and every week brought a new lady into the house. But Solonik's romance with a fashion model turned out to be the longest. Sveta Kotova. And for her, it's also fatal.

The girl worked with the famous Moscow agency Red Stars, participated in the final of the Miss Russia-96 contest. On January 25, 1997, Kotova performed at the international exhibition "Consumexpo". After that, Svetlana asked her superiors for a vacation and left for Athens.

As it turned out later, she went to Solonik, who had previously invited the model to Greece more than once. They say that Alexander even came secretly to Moscow under the guise of a Greek showman. Vladimir Kesov to convince Sveta to leave with him.

From Athens, Svetlana was going to go to a beauty contest in Italy. The girl spoke about this to her mother on the phone. Kotova called home every day until January 30th. After this date, the model disappeared.

On February 2, 1997, in the Varibobi forest, near Athens, operatives discovered the body of Solonik. He was strangled with a nylon cord. There were no documents with the killer.

The search for Kotova continued for another three months. The police found that Svetlana did not cross the borders of Greece - she was eliminated as a witness to the murder of her boyfriend.

In May, residents of the resort town of Saronides stumbled upon a suitcase lying under an olive tree. Inside, the dismembered body of a woman lay in plastic bags. The identity of the 21-year-old Kotova was established, since the decomposition process did not have time to begin in full.

There are many versions of who committed both murders. From the involvement of the Italian mafia and up to the fact that Solonik is generally alive. However, the investigation agreed that Makedonsky and Kotova were killed by members of the Orekhovskaya organized criminal group.

Mother predicted her daughter's death

On the evening of September 16, 2000, a resident of one of the Cheboksary "Stalins" heard a strange noise in the entrance. She opened the door, but they immediately put a gun to her forehead and pushed her back into the apartment. When everything was quiet in the stairwell, the husband of the frightened woman decided to go out.

Two men and a beautiful girl lay in pools of blood. 20 year old Alexandra Petrova She was still breathing, but the doctors could not save her. Sasha died on the way to the hospital. In two days she had a noisy holiday - her birthday.

At the age of 16, Sasha Petrova went from Cheboksary to Novgorod to conquer the Miss Russia contest, which for the first time “left” the capital. A childhood dream came true - in 1996 Alexandra became the new beauty queen.

Work began to boil, offers from various agencies rained down. Even Hollywood was invited to act, but my mother opposed. Sasha completed two courses at the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​and dropped out of the Institute. Her common-law husband Konstantin Chuvilin- wanted to see the girl next to him, and not behind the books.

Kostya was not an easy guy. And 18-year-old Sasha liked “bad boys”, especially with “grandmothers”, because in her childhood and adolescence she lived modestly. Chuvilin was listed as unemployed, but in fact he was a member of the Chapaev organized crime group, the most influential in Cheboksary. This easily explained the availability of money for a luxurious renovation in an apartment on Kirov Street and a Lada of the latest brand.

A close friend and "colleague" of Kostya was the director of the central market - Radik Akhmetov. It was because of the market that the conflict arose between Anatoly Doronitsin, who previously owned a trading company, and the local mayor's office. According to investigators, Doronitsin hired a hitman to eliminate Akhmetov, who had sat him down.

The killer overtook Radik in the company of Petrova and Chuvilin. At the entrance of an elite house, a mercenary shot all three at point-blank range from a machine gun. The perpetrator could not be found, which is not surprising for that time.

Here is what a certain person writes about Petrova on one forum Katya Katya: “She really stood out. So modest, tall, all in black. Then I got mixed up with this common-law husband. She began to wander around restaurants, abandoned her studies. But in furs. The whole city saw her off, everyone loved her.

The worst thing is that Sasha's mother predicted the tragic fate of her daughter and was terribly afraid for her life.

“I knew this would happen. I read from my hand: in Shura's palm, the line of fate intersected with the line of the mind by the age of twenty, and at the intersection - a point. A blow to the head at twenty. In fact, I didn't say anything to her. There is also a sign: if you see a cockroach, it’s not good. And then they just began to fall off the wall, and no matter how they were stained, they continued to fall ... It's unnatural - the way they fell. And after what happened - everything, not a single cockroach, - Tatyana Nikolaevna recalled with horror.

