In September 1994, one of the most influential crime bosses in Moscow, Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed Sylvester, was killed. By the end of his life, he was in conflict with all the major metropolitan groups and a significant part of the Moscow business community. The death of the authority gave rise to a lot of rumors, and many began to claim that what happened was just a competent staging.

Chief Orekhovsky

In the mid-1980s, Timofeev got involved with punks from the capital's Orekhovo district. A few years later he was arrested for robbery, extortion and illegal possession of weapons. He was sentenced to two years, and after his release he united the gangs operating in the south of Moscow into a single large group - Orekhovskaya.

Soon he took control of a number of banks, cafes, restaurants, and nightclubs were subordinate to him. Many large entrepreneurs paid Timofeev “bribes”. The worst enemies of the Orekhovskys were Caucasian organized crime groups.

Explosion on Tverskaya-Yamskaya

Timofeev died on September 13, 1994 at seven o’clock in the evening on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street in the center of Moscow. A brand new Mercedes-600, in which the authority was located, exploded.

The car was blown up using a radio-controlled device. How did it get into Sylvester's Mercedes? According to some reports, the “infernal machine,” weighing about a kilogram, was placed in the car while it was in the car wash. After the explosion, the Mercedes caught fire, it was extinguished, and the burnt and mutilated body of the victim was pulled out of the wreckage of the car.

Whose hands are they doing?

The operatives immediately began to work out several versions of what happened. People suspected of murdering Sylvester were Valery Globus Dlugach or Otari Kvantrishvili - by that time already dead criminal authorities. During their lifetime, both were at odds with the Orekhovskys over business interests. Globus, moreover, did business with Caucasian organized crime groups, which was unacceptable for Timofeev.

According to another version, the conflict between the leader of the Orekhovskys and another major crime boss, Yaponchik (Vyacheslav Ivankov), led to the murder of Sylvester. The reason is banal - they did not share power, and Timofeev accused his opponent of stealing $300,000. Yaponchik could not forgive this. However, there is an opinion that the masterminds of the crime were representatives of Caucasian organized crime groups, with whom Sylvester had a long-standing feud.

Fake death

The Orekhovsky group was also involved in large-scale financial fraud. According to some reports, thanks to these manipulations, Timofeev enriched himself by 18 billion rubles, which he transferred to Western banks.

This led many to say that in the blown up Mercedes it was not the leader of the Orekhovskys, but a completely different person. At the time of the explosion, Sylvester himself had already flown to the United States under an assumed name. There he did plastic surgery, after which he lived a calm and comfortable life.

This is supported by the fact that two months before the explosion on Tverskaya-Yamskaya, the authority transported his wife and daughter to the United States. The version of the staged incident was later confirmed by some representatives of the Solntsevskaya group.

The charred corpse found in the Mercedes could only be identified by Sylvester’s personal dentist, and even then only by his teeth. But this did not reassure the skeptics: in their opinion, the authority could well have entered into an agreement with his dentist. A business card and a declaration addressed to a certain manager Sergei Zhlobinsky, found at the scene of the incident, added fuel to the fire of various speculations.

Kill the boss

However, law enforcement officers were not convinced by such “conspiracy theories.” In 2011, the investigation into the high-profile case came to an end. In September, the Moscow City Court found Sylvester guilty of murder and sentenced his close associate Sergei Osya Butorin to life imprisonment.

He himself admitted that he ordered the murder of his boss. According to Butorin, the car with Sylvester exploded right before his eyes immediately after starting to move away from house number 46. Timofeev was talking on the phone at that moment. Later, his body was found 11 meters from the scene of the incident. After the explosion, Osya rushed to the car, made sure his boss was dead, and then hurried to leave the scene.

Butorin explained his action by saying that he feared reprisals from Timofeev’s enemies. At that time, the average lifespan of the closest associates of crime bosses was 1.5-2 years. Killing Sylvester could take the threat away from him. In addition, Osya himself wanted to take the place of leader of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group.

The Khovanskoye cemetery is located near Moscow and adjoins the remote metropolitan district of Solntsev, which until recently was considered to be located near Moscow. The Khovanskoye Cemetery is the largest cemetery in Europe, but finding the alley where the leaders of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group are buried is not particularly difficult. It is located in a new section of the cemetery. The fact that the “godfathers” of the criminal south of Moscow are buried here, in my opinion, transparently hints at a close connection with the famous Solntsevo “brothers”, at their common criminal roots. Indeed, sometimes the relationships of individual persons are so intertwined that it is difficult to understand which of them is “Orekhovsky” and which one is “Solntsevsky”. It is curious that in almost all the graves the front sides of the tombstones and busts are turned with their backs to the pedestrian alley, thereby emphasizing the shady, criminal lifestyle of the deceased. It remains to add that all other “Orekhovites” are buried in Vvedensky, Danilovsky, Kotlyakovsky and Shcherbinsky cemeteries.

Anticipating your appropriate sarcastic grins about the pompous monuments in the churchyard, Orthodox symbols, I want to remind you that on Red Square in his Mausoleum for many decades lies a man who, during his short term as head of state, managed to ruin and destroy, for example, hard-working peasants in the name of utopian ideals and personal ambitions. As a gift from grateful descendants, the author of the cry “Take and divide!” received a permanent residence permit at the foot of the Kremlin, and the untimely peace of his sidekicks, tightly packed in the Kremlin wall, is guarded day and night by sentries. This seems to bother almost no one: they’ve already gotten used to it. What happens, dear comrades? A bandit and a murderer killed ten, but a great leader and teacher killed millions?

As a supplement, there is a video in which Valery Karyshev somehow explains who is who in the Orekhovsk mafia:

Sergei Ivanovich Timofeev (1955-1994) nicknamed Sylvester does not need any special introduction. In fact, this entire site is dedicated to his activities.

