The tragic end caught Sergei Timofeev in a dark gray Mercedes 600 parked at 46 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya in Moscow. Local residents can hardly remember that autumn day when a terrible roar was heard from the car and the right side of the street was 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 bottom of the body.

Sergey's life was cut short at 19.05

Following their leader, young guys left who had not seen life, but managed to sip the rampant 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 criminal group purchased land in the cemetery in advance.

In the workbook of employees of the organized crime department in the city of Moscow, who worked on the Orekhov group, there is a black list of the lads - the living and the dead.

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

... good or not

For many years, for many dashing guys, Sergei Timofeev, nicknamed Sylvester, remains a legend in the criminal world.

As they say: either good or nothing, - says the Novgorod authority Kirill (author's note - the name has been changed). - Those who collaborated with Sylvester about 20 years ago treated and treat him ambiguously.

According to Cyril, 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. Someone respects him for the fact that he was able to unite the warring factions, but it was mostly Orekhov youth or gangster clowns. Respond with a kind word to those who were spinning with him in the same area. In criminal circles, many did not approve of his act when he ordered the murder of thief in law Otari Kvantrishvili. The order to kill Kvantrishvili was carried out by Aleksey Sherstobitov. By the way, there is still a legend about Sylvester that he allegedly staged his own 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 for a while, tried to contain the collapse of the gang. After the death of Sylvester, the Orekhov group fell apart into 15 small scattered groups.

Guy from the outback

Sergei 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. He carried out military service in a sports company. At the age of 20, the young boy was beckoned by the lights of the big city and he moved to Moscow. There he got a job as a sports instructor in a construction trust. Then he got a wife and children.

Who knows, perhaps the fate of this man turned out quite differently if it were not for the government turmoil 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 of interest.

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

"Swing chairs", which grew like mushrooms after rain in the basement in the 80s, invited the children of the proletariat to come to them. The first youth brigades were formed from the “jocks” who took the wing, which protected the cooperatives and commercial tents.

Interest in such brigades appeared among underground entrepreneurs who needed protection from stray bandits.

No rules

The slogan "No rules" has become a hallmark. Concepts were denied in them, and prison merits were not recognized.

Strength came first. Who is stronger is right. The first blood began to be shed in the 80s, when youth gangs converged not for life, but for death.

But the gangster gatherings turned into a real war in 1992, when the Orekhovskaya, Nagatinskaya and Podolskaya brigades fought for spheres of influence in the south of Moscow.

Pacification of the "frostbitten"

The murders of the "muscles" from the brigades went one after the other, the Vvedenskoye cemetery was overgrown with fresh graves. At that moment, the authorities of the older generation decided to intervene in the conflict and reconcile the parties. However, the young bandits, as the old people called them "frostbitten", 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, then six members of the Orekhovskaya 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 the young "pitchers". Monya's controlled enterprises were divided among themselves by Orekhov's thugs.

In six months, several more murders occur, in which the Orekhov authority Leonid Kleschenko (Uzbek) dies. He was shot dead in October on Yeletsskaya Street.

At this time, in the fall of 1989, Sylvester failed. Together with Mikhas and Avira, the leaders of the Solntsevo brigade, he was detained by the MBR and MUR for racketeering. Under investigation, he had to spend 2 years. He was able to go free only in 1991, since, according to a court verdict, he served his term 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, Sergei Timofeev was nominated, and not by chance.

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

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

The choice was a success. Ivanych put things in order and united disparate groups in a matter of days. The nestlings of the sylvestrov's nest began gang activity together, dividing the spheres of influence.

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

Seryozha Novgorodsky united Solntsevo, Medvedkovo and Kurgan youths. A bad peace for good purposes bore its first fruits.

To legal business

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

Criminal gangs of Yekaterinburg begin to cooperate with the Orekhovskys. There is a mutually beneficial exchange of spheres of influence. True, these opportunities appeared only after the assassination of the Globe kingpin in April 1993.