Innocent victim of war

In the dashing 90s, the city of Togliatti was compared with the American Chicago. It so happened because for ten years there was a bloody criminal war in pursuit of control over AvtoVAZ. According to some estimates, more than 400 people were killed in Togliatti during that period.

The beginning of the war was facilitated by the conflict between the largest Volgovskaya organized crime group and the gang Vladimira Agiya And Alexander Voronetsky. By the way, during perestroika, Volgovskaya was one of the first to start selling stolen parts from AvtoVAZ.

In the 2000s, Togliatti was mired in the third "great racketeering war." At the head of the Volgovskaya organized criminal group was Dmitry Ruzlyaev. Another leader of the group was considered a cruel, frostbitten bandit Scoop - Evgeniy Sovkov. By that time, he was on the wanted list and lived in Moscow on a "left" passport in the name Pavel Lizunov together with a 28-year-old bride from Tolyatti - Lyudmila Matytsina.

Sovkov often went to the Krasnopresnensky baths - a favorite place for reputable criminals. On December 26, 2000, Scoop went to the "arrow" to these same baths, taking Lyudmila with him. The meeting took place in Stolyarny Lane. Let's jump ahead and say that a few steps from this place in the 94th hitman Lesha Soldier authority was shot Otari Kvantrishvili.

... The conversation between the Scoop and a certain man in black did not last long. When Yevgeny turned around and went back to the car, shots rang out. Matytsina jumped out of the car in horror and immediately received a bullet in the forehead.

The killer turned out to be a long-time foe Scoop - Andrey Milovanov aka Green.

Sovkov, with a severe wound, managed to get into the driver's seat, but four hours later he died in the hospital. On Lyudmila, the killer fired a control shot in the head before leaving.

Green was generally famous for the fact that he could absolutely calmly kill a woman in the most cruel way. He also shot the widow of the general director of the Togliatti fish factory Oksana Labintseva.

The phenomenon of criminal gangs that flourished in our country in the 90s of the last century will forever remain one of the most recognizable features of that historical era. Organized crime became a striking social phenomenon that arose from the ruins of the Soviet Union and influenced all spheres of life of people of that time. The linguistic culture of the outcasts of society has poured into the media in a wide stream. Not a single film about organized crime groups of the 90s is complete without episodes of murders and violence, and the images of the “brothers” have acquired easily recognizable epic features. The so-called "concepts" of the criminal world suddenly became a much-needed social, spiritual and cultural model of behavior for a whole generation of former citizens of the USSR. The echoes of those times will remain for a long time in the culture and language of our people in the form of a very stable idiom, which from time to time slips even in official speeches made at the highest state level.

Philosophy of modern life

During the last two decades of the history of the USSR, an alternative system of values ​​was actively spreading in society, which was based on the views and concepts of the underworld. Gradually, she began to play an increasingly significant role in the life of the younger generation. Its popularity was associated with the changing socio-cultural demands of the Soviet society and the crisis of the official ideology. In the era of perestroika, the old system of Soviet values ​​finally collapsed, and an alternative ideology fell into the resulting emptiness like a muddy stream on people’s heads, which at that time turned out to be the strongest and most socially demanded “philosophy” of life, in which survival becomes the most important issue. "Die today, and I - tomorrow" - verbal formulas were prepared in the criminal world long ago, according to which, as if by patterns, life began to line up throughout the post-Soviet space.

The role of the thieves' subculture

The thieves' subculture in the last decade of the existence of the USSR became a catalyst for the formation of organized criminal groups in the 90s. Any business in the country for a long time was a criminal offense, that is, something that only crooks and bandits were engaged in. From this point of view, speculation and fartsovka are no different from pickpocketing and drug trafficking. In recent years, the Soviet government allowed certain forms of business at the legislative level and members of criminal communities were able to carry out their activities legally. But the real exit from the criminal field turned out to be a more difficult process.