Grigory Evgenievich Gusyatinsky (1959-1995) - founder of the Medvedkovskaya organized crime group. In the early nineties, during Sylvester’s life, the group did not play a very independent role, but was a kind of North Moscow branch of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group. Gusyatinsky was involved in various kinds of sensitive cases, such as organizing the high-profile murder of Otari Kvantrishvili. When Sylvester was blown up in September 1994, Gusyatinsky again headed the Medvedkov group, but not for long. In January 1995, in Kyiv, Grisha was shot by his subordinate - hitman Alexey Sherstobitov, nicknamed Lesha Soldat, is the direct executor of the order for Kvantrishvili. Apparently, Sherstobitov was afraid that he knew too much about the biography of Sylvester’s bait and therefore decided to fix the problem. Speaking about Gusyatinsky’s personality, for some reason I recall the words of the same Lesha Soldat about how Gusyatinsky ordered his subordinates to be killed for the slightest mistake. For example, he ordered one to be killed because a champagne cork got into him, and another because he refused to carry his wife’s bag. Since it is customary to say good or nothing about the dead, we will remain silent.

Stella on the graves of a prominent figure in the group, Alexander Garishin, nicknamed Sasha Ryzhiy (he did not like his other nickname - Screw), who was part of Sylvester's inner circle from the moment of his release from Tver Correctional Colony No. 1 (in the jargon "weaving"), and his younger comrade Vladimir Baklanov (1968-1996) nicknamed Cucumber.

Sergei Taraskin (1951-1992), wrestling coach of the Kuntsevo sports school, a kind of debutant in the alley of “heroes”, occupied a prominent place in the team of Sergei Kruglov, nicknamed Seryozha Boroda, who in turn was a personal friend of Sylvester. It is known that the latter studied karate at that sports school in the seventies, and therefore probably knew Taraskin. This is evidenced by other signs: Timofeev’s grave is adjacent to Taraskin’s grave, and those who buried Sylvester - and he was the third in the alley - for some reason placed the authority next to Taraskin, and not somewhere else.

Sergei Taraskin died in the famous massacre in Butovo on May 6, 1992, when several Moscow region and Moscow groups came together to fight: on the one hand, the Balashikha group (leader German Starostin, born in 1963, nickname Gera), on the other hand, the Podolsk group ( leader Sergei Lalakin, born in 1955, nickname Luchok), Chekhov (leader Nikolai Pavlinov, born in 1957, nickname Pavlin), as well as three Moscow groups - Anton, Petrik and Seryozha Boroda.

From operational information: “Taraskin’s funeral took place at the Khovanskoye cemetery. All members of Beard's group gathered. Participants in the gathering were armed with short-barreled machine guns. The militants on duty at the entrances radioed about the appearance of strangers. Thieves in law and authorities arrived at the cemetery. They recommended stopping the bloodshed and deciding peacefully. The participants in the gathering agreed, but the leader of the “Balashikha people” Starostin and his closest connection Sukhoi, as well as the Lyubertsy leaders Sam and Mani who supported them, were sentenced to death. Seryozha Boroda took upon himself the execution of the action.”

The name Taraskin is still well known among professional athletes. On December 12-14, 2014, an open All-Russian Greco-Roman wrestling tournament was held in the Sports Complex of the Olympic Village - 80 in Moscow, dedicated to the memory of the USSR Master of Sports Sergei Taraskin.

Sergei Vladimirovich Kotov, nicknamed Kot, was among the authoritative people in the Orekhov group and knew Sergei Ivanovich Timofeev personally. Andrei Viktorovich Mikhailov, nicknamed Fantik, was a member of the brigade from 1993 to 1996, and when the latter was killed, he began working with Kot.

On March 1, 1997, Kotov and Mikhailov went to a routine meeting, apparently with someone they knew well and, leaving their wives in the restaurant, expected to return in an hour, but disappeared. About five days later, the car they left in (an armored Mercedes 140) was found in one of the parking lots with broken bulletproof glass. The guys were found a week later in the forest, it seems, on the fortieth kilometer of the Kyiv highway...

Alexander Loginov, nicknamed Bul (1977-2001), was seen in the company of Igor Smirnov (Bear), and it seems that he was somehow involved in, since he was buried nearby. It wasn’t the bullet that killed the bullet, it was the drugs that killed it. At the beginning of the 2000s, shooting in Orekhovo-Borisovo generally subsided.

Nikolai Pavlovich Vetoshkin (1961-1998) was part of Sylvester’s inner circle, but he was involved mainly in “dirty” work. They met back in the eighties, when Vetoshkin worked as a loader in an Orekhovsk store and had the opportunity to get alcohol during Gorbachev’s anti-alcohol campaign.

After the murder of the boss, a real war broke out in the south of Moscow; the once cohesive group began to fragment into separate brigades, one of which was headed by Vetoshkin. When the district authority Dvoechnik was shot, in 1996-1998. Vetoshkin actually became the main bandit of the southern outskirts of Moscow. Since Nikolai Palych often resorted to the traditional solution controversial situations, namely shooting, by the end of the decade he managed to make a lot of enemies. Extraordinary precautions and an armored Mercedes did not save him from the natural end - execution from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Vladislav Albertovich Gorpishchenko, nicknamed Garp (1965-1994). Nikolai Modestov: “...Near his own apartment, one of the promising fighters, Garpishchenko (nickname Garp), was found dead. The killer fired a single shot to the head from the PM...” Garp was killed while Sylvester was still alive, in August 1994, and he became second in the alley after Taraskin.

Sergei Nikolaevich Volodin (1969-1996), nicknamed Dragon, was killed under circumstances unknown to me. According to one version, the Kurgan people dealt with him for the debts of Sergei Ivanovich. It is possible that the killer was Alexander Solonik.

