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Banker's Killers Complained to Police
// Andrey Kozlov was stalked for two months
Kommersant has learned that the murder of Central Bank of Russia First Deputy Chairman Andrey Kozlov has practically been solved. The rapid progress was due to the cheapness of the person who ordered the killing. He refused to pay the gunmen, who then complained to the police. Their testimony reveals that the conflict between Kozlov and the contractor of the killing arose two months ago.
Three Suspects
Moscow courts have issued orders for the arrest of Alexey Polovinkin, Maxim Proglyada and Alexander Belokopytov, all 35-year-old citizens of Ukraine. According to investigators, Polovinkin shot First Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Andrey Kozlov and maintained contacts with the intermediary for the contractor of the killing, Proglyada fatally shot Kozlov's driver Alexander Semenov, and Belokopytov helped the killers escape the scene of their crimes. Polovinkin and Proglyada are being charged with premeditated murder as part of a group and Belokopytov is being charged as an accomplice.
All three suspects are cooperating with the investigation. They have described their roles in the crimes and explained how they prepared to carry them out. The information they have provided has been confirmed by forensics experts working at the Spartacus sports complex in Losiny Island Park in the Sokolniki neighborhood of Moscow, where the crime took place. They suspects admit working for hire, but the contractor for the killing and his intermediary have not been identified yet.
The three suspects grew up together in Lugansk, Ukraine. Each of them served in the army, then started families and tried their hands at small business. Each of them failed at their businesses. Belokopytov's mother-in-law moved to Moscow and began trading in an open-air market. She was soon followed by her son-in-law and his family, then by the other two suspects and their families. All of them found relatively inexpensive housing on the outskirts of Moscow. The suspects again set up and failed at small businesses and mainly earned their livings worked as unregistered taxi drivers with their older-model Russian-made compact cars.
According to the investigation, on which about 90 police are working, Polovinkin was contacted by the unidentified intermediary in the killing in July of this year. The intermediary asked Polovinkin to tail a banker who had “conned good people,” who now wanted to talk to the banker. Polovinkin promised the labor of himself and his two friends for the effort. The Ukrainians were to follow the banker and let the intermediary know when he was at a convenient spot to be intercepted. They were promised unspecified monetary compensation for their services.
The Ukrainians found that Kozlov led a highly predictable life, driving every day from his home in the Poklonnye Gory neighborhood to his office at the headquarters of the Central Bank in downtown Moscow and back again. They followed Kozlov first in Polovinkin's car, then in Proglyada's. Belokopytov refuse to use his car because they were not being provided with gas money. Belokopytov trailed Kozlov, while his two colleagues remained at the ready in case Kozlov strayed from his usual route. They maintained contact using cellular phones registered to other people, which they obtained at an open-air communications equipment market.
When Kozlov went to Sokolniki to play soccer after work on September 13, Polovinkin and Proglyada began to follow him and Belokopytov headed home. Before he arrived, however, Polovinkin called and ordered him to return and park his car on the embankment of the Yauza River near Oleny Bridge, about a kilometer from the Spartacus complex. Polovinkin and Proglyada watched Kozlov enter the complex then parked there car on a nearby street and hid in bushes while they called the intermediary.
The intermediary ordered them to remain where they were and wait for him. When he arrived, he told the men that Kozlov had to be liquidated. In spite of their shock at the suggestion, the intermediary convinced them to kill Kozlov and his driver. He then gave them loaded pistols and disappeared into the surrounding forest. After committing the murders, Polovinkin and Proglyada left their car and ran to meet Belokopytov. The dozing Belokopytov then began to drive them home. Their initial progress was impeded by police arriving at the crime scene. When Belokopytov found out about the seriousness of their crimes from the television news, he drove to Stavropol, where he stayed with a friend and went on a drinking binge. He was arrested there for a minor infraction and later transferred to Moscow.
The Intermediary Doomed Himself
One of the suspects contacted the police voluntarily. “They don't know who turned the others in and they suspect each other. People in such circumstances are more cooperative with the investigation,” explained an investigator. The suspects also have financial claims against each other. Belokopytov accused Polovinkin of cheating them out of their pay. Polovinkin says that he did not receive any money for their services in those two months.
Although all three suspects have confessed to their parts in the killings, investigators are convinced that they have more information to provide. Polovinkin, who was the only one to speak to the intermediary, for instance, says they met only in the dark and that he is unable to describe him. Their communications could be traced, except the suspected abandoned their phones “somewhere” in the forest and have forgotten their own and the intermediary's phone numbers.
The suspects' unwillingness to be completely open with investigators is motivated by fear for their lives. That was the true motivation for their being turned in to the police. They also were not paid. The suspects say that they contacted the intermediary several times after the killings, but he put off paying them. Then they discovered that they were being followed. That is when one of them contacted the police. It is likely that that person saved all their lives. He also significantly simplified the investigation of Andrey Kozlov's murder.
Sergey Dyupin
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 16, 2006
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