Criminal organized crime groups of the 90s as a way of organizing and doing business in a transitional era

An effective and highly profitable business in those days was possible only if criminal and semi-criminal methods of enrichment were involved. One of the forms of successful business was organized crime groups of the 90s. For representatives of the criminal world, new opportunities for enrichment have opened up with the help of forceful methods. The emergence of legal forms of business expanded the basis for collecting tribute in favor of the criminal community, which was traditionally practiced in relation to any business in the USSR. There are objects of property that did not exist before. Factories and factories, restaurants and parking lots, shops and markets - all this required confirmation of ownership rights based not only on the laws of the state, but also on the basis of the laws of the underworld, where only the right of the strong plays a role. The risks that were associated with any business in that transitional era required additional insurance in the form of force support, which could be needed at any time. It took well-organized power structures, consisting of people with good physical fitness. By this time, the thieves' subculture had already prepared the necessary personnel from the environment of the younger generation of the last years of the existence of the Soviet Union. Spontaneous (informal) youth associations received professional leaders from among the members of certain criminal communities, who began to turn crowds of street hooligans into well-organized power units.

The main functions that organized crime groups began to perform in the 90s in the conditions of the formation of a market economy

The new type have become an important and multifunctional element in the life of post-Soviet society. These were high-performing business ventures aimed at maximizing profits for the benefit of their top executives. You can list the main activities that were characteristic of the organized crime groups of that time.

1. Insurance activity. Organized crime groups could be a real, and sometimes the only guarantee of repayment of debts, compensation for this or that damage, compliance with the terms of contracts and commercial transactions.
2. Safety. Protection of life, health, integrity of property, security in transactions in those days was a very popular service.
3. Informal arbitration in resolving contentious issues in any area of ​​life, from the regulation of commercial relations, and ending with conflicts that have arisen on the basis of certain speech actions.
4. Ensuring competitive advantages in commercial activities, subject to receiving a percentage of the profits of the enterprise. This also includes the provision of advantages in resolving judicial and property disputes in official state structures.
5. Control over compliance with unwritten thieves' laws and concepts, which for a long time were considered the main regulator of the relationship of all participants in any business, both legal and illegal.

The activities of criminal gangs brought huge incomes to their organizers, and also made it possible to acquire property, enterprises and other material values. The largest fortunes in Russia were formed with the direct participation of certain organized crime groups. Some activities of the organized crime groups of the 90s gradually became the prerogative of the state directly or indirectly, through special commercial structures, for example, collection companies.

Organizing an organized crime group and distributing its income

The composition of the OPG can be divided into four main levels. The fighters, which included young people from 16 to 25 years old, were the lowest echelon of the organized criminal group and were direct participants in power actions. The criminal showdowns of the organized crime groups of the 90s took place in their presence, but they had only to fulfill the commands of senior leaders on time. They collected tribute, carried out various assignments, accompanied the leadership during important events and meetings. Usually bloody crimes and other dirty work were carried out by their hands. The fighters received from several hundred to several thousand dollars a month, depending on the tasks performed, and were subject to the strictest discipline under pain of severe punishment. The middle management included people who had the right to receive a small percentage of the total profits of organized crime groups from several tens to several hundred thousand dollars a month. These members of the criminal community were directly involved in the showdown, appointed "shooters", organized important events, liquidations, etc. The highest level of the organized criminal group - from 3 to 7 people. They controlled the turnover of OCG funds, which could range from several tens to several hundred million dollars a month. A separate group within the organized crime group consisted of officials and some law enforcement officers who provided informational, administrative, and sometimes judicial cover for the activities of the gang. These members of the organized criminal group received substantial deductions from the cash flow of the criminal organization.

Ways to earn income

Almost all criminal gangs began their activities by extorting money from entrepreneurs who began their activities in the late 80s. Under the threat of violence and the creation of other problems, entrepreneurs were forced to give up to 50% of their income to the bandits. There was competition among criminal gangs for the opportunity to collect tribute from certain entrepreneurs. The second source of income for start-up organized crime groups was fraud, organized on the principle of a thieving game of thimbles. Gradually, the groups switched to the traditional criminal highly profitable business - arms and drug trafficking and the organization of brothels. The criminally obtained money, the leaders of the organized crime group began to invest in legal business and highly profitable real estate. Coercive methods were also used to provide competitive advantages to controlled commercial enterprises. Behind all contract killings are commercial interests and the desire to appropriate the sources of income of rival criminal groups. Torture, murder, forgery, fraud, organization of various forms of illegal business, smuggling and bribery of officials have always been the main criminal methods of enriching the leaders of organized crime groups. Organized crime in the 90s of the last century acquired such dimensions and forms that began to threaten the integrity and security of the state.