Sergei Dmitrievich Ananyevsky (1962-1996) nicknamed Kultik, honored coach of Russia in powerlifting (powerlifting), champion of the USSR in 1991, first president of the Powerlifting Federation in Russia and part-time... Orekhov’s authority.

Ananyevsky is more often mentioned as the mastermind of the murder of Otari Kvantrishvili. Shot during the power struggle that followed the Sylvester bombing in early March 1996 near the US Embassy on Novinsky Boulevard. According to one version, the murder was committed by “Kurgan people.”

The graves of Volodin and Ananyevsky are united, which speaks of the joint affairs of the deceased and, possibly, friendship.

A common story for the 1990s: the parents of the “brothers” sometimes outlived their children by decades.

The tragic end found Sergei Timofeev in a dark gray 600 Mercedes parked at house 46 on 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya in Moscow. Locals They already have difficulty remembering that autumn day when a terrible roar came from the car and right side the streets were engulfed in fire, from which pieces of torn iron and human flesh flew. The foreign car was blown up with a radio-controlled bomb, which was attached to the underbody.

Sergei's life ended at 19.05

Following their leader were young guys who had not seen life, but who had managed to sip on the riotous romance of perestroika poverty.

It seemed that they subconsciously did not plan a long life on this earth. This is evidenced by the fact that many members of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group purchased land at the cemetery in advance.

IN workbook employees of the organized crime department for the city of Moscow, who worked for the Orekhov group, are on the blacklist of the lads - living and dead.

The list of the dead grew with new victims almost every week; at the Vvedensky cemetery there is a whole alley of young people who did not live to be 25 years old.

... good or not at all

More long years For many dashing guys, Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed Sylvester, remains a legend of the criminal world.

As they say: either it’s good or not at all, says Novgorod authority Kirill (author’s note - name has been changed). - Those who collaborated with Sylvester about 20 years ago had and still have ambivalent attitudes towards him.

According to Kirill, today the younger generation no longer knows who he is.

- Some have only heard about it, some have read it, so everyone has a different opinion. Some people respect him for the fact that he was able to unite the warring factions, but these were mainly Orekhovsk youth or gangster clowns. Recall kind words those who moved with him in the same sphere. In criminal circles, many did not approve of his action when he ordered the murder of thief in law Otari Kvantrishvili. The order for the murder of Kvantrishvili was carried out by Alexey Sherstobitov. By the way, there is still a legend about Sylvester that he allegedly faked his death and was seen at his own funeral, and then in Israel surrounded by a thief in law. But I think this is just speculation. This legend was invented by the Orekhovites themselves, who at least temporarily tried to contain the collapse of the gang. After the death of Sylvester, the Orekhov group collapsed into 15 small disparate groups.

A guy from the outback

Sergey Timofeev was born in the village of Klin, Moshensky district, Novgorod region on July 18, 1955. He worked on a collective farm as a tractor driver. Military service carried in the sports company. At the age of 20, the young boy was attracted by the lights of the big city and he moved to Moscow. There he got a job as a sports instructor at a construction trust. Then he got a wife and children.

Who knows, perhaps the fate of this person would have turned out completely differently if not for the government unrest and the gradual collapse of the once fundamental values ​​of the Soviet state.

The athlete got along well with people and knew how to defend his point of view, so in Moscow he quickly found friends with similar interests.

Hand-to-hand combat classes, which he practiced in the hall of the police building, helped him become a qualified fighter.

“Rocking chairs”, which grew like mushrooms after rain in semi-basements in the 80s, beckoned the children of the proletariat. The first youth brigades were formed from the “jocks” who took the wing, which provided protection for cooperatives and commercial tents.

Interest in such brigades arose among underground entrepreneurs who needed protection from visiting bandits.

No rules

The slogan “No rules” has become a distinctive feature. Concepts were denied in them, and prison services were not recognized.

Strength came to the fore. Who is stronger is right. The first blood began to be shed in the 80s, when youth gangs fought to the death.

But in real war gangster gatherings escalated in 1992, when the Orekhovskaya, Nagatinskaya and Podolsk brigades fought for spheres of influence in the south of Moscow.

Pacification of the “frostbitten”

The murders of the “jocks” from the brigades came one after another, the Vvedenskoye cemetery was overgrown with fresh graves. At this moment, authorities from the older generation decided to intervene in the conflict and reconcile the parties. However, young bandits, as the “frostbitten” old men called them, took up arms against the leaders of the older generation and decided to eliminate them.

The bloody denouement took place in February 1993 in the Kashirskoye and Kiparis cafes, when six members of the Orekhov group were killed in a fierce shootout.

On Yeletskaya Street in April, 50-year-old Moscow authority Viktor Kogan (nicknamed Monya) dies. The killers were young “jocks”. The enterprises controlled by Monya were divided among themselves by the Orekhovsk thugs.

Over the course of six months, several more murders occur, in which the Orekhov authority Leonid Kleshchenko (Uzbek) dies. He was shot dead in October on the same street on Yeletskaya.

At this time, in the fall of 1989, Sylvester suffered a setback. Together with Mikhas and Avira, the leaders of the Solntsevo brigade, he was detained by officers of the ICBM and MUR for racketeering. He had to spend 2 years under investigation. He was able to be released only in 1991, since, according to a court verdict, he served his time in a pre-trial detention center.

Neither the police nor the leaders of the Moscow criminal world knew how to stop the gang war. At the meeting of authorities, the candidacy of Sergei Timofeev was nominated, and not by chance.

According to the characterization of law enforcement agencies, he was an outstanding, intelligent person who knew how to negotiate with people and convince them.

According to a Moscow investigator, some militants of the group called Selvester a demigod.

The choice was a success. In a matter of days, Ivanovich restored order and united the disparate groups. The chicks of Sylvester's nest began banditry activities together, dividing spheres of influence.