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

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

Police officers compared the south of Moscow with Novgorod, which was also controlled by Sylvester. According to one former officer of the KGB of the USSR, in Novgorod he removed the "frostbitten" and prostitutes from the city streets in just a couple of days.

With the advent of Serezha Novgorodsky, the growth of crime in the south of Moscow decreased markedly, and the work of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern District in 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 Jap, who, according to some reports, gave him the right to rule all of Moscow.

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

The ashes of Sylvester rest at the Khovansky cemetery along with his fighters in Moscow.

SYLVESTRE - BANDIT

In his youth, Sylvester (Timofeev Sergey Ivanovich) was a good guy,
a member of the Komsomol, a leader, even went to combatants, was a good athlete.
In Moscow and the region, his gang was the most cruel. Zhiglov and MUR opera
often met with his gang. When captured, they were often armed. We called them Orekhovskys.
Sylvester was at enmity with Atarik, a thief in law, with businessman Berezovsky
and with the Chechens, Basayev's militants. In MUR, they are inclined to the version that he ordered it
Berezovsky himself. Sometimes you think that Sylvester was, like all of us, a schoolboy, a pioneer, a karateka. He was nicknamed Sylvester Stallone because of the similarity of his hairstyle. But Stallone
according to the films, he fought for justice, and our authority Sylvester was the cruel leader of the gang. But it all ends sooner or later. Dashing 90s
in the past, in the past and gang leaders, watchers and thieves in law.