The most influential organized crime groups in Russia

The 90s rating should be based on the degree of influence that the group had on a national scale, the duration of this influence and the profitability of the criminal business. The largest and most influential organized crime groups were based in Moscow and exercised control over industrial enterprises throughout Russia. In terms of the scale of influence on the Russian economy, such a rating should be headed by Moscow organized crime groups of the 90s Izmailovska and Solntsevsko-Orekhovskaya.

"Izmailovskaya" organized crime group

This is the oldest group that arose as an association of youth gangs in the Izmailovsky district in the mid-80s. The beginning of the criminal business was quite standard - extortion, robbery, income from "thimble-makers", etc. The group has always been distinguished by a strong leadership. All power in this criminal business community has always belonged to a very narrow group of authorities, the most famous of which was (Izmailovsky). Subsequently, a number of other organized criminal groups began to work under the wing of this group, such as Galyanovskaya, Perovskaya and others. The Izmailovskaya organized crime group gradually turned into a powerful financial and economic empire, which covered entire sectors of the country's economy, such as aluminum production, the pulp and paper industry, woodworking enterprises, the export of timber abroad, the oil and gas sector, and a number of domestic and foreign banks. But gambling has become a special direction for this organized criminal group, the traditions of which date back to the “thimblemakers” of the Izmailovo and Vernissage clothing markets, as well as the Shchelkovsky bus station. The main difference between the Izmailovo organized criminal group is the wide support from the authorities, which made it possible for this organized criminal group to become one of the most successful commercial enterprises in modern Russia.

"Solntsevo-Orekhovskaya" coalition

Separate structures of the "Solntsevsko-Orekhovskaya" organized criminal group were formed in different places and under different circumstances in the late 80s. In the early 90s, a number of independent organized criminal groups in the South-Western region of Moscow created a powerful coalition, the leadership in which at various times belonged to representatives of one or another organized criminal group that was part of it. This criminal coalition included such well-known organized crime groups as Chertanovskaya, Cheryomushkinskaya, Yasenevskaya, Orekhovskaya and others. A huge number of feature films and documentaries have been shot about those events, and hundreds of books have been written. The most famous leader of this organized criminal group is Sergey Timofeev (“Sylvester”), the leader of the “Orekhovskaya” gang, considered one of the bloodiest that criminal Russia has ever known. Organized crime groups of the 90s waged a fierce competition among themselves, as a result of which the brightest leaders of the Solntsevo-Orekhovskaya coalition died, including Timofeev, who was blown up in his Mercedes in 1994. With a showdown between the leaders of the Solntsevo-Orekhovskaya coalition coalitions, as well as other groups, are connected by the bloodiest episodes of the criminal war between organized crime groups of the 90s. Photos and reports about the brutal murders of the leaders of the "Solntsevskaya" and "Orekhovskaya" groups did not leave the pages of the press and TV screens for several years. The history of the Solntsevsko-Orekhovskaya OPG is associated with many now flourishing commercial structures operating in various sectors of the economy in our country and abroad. The activities of the members of this united banta gradually entered the framework of the law and spread to all spheres of life in modern Russia, including politics.

A short century of gangster career

Most of the well-known Moscow organized crime groups of the 90s gradually lost their influence, and a harsh fate awaited their participants. Kurganskaya, Balashihinskaya, Medvedkovskaya, Odintsovskaya and other well-known organized crime groups lost their influence, having lost their capable and authoritative leadership by the end of the 90s. The leaders of the groups destroyed each other, fighting for power and influence, and the survivors received long prison terms. The fight against organized crime gradually became the most important state task, and at the beginning of the 2000s this task began to be solved more and more successfully.