The autumn of 1993 in the south of Moscow turned out to be quiet and unremarkable; news channels were silent about high-profile criminal showdowns.

Seryozha Novgorodsky united Solntsevo, Medvedkovo and Kurgan thugs. The bad world brought its first fruits for good purposes.

Into legal business

Under the wing of Sylvester, the Orekhov bandits began to emerge from the shadows and make their first investments in legal business. Ivanovich understood that the time of dividing the Soviet inheritance would end and those who managed to grab the titbits of the pie would live better than the gods.

Criminal groups of Yekaterinburg begin to cooperate with the Orekhovskys. Here there is a mutually beneficial exchange of spheres of influence. True, these opportunities appeared only after the murder of thief in law Globus in April 1993.

Several large commercial banks come under Sylvester's control. At the same time, the group’s money was actively invested in the development of infrastructure in the Southern District: they opened outlets, restaurants, cafes and gyms. There is information that Sylvester has registered several offshore companies in Cyprus.

It is worth noting that law enforcement agencies They do not deny that with the arrival of Sylvester, order was established in Orekhovo.

Employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate compared the south of Moscow with Novgorod, which was also controlled by Sylvester. According to one former employee KGB of the USSR, in Novgorod he removed “frostbitten” people and prostitutes from the city streets in just a couple of days.

With the advent of Seryozha Novgorodsky, the increase in crime in the south of Moscow decreased noticeably, and the work of the Southern District Internal Affairs Directorate for 1994 was noted at the board of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. Sylvester’s activities found support in the criminal world: after the murder of Otari Kvantrishvili in April 1994, he flew to New York to see Yaponchik, who, according to some sources, gave him the right to rule all of Moscow.

But Sylvester did not have time to feel all the sweetness of power...

Selvester's ashes rest in the Khovanskoye cemetery along with his fighters in Moscow.

The dashing 90s were a terrible and amazing time. In a matter of years, on the ruins of the USSR, organized criminal communities(OPS). Ruthless and merciless, they penetrated into all spheres of life, brutally eliminating any obstacles in their path. Today all this is in the past, but echoes of the “golden age of organized crime” still appear in crime reports. opens a series of publications dedicated to the most odious figures of the criminal world of the 90s. And the first “hero” is a simple Novgorod tractor driver, who turned into the formidable Sylvester and conquered the criminal throne of Moscow.

On the way to success"

...On July 18, 1955, in the village of Klin, Novgorod Region, a boy was born, who was named Seryozha. Since childhood, he was distinguished by responsibility: he studied well, then honestly worked on a collective farm as a tractor driver. When the time came to serve in the army, Timofeev found himself in an elite Kremlin regiment - and they only accepted him with a completely clean application form. At the end of his service, in 1975, Timofeev remained in Moscow, getting a job as a sports instructor in the housing and communal services department - for a modest salary, according to the limit. I was registered in a hostel in Orekhovo-Borisov. And this is where the bright pages of his biography end...

By the 1980s, the Komsomol had become completely bureaucratic. This loss of reputation led to the emergence of informal youth partnerships in residential areas, which, according to a long-standing Moscow tradition, were named after their places of residence: Solntsevsky, Orekhovsky, Izmailovsky, Lyubertsy... They were united by a love of sports, especially “iron” ( lifting a barbell) and confidence in a friend’s shoulder. In Orekhovo-Borisov, Timofeev, being a sports training instructor, led one of these groups: strong local guys (not only children of limiters, but also indigenous residents) unconditionally recognized the authority of the coach. His brilliant organizational skills, extraordinary intelligence and the aura of a “soldier of the Kremlin regiment” evoked well-deserved respect.

Gradually, the Orekhovskys gained weight in the informal metropolitan (and Moscow region) world. They already had enough of wall-to-wall clashes, from which they invariably emerged victorious. And the police have learned to quickly stop such fights. And by the mid-80s, even before perestroika, Timofeev and his fighters slowly began to think about how to make money with what they knew how to do - force and brotherhood. Moreover, it is in the working-class neighborhoods of Moscow that the contrast between real life and the stories told by the party and Komsomol press were especially striking. And here, and not in the elite districts of Dorogomilovo and Peredelkino, generations grew up who joyfully welcomed perestroika, announced and personally general secretary Gorbachev.

The Orekhovskys, like many other sports associations, following the example of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, gradually took power “at the bottom” into their own hands. At first, Timofeev and his comrades imposed tribute on prostitutes in bars, hotels and truck stops. But soon history itself gave these “gentlemen of fortune” a real gold mine: On May 26, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the legendary law “On Cooperation”. Private industries were opened (or legalized) everywhere, and markets turned into centers of attraction: along with collective farmers, the first Soviet entrepreneurs flocked there. Well, then there are the scammers.

Like many gangs, the Orekhovskys actively traded in card cheating and playing thimbles. It is with thimbles that a curious episode in the history of OPS is connected. The rules of the game are simple: three thimbles, with a ball hidden in one of them. You have to guess which one. This is an example of a classic money scam: at first the player bets a little and wins, then bets more and is again in the black. Inflamed by success, he decides to make a big bet - and loses. But not because he didn’t guess which thimble the ball was under, but because there was no ball on the table for the game at all; deft hands had already removed it. And the divorce victim is left with nothing.

One day, Azerbaijanis from a large market joined the thimble game organized by the Orekhovskys - and lost. But the merchants realized that they had been deceived and decided to put the Orekhovskys in their place; Powerful reinforcements quickly came to the aid of the Azerbaijanis. In a confrontation with representatives of the diaspora, influential in all the largest markets of the capital, Timofeev and his comrades suffered a shameful defeat. And the leader of the Orekhovskys declared war on the Azerbaijanis, as well as other “persons of Caucasian nationality.” But guests from the south then played a leading role in the country’s shadow economy.