REFERENCE INFORMATION
Sergey Ivanovich Timofeev was born on July 18, 1955 in the village of Klin Moshensky
district of the Novgorod region. Russian by nationality. Studied in high school
in the village, where, while still a schoolboy, he worked as a tractor driver on a collective farm. was fond of
sports: swinging with dumbbells, kettlebells and exercising on the horizontal bar. In 1973 he was drafted into the army. He served in Moscow, in the Kremlin regiment. In 1975, Timofeev, together with his classmate, finally moved to Moscow, where he lived in a hostel in the Orekhovo-Borisovo area and worked in the mechanization department. In the hostel, Timofeev became interested in hand-to-hand combat. Later, Timofeev worked as a sports instructor in the housing and communal services department of Glavmosstroy. Soon Timofeev got married and began to live on Shipilovskaya Street. After leaving the sport, Timofeev continued to swing and at the same time was engaged in a private cab, but this did not bring Timofeev the desired income. In the mid-1980s, Timofeev contacted
with punks from Orekhovo and began to engage in confiding. Later Timofeev
subjugated all private cab drivers, thimble drivers, car thieves in the southern
outskirts of Moscow. Gradually, Timofeev gained more and more influence among the punks. Active assistance in this was provided to him by his younger brother Ivanych, Jr., who later took over part of the group. After the release of Gorbachev's law "On Cooperation", Timofeev created his own group, the backbone of which was the former
young athletes, and racketeering became their main occupation. Already at that time the brigade
Sylvestra began to clash with the Chechens because of the market in the South Port, but there were no particularly serious clashes between them. To fight the Caucasian groups, Sylvester met the leader of the Solntsevo organized criminal group, Sergei Mikhailov
(Mikhas), and for some time Timofeev and Mikhailov worked together. In 1989
Sergei Timofeev, Sergei Mikhailov, Viktor Averin (Avera Sr.) and Evgeny Lyustarnov (Lyustrik) were arrested on charges of extortion from the Fond cooperative. But the accusation fell apart and only Timofeev went to jail, who was sentenced to three years in prison in a high-security colony.
Sylvester served his term in Butyrka prison and was released in 1991.
Sylvester was released in 1991 and managed to unite small
gangs operating in the metropolitan area of ​​Orekhovo-Borisovo into a single structure.
In a short period, Timofeev subjugated all large organizations and enterprises in the south of Moscow, as well as many cafes, restaurants, nightclubs, and individual entrepreneurs. Orekhovskaya organized criminal group constantly conquered territories
from other gangs, which led to protracted criminal wars.
According to some reports, at that time several Slavic thieves offered
Sylvester to become a thief in law, but for some unknown reason he refused.
A little later, Sylvester acquired influential acquaintances that helped
him to quickly rise to the top of the criminal hierarchy. He was friends with influential
thieves in law and authorities: Painted, Yaponchik, Petrik, Jamal, Tsirul, Otari Kvantrishvili, Mikhas. At one time, the Orekhovskaya group even
teamed up with Solntsevskaya in order to more effectively confront the blacks in Moscow.
In addition, in resolving conflicts, Timofeev sometimes resorted to the help of the Izmailovites, Golyanovites, Tagans, and Perovites. Timofeev also had connections with the Yekaterinburg gangs, who, in exchange for a share in the income from the Domodedovo airport, ceded to him part of the Ural business, including the shares of some
the largest privatized metallurgical enterprises.
In 1992 he married Olga Zhlobinskaya and received Israeli citizenship. Later, Olga Zhlobinskaya headed the "Moscow Trade Bank", where in 1994 the commercial structure of Boris Berezovsky "Automobile All-Russian Alliance"
deposited funds. The bank delayed the payment of money to Berezovsky.
By 1994, Sylvester came into conflict with a significant part of other groups in Moscow, including ethnic ones. He took control of the banks one by one, eliminating anyone who stood in his way. Timofeev was also interested in the oil business. As a result, he had a conflict with the authoritative head of the Party of Athletes of Russia, Otari Kvantrishvili. They did not share the Tuapse refinery, and on April 5, 1994, Kvantrishvili was shot dead by a sniper. Now the investigators know that this high-profile murder was organized on the orders of Sylvester by the leader of the Medvedkovskaya organized criminal group, Grigory Gusyatinsky (Grinya) and Sergey Butorin (Osya), and Aleksey Sherstobitov (Lyosha-Soldat) carried out.
In early 1993, Timofeev had disagreements with the well-known henchman of the Caucasian crime, thief in law Globus, for the right to control the club
"Arlekino". However, perhaps this club is only a formal reason for which
another round of confrontation between the Caucasian and Slavic groups was hiding.
Sylvester decided to eliminate Globus, which in itself is a dangerous and daring step. For
To do this, he attracted the Kurgan organized criminal group, unnoticed in the Moscow showdowns, in particular, their professional killer Alexander Solonik. On the night of April 9-10, 1993, on Olimpiyskiy Prospekt, when leaving the LIS'S disco, he shot Globus. On the evening of January 17, 1994, not far from the shooting club
on the Volokolamsk highway, the famous Orekhov militant Sergey Ananyevsky (Kultik), who was covered by Solonik, fired at the Ford car, in which he died
the authority of the underworld Vladislav Vanner, nicknamed "Bobon", right hand
Globe.
In the summer of 1993 (according to another version, in the summer of 1994), Sylvester flew to the USA, where
met with the most authoritative thief in law Yaponchik. He allegedly gave the go-ahead to Timofeev to manage all of Moscow. However, this information is denied by many.
The magazine "Spark" No. 18 of 05.05.1997 published an article by a well-known journalist
and the author of "Gangster Petersburg" Andrei Konstantinov, who wrote the following: "In July 1994, Ivankov had disagreements with Sergei Ivanovich
Timofeev (Sylvester), who headed the Orekhovskaya group and controlled a significant part of the drug trade in Moscow. The conflict arose after a failed deal, when Timofeev accused Ivankov's son Edik of embezzling three hundred thousand dollars. The Kommersant newspaper of 02/01/1997 provides the same information: “About July 1994, Ivankov’s interests clashed with the interests of Sergei Timofeev (Sylvester), who led the Orekhov group and controlled the drug trade in most of Moscow. Timofeev accused Ivankov's son Edik of not giving him $300,000. Although, however, further events occurred in September 1994.
On June 7, 1994, a car bomb was blown up on Novokuznetskaya Street near the LogoVaz building, at the moment when Berezovsky was passing by. As a result of the explosion, his driver died, Berezovsky himself was injured. The attempt on Berezovsky caused a resonance in the media, President Yeltsin announced "criminal lawlessness in Russia", and soon the Moscow Trade Bank returned the funds to Berezovsky.
On June 14, Olga Zhlobinskaya and several people from Timofeev's criminal gang were detained by the Moscow RUBOP. On June 17, a bomb exploded in the office
"United Bank", the main shareholder of which was "LogoVaz".
September 13, 1994 at 19:00 Timofeev died on the spot in a Mercedes-Benz 600SEC,
which was blown up by means of a radio-controlled device near the Chara-Bank building on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street near house No. 46 in Moscow. According to the memoirs of one of Sylvester's closest associates, the bomb could have been planted
into the car while it was being washed. According to FSB experts, the mass of a TNT charge attached by a magnet to the bottom of the car was 400 grams.
The explosion occurred as soon as Sylvester got into the car and started talking on the phone. The body of the cell phone was thrown back by the blast wave by 11 meters.
The murder of Sylvester dealt a colossal blow to the entire Orekhovskaya organized crime group. Nobody
then he didn’t know exactly who could commit such a daring murder: Sylvester had too many enemies. Perhaps it was the Kurgans who did not want to
stay on the sidelines; perhaps Sylvester was avenged by the people of Globus for the murder of their leader, perhaps by the people of Kvantrishvili, perhaps by Berezovsky, who did not want to return the money to Timofeev. Some sources claim
that Sylvester was ordered by Yaponchik himself, and possibly his own. most likely
Sergei Butorin was the customer of the murder.
Information about Timofeev's younger brother is cut off at the end of 2008, according to the protocols, Sylvester's younger brother died as a result of a fire in an apartment on Leninsky Prospekt in Moscow.
The grave of Sergei Timofeev is located in Moscow at the Khovansky cemetery
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timofeev,_Sergey_Ivanovich