Regional organized crime groups

Organized crime in the early 90s was a ubiquitous phenomenon that affected all regions of the country, and in terms of business profitability, many regional organized crime groups were not inferior to those in the capital. In terms of cruelty and atrocity, some regional groups significantly exceeded the metropolitan ones and wrote the bloodiest pages in the crime of the 90s. Organized crime groups in Kazan began to form back in the 70s of the last century. Famous gangs, such as "Tyap-Lap" and "Kinoplyonka", were distinguished by their boundless cruelty even in the years of the existence of the USSR. Quite often, completely random people became victims of their acts of intimidation, and the terror that they unleashed on the streets of the capital of Tatarstan was akin to primitive savagery. which was led by the nickname "Elephant", managed to spread its influence far beyond the Ryazan region. Starting a criminal business as a gang of racketeers and extortionists, the Slonovtsy created one of the most successful regional commercial enterprises, the turnover of which reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Many members of this gang still occupy an important position in the country's politics and economy, and Yermolov himself became a successful citizen of the European Union. The Uralmash grouping was actively engaged in political activities, and its leader Alexander Khabarov was a deputy of the Yekaterinburg City Duma and the head of the socio-political union (OPS), which included all the active members of the organized criminal group. In almost every city there were very influential organized crime groups, whose leaders were also very big businessmen. For example, Igor Chikunov, who led the powerful organized crime group in Saratov in the 1990s, was the largest shareholder in the oil business. Nikolai Gavrilenkov, the leader of the Velikolutskaya organized criminal group, was a well-known businessman in St. Petersburg, who was engaged in the restaurant and beer business. The leaders of the Volgovskaya group actively influenced the activities of the Avtovaz concern. Many businessmen who acquired their wealth through criminal means died during the criminal wars. For example, the city in which contract killings took place as a result of the showdown of the organized criminal group in the 90s is Saratov. Chikunov and 11 members of his gang were shot during a card game in his office.

OPG of those years in our time

Compared to the organized crime groups of the 90s, in our time, the classic organized crime groups have survived only in small provincial cities. A well-known example is the gang of A. Tsapok. In remote areas of the country from large cities, disassemblies are still taking place according to the old rules, with weapons and involving a large number of participants. In a remote province, “shooters” still happen, and relations are clarified not in the “legal field” of the courts, but in an open field and in the language of “concepts”. High-profile contract killings became the basis of the plots of a huge number of films about the criminal activities of organized crime groups in the 90s. Documentaries have been made about almost every known gang, and images of hitmen, leaders and gang members from the 90s have acquired clear literary and cinematic canons. Modern criminal groups are more compact, conspiratorial and do not have the opportunity to develop such a wide range of activities as the organized crime groups of the 90s had. Photos and film materials about the crime of the 90s testify to the confidence in the impunity of gang members who so loved everything that could emphasize their status and distinguish them from the crowd. A crimson jacket, a thick gold chain and a huge gold cross on the stomach have long become elements of a historical costume.

The nineties were a milestone in our history. Everything has changed: the country, society, people, relationships. And the cinema, of course, did not stand aside: someone tried to seize the moment and bring the hero of time to the stage, someone went into nostalgia and the past, and it was easier for someone to survive in the format of a fairy tale. We have collected the best films of the 90s that can tell an outsider about what our country was like. These are almost documents of the era.

Aleksey Balabanov made films on the edge of a knife: evil, cruel, honest. "Brother" showed us the last hero, and by a strange coincidence, Sergei Bodrov Jr. played him. He forever remained a bizarre image of a brother who takes responsibility and solves problems with the help of force.

One of the prophetic paintings, bitter, sad and evil, one of the last sane by Eldar Ryazanov. She exposed a nerve: the poverty and abandonment of old age. Perhaps someone watches this movie as a comedy. But in fact, it is still relevant, although some points are already naive.

This drama is about the friendship of the deaf Yaya and the fragile Rita, who seeks to hide from a life of money. But the girls find themselves in a different bind: a confrontation between two mafias. A cult picture, a mixture of falsehood and truth, "Country of the Deaf" has long become a hallmark of Moscow: rich, impudent and not believing in tears.

The pursuit of the Russian dream, the notorious Moscow, which everyone must have their own, but there is a common projection: the Emerald City, beckoning from afar and offering to wear green glasses so as not to be touched by falsehood. Zeldovich and Sorokin (screenwriter) reflect on the passing time, summing up: there are no more adults, teenagers are frolicking.