Bandit Eldorado

The Law on Cooperation gave citizens of the Soviet Union the right to unite and create cooperatives using hired labor. The result was not long in coming: trade flourished, private studios, cafes and restaurants opened. The surge in entrepreneurial initiative had and back side: in 1988 alone, in Moscow alone, 600 reports of extortion were filed with the police. Very quickly the American word “racketeering” entered the public lexicon.

Over time, the Orekhovskys, like other groups, switched from small entrepreneurs to large cooperatives with serious turnover, selling computers, household appliances, and developing large-scale production. The bandits knew no pity: a hot iron on the stomach, a soldering iron into physiological orifices, beating a child in front of the parents was commonplace. Within the gang, even for minor offenses, a death sentence was imposed, and it was always announced publicly.

Frame: “Russia 1”

The Orekhovskys were particularly cruel. Then, in the era of the formation of the OPS, Sergei Timofeev was called the Tractor Driver - and it was not only his former profession, and also in the fact that he eliminated any obstacle on the way harshly and quickly - as if with a tractor. But Timofeev entered the criminal history of Russia under another nickname - Sylvester: it was assigned to the head of the Orekhovskys because of his love for Rambo and Rocky and because of his hairstyle, similar to the one worn by the performer of these roles, the famous Hollywood actor.

For several episodes of extortion, Sylvester ended up in No. 2 - “Butyrka”. After spending two years there, in 1991 he was released, because the most humane Soviet court ruled that he had already served his sentence during the investigation. In fact, he was facing nine years in prison. It is possible that Sylvester made a deal with the police, which in the future only contributed to the growth of his power. Then they started talking about influential patrons from the KGB - fellow soldiers of Seryozha Timofeev. And about a modest three-story house in Crimea, where the judge in his case moved.

Sylvester's influence in the capital grew rapidly. And at the beginning of 1993, the Orekhovskys merged with another large organized criminal group, geographically and ideologically close - with the Solntsevo. The alliance allowed the bandits to stand stronger against their competitors. Sylvester, who headed the association, controlled all aspects of the life of the OPS, right down to the image of its members. If at first the Orekhovskys wore sweatpants and leather jackets, then later, when their area of ​​interest turned to big business, Timofeev called on his comrades to put on suits, remove tattoos and get away from gold teeth. Appearance Orekhovsky had to be as intelligent as possible. They were gaining strength, which did not suit everyone in the criminal circles of the capital, where spheres of influence were always clearly divided.

First blood

One of the first major figures to stand in Sylvester’s path was thief in law Valery Dlugach, known in criminal circles as Globus. He, a Ukrainian, was actively supported by representatives of the Caucasian criminal elite, whose positions at that time were very strong in economic indicators: It was in the southern regions of the USSR that there were the most “guild workers”, who, after the adoption of the law “On Cooperation”, were legalized and began to bring great profits to their patrons. Dlugach fully complied with the formal requirements for a “thief in law” - he did not get dirty in his connections with “Sofia Vlasyevna” (Soviet power), did not work, did not serve, had several convictions on serious charges respected in the world of thieves, including robbery, honestly shared the spoils in the common fund. But at the same time, to the displeasure of many, he was drawn specifically to Caucasian (Georgian and Chechen) crime. And he, in turn, with the help of Dlugach, wanted to strengthen his position in the capital region. Globus was friendly with such figures of the thieves’ world as Rafael Baghdasaryan (Svo Raf), (Shakro Molodoy) and Dzhemal Mikeladze (Arsen). Gradually, Dlugach assembled his own team in the capital from representatives of Transcaucasia and residents of the Bauman region - that’s why the Globus team was called the Bauman team. They controlled Arbat with its rich firms and casinos.

The bone of contention for Globus and Sylvester became famous at that time night club"Harlekino" on Krasnaya Presnya. He was protected by the Baumanskys, which did not suit the leaders of the Slavic organized crime groups. Globus constantly demanded to increase its already considerable share of the club’s profits, and this would inevitably hit the income of other groups. Sylvester managed to invest a lot of money in Harlequin...

On April 10, 1993, Dlugach left the disco “At LIS"Sa” in the Olimpiysky sports complex and headed towards the parking lot. A shot rang out. A single bullet from a distance of 40 meters from a 7.62-mm Simonov self-loading carbine was fired by killer Alexander Solonik (Valeryanych, or ) The bullet pierced the right side of Globus’s chest, he died on the spot. Solonik managed to escape from the scene of the crime. This was the first shooting of a thief in law in the history of the “dashing 90s”: at Dlugach’s funeral in Aprelevka near Moscow, where he lived, Many crime bosses gathered, shocked by what had happened.

Three days later, on April 13, 1993, another thief in law, Viktor Kogan (Monya), was killed in Moscow. It was considered the roof of the hall slot machines on Yeletskaya Street (Southern District of the capital) - and tried to explain to the Orekhovskys that they were not acting according to concepts. Sylvester’s people did not stand on ceremony with the crime boss.

Timofeev gradually turned into a real general director of the capital's underworld. During the period of his greatest power, he controlled 30 banks, 20 large trading firms, hundreds of shops, restaurants and car dealerships, a dozen casinos and all the major markets of the city. The bill ran into billions of dollars. Sylvester sought to unite the capital's crime, making it a single force. One day he gathered the “lads” - about four thousand people - at the stadium in Medvedkovo and addressed them with a speech. We must stop civil strife, said Sylvester. Get into business - that's where the real money is.

In this regard, Sylvester had a serious assistant: the chief accountant of the Orekhovskaya OPS Grigory Lerner. They met in 1990, and Lerner, an international swindler who served time for fraud, was very useful to Timofeev in his dark affairs.