A photo
Sylvester's car after the explosion

IF IN THE FIGHT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT LIFE,
THEN THINK ABOUT DEATH
Combat axiom 3 RDR 781 ORB. Igor Chernykh

***
I dedicate to the veteran of combat operations in the DRA Shitov N.,
veterans of the special forces "Rus", "Vityaz", "Peresvet",
veterans of the National Guard
and my son Svyatoslav Chernykh

impoverished Russia,
impoverished
And again, like an anaconda,
Enemies are flying.
Now you, "Rus" and "Vityaz",
Protect mothers and children.
Now all hope is on you.
Brother, hold on to the end!
I know,
My son is torn too
into your ranks.
Take care of him!
Glory to the intelligence of the explosives, special forces, the Ministry of Internal Affairs !!!

Igor Chernykh

WHEN YOU WIN THE BATTLE, THE WARRIOR DOES NOT WORRY
AND DOES NOT GO CRAZY, HE IS HAPPY AND PROUD
Combat axiom of control "Alpha"

To be continued...

The dashing 90s are a terrible and amazing time. In the ruins of the USSR, in a matter of years, organized criminal communities (OPS) have become one of the most influential forces. Ruthless and merciless, they penetrated into all spheres of life, cruelly removing any obstacles in their path. Today, all this is in the past, but the echoes of the "golden age of the OPS" still get into criminal reports. opens a cycle of publications dedicated to the most odious figures of the underworld of the 90s. And the first "hero" - a simple Novgorod tractor driver who turned into a formidable Sylvester and won the criminal throne of Moscow.

On the way to success"

... On July 18, 1955, a boy was born in the village of Klin, Novgorod Region, who was named Serezha. From childhood, he was distinguished by responsibility: he studied well, then he honestly worked on a collective farm as a tractor driver. When the time came to serve in the army, Timofeev ended up in an elite Kremlin regiment - and they were taken there only with an absolutely 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. Registered in a hostel in Orekhovo-Borisov. And this is where the bright pages of his biography end ...

