Leonid Parfenov, editor-in-chief at Russian Newsweek
Photo: Valery Levitin
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Leonid Parfenov Nabs the Gang of Pretend Killers
// Under the Oligarchs’ Name They Were Extorting $50,000 from the Journalist
Yesterday it became known that officers of the Organized Crime and Terrorism Department of the Interior Ministry of Russia arrested two residents of the city Ivanovo who were extorting $50,000 from the editor of the Russian Newsweek magazine Leonid Parfenov. They were bargaining the information about alleged murder contract on his head. As Parfenov himself told Kommersant he is grateful to the Interior Ministry for the speed which the “stupid and idiotic scheme was uncovered.”
Parfenov reported to police on July 2 that he was being threatened with murder by someone who demanded money from him. As it was learned on June 28 the unknown person who introduced himself as Viktor called the department of the journalists investigations of the NTB company. He offered TV reporters to meet with him. During the meeting, he told journalists that he has information about the pending assassination of Leonid Parfenov, and for $50,000 he was ready to provide the information about those who were ordering it and those who intended to carry it out. Viktor said that allegedly with the order from the head of the security services of one of the Ukrainian oligarchs he had to provide all necessary materials to the group of killers intended to murder Parfenov. The motive of the planned hit was the professional activities of the journalists who once allegedly criticized on of the Russian business structures. Also, the extortionist said that he did not want to participate in the killing of the journalist and needed money to hide from the possible hunt of the oligarch.
On the night of July 3, the officers from the Organized Crime Department arrested in Ivanovo Viktor Ivanov, 28m, who met NTB journalists, and his 24-year-old accomplice Ivan Pavlov. They admitted that nobody threatened the editor in chief of Russian Newsweek and they created the story the murder in the hope of extorting money from him. In the meantime, the Interior Ministry told Kommersant there were four extortionists: “Two ore accomplices are being hunted.”
According to Parfenov, the arrested who pretended to be killers, never had direct contact with the alleged victim. They offered Parfenov to pay $50,000 through friends and acquaintances. ‘They had enough brains to find out with whom I maintain a relationship,” Parefenov told Kommersant. “But for that all they had to do was to read several of my interviews that I gave recently.”
The editor in chief of Russian Newsweek thinks that criminals intentionally picked him as a object for extortion. A little over a year ago, the editor in chief of the Russian edition of Forbes Paul Khlebnikov was gunned down by killers, and Russian Newsweek and Russian Forbes are published by the same company Axel Springer Russia. Leonid Parfenov suspects that last year’s famous killing attracted attention to him as well. Besides, most likely his famous TV appearances influenced the choice of the extortionists. “From the very beginning I had no doubts that these are not killers but con artists,” he said. “They were acting too boldly and I am afraid that blackmail toward famous people already has become a tendency.”
Andrei Salnikov, Alek Akhundov
All the Article in Russian as of July 05, 2005
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