Battle for the Throne

In the 90s, banks in Russia opened and closed easily and quickly, and the number of victims was constantly growing. This environment was ideal for a man like Grigory Lerner, and he fully revealed his criminal talent.

Lerner promised Sylvester that he would triple his fortune, and soon the leader of the Orekhovskys was convinced that his new companion was keeping his word. Moreover, Lerner not only increased Timofeev’s fortune, he literally gave him his common-law wife Olga Zhlobinskaya. The chief accountant of the Orekhovskys met her in the early 80s, and they for a long time lived together. Having started working with Sylvester, Lerner noticed that he liked Zhlobinskaya and convinced his wife to go to Timofeev. Olga seduced Sylvester not with her appearance - he saw in her a reliable companion. In 1992 they got married.

Later, Timofeev’s wife headed the Moscow Trade Bank, where in 1994 the oligarch’s organization, the Russian Automobile Alliance, placed huge amounts of money. The bank was in no hurry to part with them, and Zhlobinskaya and Berezovsky had a conflict. On June 7, 1994, an explosion occurred near house No. 40 on Novokuznetskaya Street in the center of Moscow, where the Logovaz reception house was located. The bomb was detonated at the moment when Berezovsky's Mercedes was leaving the gates of the reception house. The driver was killed, a security guard and eight bystanders were injured, but the oligarch himself survived. Few of those familiar with the situation around the Moscow Trade Bank doubted who could benefit from Berezovsky's death.

Sylvester’s enemies in Moscow became more and more numerous, and his tentacles penetrated literally into all spheres of life in the capital. His people “shook” even the most popular stars Russian stage. But he was not the only one who laid claim to the laurels of the shadow king of Moscow: there was a serious competitor -. Only one could occupy the Moscow throne - and Sylvester understood this very well.

Kvantrishvili was a unique figure for Moscow in the 90s: he could not be called a bandit, but the word “Otari” was of decisive importance in criminal circles. He was not a thief in law - and for good reason: such a status would have forever denied Kvantrishvili access to bureaucratic and police offices. And his strength lay precisely in the fact that he belonged everywhere. A major philanthropist, chairman of the Lev Yashin Foundation, Kvantrishvili successfully communicated with both criminals and government officials. His friends included police generals, government members, deputies, famous artists and athletes. It is not surprising that Kvantrishvili was eager to get into politics and appeared on Moscow TV almost every day.

The patron was increasingly called the godfather of the capital, which Sylvester did not like: he himself claimed this title. In addition, Timofeev was interested in the oil business, and he and Kvantrishvili had a stumbling block in this area - the oil refinery in Tuapse. The ending is predictable: on April 5, 1994, at the exit from the Krasnopresnensky baths, Kvantrishvili was killed with three shots from a sniper rifle. This crime was solved only 12 years later. The order was executed by the famous killer Alexey Sherstobitov (Lesha the Soldier). IN criminal world There was no particular disagreement in the versions of Kvantrishvili’s murder: everyone understood who the orderer was. After this crime, the criminal capital went into hiding.

Final chord

And Sergei Timofeev went overseas - to New York. In Brooklyn, he met with what was called the godfather of the Russian underworld: a crime lord and thief in law known as Yaponchik. No one knows what the “outlaw” leaders were talking about. There was a version that Ivankov gave Timofeev the go-ahead to manage all of Moscow.

Soon after returning to the capital, on September 13, 1994, Sylvester met with representatives of the influential Kurgan organized crime group: the reason for the meeting, as in the story with the Globe, was again the Harlekino nightclub on Krasnaya Presnya. Kurgan residents wanted to know from the criminal king of the capital whether this would be hot spot belong to them. But Timofeev did not give a definite answer, taking time to think.

...After 20 minutes, the Mercedes-Benz 600SEC in which Sylvester was in took off near house No. 46 on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. According to operational data, the mass of the TNT charge attached with a magnet to the bottom of the car (presumably at a car wash) was 400 grams. The explosive device went off as soon as Sylvester got into the car and began talking on cell phone; The body of the device was thrown 11 meters by the blast wave. It is curious that Sylvester was guarded by 19 people, but for some reason he was alone in the car that day.

There is still no answer to the question of who exactly is behind Sylvester’s death. He had enough enemies: the murder could be retribution for the death of Globus or Kvantrishvili or Berezovsky’s revenge. Or even Yaponchik: he and Sylvester were close, both opposed the dominance of authorities from the Caucasus in Moscow, but many close friends of Ivankov died at the hands of the Orekhovskys.

The criminal king of Moscow was buried in closed coffin at the Khovanskoe cemetery. The inscription on Sylvester's tombstone reads: "Hurry to admire a man, for you will miss the joy." Thus ended the life of a man whose name was associated with one of the bloodiest periods in the criminal life of the capital. After the death of her husband, Sylvester’s wife Olga Zhlobinskaya fled to Israel with Grigory Lerner. Soon the former chief accountant of the Orekhovskys went bankrupt and ended up in an Israeli prison. As for the Orekhovskaya gang itself, Timofeev’s associates took its helm, and the history of one of the most formidable gangs in Moscow continued.

***

The figure of Sylvester was so large-scale that there are still rumors: another person was blown up in the car, and Timofeev successfully moved to the West and is still happily living either in Spain or somewhere else, calmly wasting his criminally acquired capital. In any case, every single person involved in his identification suddenly became rich. And if we assume that this is true, it turns out that Sylvester was able to masterfully bring to life cherished dream any bandit: accumulate a fortune and, having disappeared without a trace for everyone, retire.

Last September, a Mercedes-600 was blown up in the center of Moscow. A mutilated corpse was found inside the car that burned after the explosion. A few days later, detectives from the Moscow criminal investigation department announced that the famous leader of the Orekhov group Sylvester (in the world Sergei Timofeev) had been killed.