By the 1980s, the Komsomol was completely bureaucratized. This loss of reputation led to the fact that informal youth partnerships arose in the sleeping areas, which, according to a long Moscow tradition, were named after their places of residence: Solntsevo, Orekhovskaya, Izmaylovsky, Lyubertsy ... They were united by a love of sports, especially - "for iron" ( pulling the bar) and confidence in the shoulder of a friend. In Orekhovo-Borisovo, Timofeev, being a sports training instructor, headed one of these groups: strong local guys (not only children of limiters, but also indigenous people) unconditionally recognized the authority of the coach. His brilliant organizational skills, outstanding mind and aura of "a soldier of the Kremlin regiment" commanded well-deserved respect.

Gradually, the Orekhovskys gained weight in the informal metropolitan (and Moscow region) world. They already had few wall-to-wall clashes, from which they invariably came out 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 could - strength and brotherhood. Moreover, it was in the working-class quarters of Moscow that the contrast between real life and the stories told by the party and Komsomol press was especially striking. And here, and not in the elite districts of Dorogomilovo and Peredelkino, generations grew up who joyfully welcomed perestroika, which was also announced personally by General Secretary Gorbachev.

Orekhovskaya, like many other sports associations, following the example of revolutionary soldiers and sailors, gradually took power "from 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 threw a real gold mine to these "gentlemen of fortune": on May 26, 1988, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted the legendary law "On Cooperation". Private industries were opened (or legalized) everywhere, and the markets turned into centers of attraction: along with the collective farmers, the first Soviet entrepreneurs rushed there. And 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 the OPS is connected. The rules of the game are simple: three thimbles, one of them contains a ball. You have to guess which one. This is an example of a classic money scam: at first, the player bets a little - and wins, bets more - and again in the black. Excited by success, he decides to make a big bet - and loses. But not because he did not guess under which thimble the ball was, 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.

Once, Azerbaijanis from a large market joined the thimble game organized by the Orekhovskys - and lost. But the merchants guessed 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 the confrontation with representatives of the diaspora, influential in all the major 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 shadow economy of the country.

Bandit Eldorado

The law on cooperation gave the citizens of the country of the Soviets the right to unite and create cooperatives using hired labor. The result was not long in coming: trade flourished, private ateliers, cafes and restaurants opened. The surge of entrepreneurial initiative had a downside: in 1988 alone, in Moscow alone, 600 extortion applications were filed with the police. Very quickly, the American word "racket" entered the public lexicon.

Over time, the Orekhovskaya, like other groups, switched from small entrepreneurs to large cooperatives with a serious turnover, trading in computers, household appliances, and developing large-scale production. The bandits did not know pity: a red-hot iron on the stomach, a soldering iron in physiological holes, beating a child in front of his parents was a common thing. Inside the gang, even for petty offenses, a death sentence was passed, and it was necessarily announced in public.

Frame: "Russia 1"

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

For several episodes of extortion, Sylvester landed 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 time 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. At the same time, they started talking about influential patrons from the KGB - brother-soldiers of Serezha Timofeev. And about a modest three-story house in the Crimea, where the judge moved in his case.

Sylvester's influence in the capital grew rapidly. And at the beginning of 1993, the Orekhovskaya merged with another large organized criminal group, geographically and ideologically close - with Solntsevo. The alliance allowed the bandits to stand stronger against competitors. Sylvester, who headed the association, controlled all aspects of the life of the OPS, up to the image of its members. If at first the Orekhovskys wore sweatpants and leather jackets, then later, when big business turned out to be in their sphere of interest, Timofeev urged his associates to put on suits, remove tattoos and get away from gold teeth. The appearance of the Orekhovskys was supposed 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 have always been clearly divided.

First blood

One of the first major figures to stand in the way of Sylvester 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 terms of economic indicators: it was in the southern regions of the USSR that there were the most "guild members" who, after the adoption of the law "On Cooperation", 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 ties with Sofya Vlasyevna (Soviet power), did not work, did not serve, had several convictions for serious articles respected in the thieves' world, including robbery, honestly shared the booty in a common fund. But at the same time, to the displeasure of many, he was drawn precisely to the 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 gathered his own brigade in the capital from representatives of the Transcaucasus and residents of the Bauman region - that is why the Globus team was called Bauman. They controlled the Arbat with its rich firms and casinos.