The almost imperceptible and already forgotten film with the incomparable Evdokia Germanova in the title role was like a shock for the early 90s: show business, drugs, doubles, devil's traps and the incredible beauty of the song performed by Inna Zhelannaya. The plot is terrible: the star Zhanna dies. To keep the show going, the producer finds a girl in the province who is ready to change her appearance and become a new copy of the star.

The last role of Nonna Mordyukova. A real story turned into a bloody drama. Together with Nonna Viktorovna in the frame - Menshikov, Mironov, Mashkov, the whole color of our cinema. The subtle, light and poignant drama became truly popular: there was something that many lost in the 90s, namely, the connection with relatives, with the family.

This anecdotal freak show always cheers you up! Vladimir Menshov made a grandiose film in the 90s, inviting literally the best people of our, Soviet cinema. Although the filling of the film is typically Indian: twin brothers, diamond, mafia, wedding and dancing.

Pavel Chukhrai, like many in the 90s, wanted to travel with the audience into the past and took the story of a man with two faces as the basis for the picture. The main thing that our cinema lost in the 90s: stories about education and character development.

Without this tape, our list would be short: one of Herman's latest works is very difficult to perceive and created for a trained viewer. The day of an ordinary doctor, who in March 1953 is carried through several circles of hell and thrown out at the corpse of Stalin. Unforgettable and terrible way.

But the 90s were not only about pain and death. There were films about life and love: Yankovsky, Kupchenko and Vasilyeva, within the same apartment, play out a magical story about forgiveness and nobility, spiritual beauty and sensitivity. Such paintings are very rare and therefore carefully stored.

The comedy of Alexander Rogozhkin immediately fell in love with the population of Russia and quickly acquired sequels, parodies, imitations and allusions. Russian-Finnish friendship, sealed with alcohol and adventures, forever cut into our hearts.

Another wedding, this time with a criminal bias, also appealed to the population with arrogance, a kitsch approach, a fen and a general state of absurdity and a madhouse, which is “our everything”, as you know. It was from this cult comedy that Zhmurki and Down House later grew.

Yuri Mamin's fantasy on the topic of the desired abroad is more like a joke, but our people loved this bacchanalia of taste and magic. The war between the French and ours for a place in the sun and a coveted window was the embodiment of dreams that have now resulted in a confrontation between people from Biryulyovo and Patrikov. We can say that Mamin hit the finger into eternity.

It was relevant then, during the Chechen war. This is relevant now, when the world is in a fever from the intrigues of ISIS. Meanwhile, the genius of Khotinenko, who told the story of a different faith in the Russian outback, draws one parallel: it is necessary to see further, to be wiser and more tolerant. So, "Muslim" is also a picture for the ages.

In the finale - our pride, the last "Oscar" received by a domestic film. No matter what anyone says about Mikhalkov, this painting of his is truly native, bright and sad. It contains the last days before the storm. Another painting by Nikita Sergeevich, “Slave of Love”, is permeated with a similar mood, but there the author spoke about other people.

MOSCOW, 17 Mar- RIA Novosti, Viktor Zvantsev. Car bombings, street shootings and contract killings - in the nineties Moscow was shaking from criminal showdowns. In pursuit of big money and a beautiful life, gangs from all over the country poured into the capital. However, local groups, which had long divided the city among themselves, met the uninvited guests with hostility. In the struggle for influence, they used the entire military arsenal and did not spare either competitors or bystanders.

Orekhovskaya

One of the largest Russian gangs has been operating in the southwest of the capital since the mid-1980s. It was headed by a tractor driver from the Nizhny Novgorod village, Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed Sylvester. The backbone of the gang was formed by residents of the Orekhovo-Borisovo district, mostly athletes. They started with robbery attacks on truckers. Then businessmen, thimblers, car thieves and apartment thieves were "protected". They did not disdain contract killings either.

By the early 1990s, the gang consisted of several hundred people. Sylvester tried to legalize criminal proceeds by investing in banking, the automobile business and the jewelry trade. He was considered one of the most influential mafiosi not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia. However, this did not last long - in 1994 Timofeev was killed. After the death of the leader, the group was shaken by internecine wars, some of the bandits moved to Spain. In the early 2000s, the security forces finally defeated the organized crime group, arresting its main leaders. Most received life sentences.