The body was solemnly buried at the Khovanskoye cemetery. IN last way Sylvester was escorted by over 300 thieves in law and authorities. And recently rumors spread throughout Moscow that Sergei Timofeev was alive. Sylvester was allegedly seen in Odessa, in the company of another authority nicknamed Painting (by the way, they also tried to blow him up), and then met in Moscow and Vienna. Even MUR employees say that Criminal authority more alive than dead. Now they remember that in the crowd surrounding the blown-up Mercedes, they saw a man similar to Sylvester. He allegedly looked at the policemen and smiled. The case of the murder of Sergei Timofeev is still being investigated by the Tver Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office.

The tractor driver was fed by Arbat prostitutes

Sergei Timofeev was born on July 18, 1955 in the remote village of Klin, Novgorod region. After school, he worked on a collective farm as a tractor driver. People who knew Timofeev claim that he drove a car well and loved to do it. In the army, Timofeev served in a sports company. The future authority moved to Moscow according to the limit in 1975.

He registered in one of the Orekhovo-Borisov hostels and worked as a sports instructor in the housing and communal services department of Glavmosstroy. At that time, Timofeev could often be found near the Arbat restaurant. He was still a harmless loser, but he met Arbat prostitutes, and later they already paid him tribute. Among the local punks he was nicknamed Seryozha of Novgorod.

In the early 80s, Serezha became friends with punks from Orekhovo-Borisovo and joined the gang of the now unknown recidivist Ionitsa. Timofeev got the gang drunk (Ionitsa later became an alcoholic and retired). But Seryozha himself, on principle, did not drink and worked hard in the “rocking chair”. Initially, like many metropolitan teams, it existed at the expense of thimblemakers and gamblers. Timofeev was also taken on the case. Soon Seryozha Novgorodsky succeeded, picked up the Orekhovskys and turned into the authoritative Sylvester (he received this nickname because he looked like Sylvester Stalone).

His personal life also changed. Timofeev divorced his wife Lyubov (he lived with her for 7 years and had two children from her). And he married a certain Olga Zhlobinskaya. A few years later, Timofeev took her last name, and the couple submitted documents to leave for Israel. But later she stated that the marriage was fictitious.

The criminal business flourished. Having subdued the cheaters in the South and South-West of Moscow, the Orekhovskys took control of several cooperatives for car repair and sale of spare parts. Soon the Orekhovo, Kerch and Zagorye restaurants came under their control. In 1989, when the “Slavic” teams began to have conflicts with the Chechen ones, the Orekhov group found allies in the Solntsevo and “Leninist” bandits.

Leninsky was commanded by a native of the Solntsevo brigade, former firefighter Boris Antonov (nickname Borya-Anton). In one of the showdowns with the Chechens that took place in the Havana restaurant, Borya lost an eye. After this, Antonov got a new nickname - Cyclops.

Soon Sylvester and Cyclops became friends. They were united by hatred of Caucasians and sports. Cyclops and Sylvester were actively involved in martial arts. It is interesting that even when Antonov was a firefighter, one of the future police generals (last name has not yet been disclosed) visited the gym with him. When he took up a high post, the son of this policeman ended up in the Cyclops brigade. By the way, this son was once under investigation for robbery and inflicting grievous bodily harm on an internal affairs officer.

By mid-1989, Sylvester, in addition to Orekhov, held the odd side of Leninsky Prospekt. The even one belonged to Bor-Anton-Cyclops. In the fall of that year, employees of the Russian Ministry of Security and the MUR arrested Sylvester and Avera (one of the leaders of the Solntsevo group) for racketeering. Sylvester spent two years under investigation and was released in 1991, since, according to a court verdict, he served his time in a pre-trial detention center.

By that time, significant changes had occurred in Sylvester's brigade. Left without a leader, some of Timofeev’s people temporarily joined the Solntsevo team. When Sylvester came out, his brigade gathered again. In addition, his people brought with them part of Solntsevo.

Sylvester's relations with Solntsevo became cooler: Timofeev was not happy with the fact that his former allies had made peace with Chechen groups. Even without powerful Solntsevo support, Sylvester successfully carries out several showdowns with the Chechens in the Tsaritsinsky Ponds area and gains control of Sevastopol Avenue.

After this, Sylvester began to actively engage in legal business, for which he registered a network of offshore companies in Cyprus. According to some reports, he invested his group’s money in Russian oil-producing enterprises. Timofeev carried out several commercial projects with the reputable athlete Otari Kvantrishvili. In addition, Sylvester gets along with such thieves and authorities as Painting, Petrik, Zakhar, Tsirul and Yaponchik. All of them were again united by their rejection of the “wild Caucasus” that had invaded Moscow.

Timofeev’s Orekhovskaya brigade actively collaborates with the Galyanovsky, “Leninsky” and Tagansky bandits, and Sylvester enjoys undeniable authority in these groups. According to some reports, at that time several “Slavic” thieves offered Sylvester to become a thief in law, but for an unknown reason he refused. By the way, Sylvester’s friend Bore-Anton was denied coronation because he had previously worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Nevertheless, Timofeev was listened to at all thieves’ gatherings.

In April 1993, near the Olimpiysky sports complex, Valery Dlukach was shot dead. According to some reports, Sylvester was directly involved in his murder. The murder of Globus was allegedly the result of a showdown related to the oil business. It is interesting that soon after this murder, a gathering of thieves in Podolsk recognized the liquidation of the Globus as correct. However, the friends of the deceased decided to take revenge on the killers.

Sylvester's brigade suffers significant losses. Lenya Kleshch, who started with Timofeev in the Orekhov team, was killed. Some time later, a corpse is found in the Moscow River, which is identified as the leader of the Galyanovsk group, Sergei Boroda (relatives identified him by his shoes).