Baumanskaya

"Baumantsy" already in the late 1980s controlled the entire center of the capital. They did racketeering. The ringleader was Vladislav Vanner, nicknamed Bobon. The criminals were particularly cruel and even among the bandits were considered lawless. Intractable merchants were often taken to the forest and buried alive. By the mid-1990s, several leaders had changed in the gang. All of them died at the hands of competitors. Meanwhile, the organized crime group continued to "protect" the business, commit contract killings, and engage in drug trafficking. In the early 2000s, the security forces arrested its main participants, including those who managed to move abroad. All were sentenced to long terms.

Izmailovskaya

The group was formed from youth gangs operating in the east of Moscow in the 1980s. It is interesting that it included not only athletes, but also the so-called "blue" - criminals with a solid criminal record. The organized criminal group specialized in racketeering, drug trafficking, robberies, robberies and contract killings. Often there were skirmishes with the security forces who hunted the ringleaders. Moreover, the bandits almost always managed to escape. Over time, their influence spread to other regions, including Siberia and the Far East. The members of the organized crime group laundered the acquired capital through the gambling business, and then invested money in overseas real estate.

In the late 1990s, many leaders of the "Izmailov" moved to Europe - away from the constant showdown. It is believed that from abroad they still control and develop their business in the southeast of the capital.

Koptevskaya

In the early 1990s, an influential metropolitan group "held" the entire north of Moscow. It was put together by Alexander and Vasily Naumov. The brothers were engaged in freestyle wrestling, and after the completion of their sports career, they took up racketeering. They recruited former martial artists into the gang. The Naumovs themselves were listed as heads of several commercial firms. But there was another "earnings" - extortion, theft, contract killings and drug trafficking.

The bandits conducted all their affairs only on their own territory, they did not climb into other people's areas. However, this did not save them from criminal wars with rival gangs. In 1995, Alexander was killed, two years later - Vasily. The last skirmish took place not far from the MUR building on Petrovka. After the death of the leaders, the gang lost its former power, but continued to conduct criminal activities. Soon several of its members left for Europe, the rest were killed or went to prison.

Shchelkovskaya

One of the largest groups operating in the capital in the early 1990s settled in the city of Shchelkovo near Moscow. The bandits imposed tribute on almost all local merchants, and those who refused to pay were brutally killed. Over the years, appetites grew, and crime bosses from other criminal communities drew attention to the Moscow OPG. They began to turn to the Shchelkovites for help in eliminating competitors. They turned into a kind of firing squad, receiving "work orders" in different parts of the country. It is believed that in ten years the brigade's killers killed about 60 people.

The destruction of the group began only in 2006, when a Moscow businessman contacted the police. He said that the bandits extort a large amount of money from him. Thanks to his testimony, the UBOP operatives were able to eliminate the gang.

Shurik Zakhar (Zakharov) - "the star of Balashikha", as his comrades in arms jokingly called him. This thief became famous for spending 90 days in the ShIZO of the famous Vladimir Central.
Shurik Zakhar was born in Belarus in the village of Sosnovka in 1952. After graduating from the eighth grade, Sasha and his friend committed a robbery and quickly got caught. At the age of 15, he found himself in an educational colony.
He got his second term for a fight. The quick-tempered Shurik bludgeoned the offender so that he died on the operating table. The criminal case was reclassified from "premeditated murder" to "grievous bodily harm resulting in death." The court, however, is not particularly humane: it sentenced Alexander Zakharov to 9 years in a strict regime.
In the camps, Zakhar did not shy away, and he was quickly pulled up by the thieves, who are preparing "ambitious understudies" ahead of time. In the same place, in captivity, Shurik Zakhar, and now he was only called that, became addicted to ... cocaine.
In such wonderful conditions, Shurik, as the right prisoner, served from bell to bell. After being released, he was caught by a police patrol a few months later with "coke" in his pocket, as they say in certain circles. Shurik told the investigator that this was an ordinary police set-up. However, he again finds himself in the zone. Term - 4 years. And the honorary status - OOR - a particularly dangerous recidivist.