Sylvester's group also strikes back. In January 1994, on the Volokolamsk highway, the car of the authority Bobon (Vladislav Vanner), an associate of Globus, was shot up. Bobon and his driver were killed, but Vanner's young son, who was with them, was not injured. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Bobon's people vowed to destroy Sylvester.

It is interesting that the police consider the murders of Globus and Bobon solved. In October last year, during a police operation at the Petrovsko-Razumovsky market, the perpetrator of the murders, a 34-year-old resident of Kurgan, was detained. His detention cost the lives of four policemen. Three more were wounded. According to the detainee, he himself carried out the liquidation of Globus and Bobon on the orders of criminal structures. However, it is possible that the police could simply pin the liquidation of authorities on this person (to increase the detection rate), since the detainee has nothing to lose anyway - he will be shot.

According to the police, at the end of 1993, Timofeev’s brigade took control of the Moscow Trade Bank. The group introduced its own people into the management of the bank, and Sylvester’s wife, Olga Zhlobinskaya, became the chairman of the bank’s board.

Then Sylvester's people began to receive loans from various branches of Sberbank of Russia and Moscow Sberbank, as well as from a number of commercial banks. In total, 20 banks provided loans to Sylvester’s people. Received cash However, they did not go to the official account of Mostorgbank, but to various accounts opened by Sylvester’s accomplices in a number of other banks. After this, the money was transferred to the accounts of private companies “International financial group‘Justinlev Inc’, ‘Concord’, ‘Arealinstrakh’, the leaders of which, according to operational data, were also members of Sylvester’s brigade or were under its roof.

Then the amounts were converted and transferred under fictitious contracts to Israel and Switzerland to the accounts of Seven starts Ltd. and "Sit AG". It is noteworthy that the head of “Seven starts Ltd.” is Grigory Lerner, who in the fall of 1993 was put on the federal wanted list for theft and fraud. By the way, in 1990, the former general director of the LOMOS Consortium association, Grigory Lerner, was suspected of embezzling 40 million rubles, but hid from the police in Switzerland. However, in the same year, at the request of law enforcement agencies, he was extradited to Russia.

In 1992, he was released from prison on bail and the charges against him were dropped. Since April 1994, Sit AG chief Sergei Smolyanitsky has also been on the federal wanted list. In 1993, while heading the Mass Information Communications LLP, he stole more than 6.5 billion rubles. According to the police, in total more than 18 billion rubles were stolen by the fraudster in this way.

And on March 16, 1994, Mostorgbank sold two of its bills of 500 million rubles each to the All-Russian Automobile Alliance with a maturity date of April 6 of the same year. However, the bills were not repaid, and the people who entered into an agreement with AVVA on behalf of Mostorgbank disappeared.

A billion rubles were converted by scammers in one of the banks and also sent under a fictitious contract to Israel. According to the police, AVVA's security service attempted to recover the stolen money. They managed to find one of the organizers of the fraud, a recent employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Defense Ministry. He promised to return the money, but only if AVVA management did not contact law enforcement agencies.

Boris Berezovsky

However, according to some reports, Boris Berezovsky nevertheless decided to report to the police. Employees of the Moscow regional department for organized crime reported that the meeting with general director AVVA was appointed at the RUOP office on Shabolovka on June 6. However, due to the businessman’s busy schedule, it was postponed to the next day. And on June 7, an attempt was made on Berezovsky.

It is interesting that RUOP employees received information about the terrorist attack at the moment when they were expecting the arrival of the entrepreneur. Three days after the failed assassination attempt, the money with interest (a total of 1.2 billion rubles) was transferred to the bank account of the All-Russian Automobile Alliance.

On June 14, several participants in the theft of loans, including Zhlobinskaya, were detained by employees of the Moscow RUOP, but three days later the investigators for some reason released them on their own recognizance. Their further fate is unknown. According to some reports, they left for Israel. In any case, as the police established, all the detainees had foreign passports with open visas to this country.

Employees of the Moscow city prosecutor's office, investigating the assassination attempt on Boris Berezovsky, reported that many thieves in law and authorities, including Sylvester, were on the list of suspects in organizing the terrorist act. However, his involvement in the assassination attempt could not be proven.

According to financial director AVVA Mikhail Antonov, indeed, in the spring of last year the alliance acquired two promissory notes from Mostorgbank. When their maturity date approached, the persons who sold the bills asked to defer payments, citing financial difficulties. As a result, the money was returned after lengthy negotiations. Berezovsky himself did not directly participate in the negotiations, but followed their progress. As Mr. Antonov noted, the head of the alliance had no reason to contact law enforcement agencies, especially the RUOP.

Mostorgbank, according to the Main Directorate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the Moscow Region, was deprived of its license to conduct banking activities in September 1994. The Mostorgbank case is now being investigated investigative department Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate.

On September 13 at 19.05 in the center of Moscow near house 46 on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya street powerful bomb. An explosion occurred in a brand new Mercedes-600. After the explosion, the car caught fire. Firefighters and police officers recovered a charred corpse from the wreckage. The documents in the pockets of his clothes were burned, and several business cards and customs declarations were found in a bag found in the cabin. Among them are a business card and a declaration addressed to manager Sergei Zhlobinsky (Sylvester’s new surname). According to employees of the Tverskaya Interdistrict Prosecutor's Office, investigating the explosion on Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street, the identity of the deceased was established by business card, declarations and jaws. Investigators contacted Sylvester's US-based dentist. The deceased's fillings and teeth were described to him, and the doctor acknowledged his work.

Subsequently, Sylvester’s corpse was identified by his older brother Vladimir, a village tractor driver. During the identification, he burst into tears and said, “What are you doing, Seryoga, I told you: give up this business and we’ll collect saffron milk caps in the village.” The authority figure was buried, and his killers have not yet been detained.