The apple of discord for Globus and Sylvester was the Arlekino night club, well-known at that time, on Krasnaya Presnya. He was protected by Bauman, which did not suit the leaders of the Slavic OPS. Globus constantly demanded to increase his already considerable share of the club's profits, and this would inevitably hit the incomes of other groups. Sylvester managed to invest a lot of money in Arlekino ...

On April 10, 1993, Dlugach left the disco "At the LIS" Sa "in the Olimpiysky sports complex and headed for the parking lot. A shot rang out. The only bullet from a distance of 40 meters from Simonov's 7.62-mm self-loading carbine was fired by the killer Alexander Solonik (Valeryanych, or ) The bullet pierced the right side of Globus's chest through and through, he died on the spot. Solonik managed to escape from the scene of the crime. a lot of 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. He was considered the roof of the slot machine hall on Yeletsskaya Street (the southern district of the capital) - and tried to explain to the Orekhovskys that they were not acting according to the rules. The people of Sylvester did not begin to stand on ceremony with the criminal authority.

Timofeev gradually turned into a real general director of the underworld of the capital. At the height of his power, he controlled 30 banks, 20 large trading companies, hundreds of shops, restaurants and car dealerships, a dozen casinos and all the major markets of the city. The account ran into the billions of dollars. Sylvester sought to rally the capital's crime, making it a single force. Once he gathered the "brotherhood" - about four thousand people - at the stadium in Medvedkovo and addressed them with a speech. We must stop the civil strife, said Sylvester. Do 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-class swindler who served time for fraud, was very useful to Timofeev in his dark affairs.

Battle for the Throne

In the 1990s, banks in Russia opened and closed easily and quickly, and the number of victims was constantly growing. This environment was ideal for such a person as 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 kept 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 lived together for a long time. Starting to work with Sylvester, Lerner noticed that he liked Zhlobinskaya and convinced his wife to go to Timofeev. Olga seduced Sylvester not by 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 Automobile Russian Alliance placed a lot of money. The bank was in no hurry to part with them, and Zhlobinskaya and Berezovsky had a conflict. On June 7, 1994, near the house number 40 on Novokuznetskaya Street in the center of Moscow, where the Logovaz reception house was located, an explosion thundered. The bomb was set off 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 people familiar with the situation around the Moscow Commercial Bank doubted who could benefit from Berezovsky's death.

Sylvester had more and more enemies in Moscow, and his tentacles penetrated literally into all spheres of life in the capital. His people "shaken" even the most popular Russian pop stars. But he was not the only one who claimed 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 in Moscow in the 90s: he could not be called a bandit, but the word “Otari” was crucial in criminal circles. He was not a thief in law - and for good reason: such a status would forever close Kvantrishvili's access to bureaucratic and police offices. And his strength was precisely in the fact that he was his everywhere. A major philanthropist, chairman of the Lev Yashin Foundation, Kvantrishvili successfully communicated with both criminals and government officials. His friends were police generals, members of the government, deputies, famous artists and athletes. It is not surprising that Kvantrishvili rushed into politics and appeared on Moscow TV almost daily.

The philanthropist was increasingly called the godfather of the capital, which Sylvester did not like very much: 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 - an oil refinery in Tuapse. The finale is predictable: on April 5, 1994, at the exit from the Krasnopresnensky baths, Kvantrishvili was killed by three shots from a sniper rifle. This crime was solved only 12 years later. The order was executed by the famous killer Alexei Sherstobitov (Lesha the soldier). In the criminal world, there were no particular disagreements in the versions of Kvantrishvili's murder: everyone understood who the customer was. After this crime, the criminal capital hid.

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 boss and thief in law, known as Yaponchik. Nobody knows what the “outlaw” leaders were talking about. There was a version that Ivankov gave Timofeev the go-ahead to manage all of Moscow.

Shortly after returning to the capital, on September 13, 1994, Sylvester met with representatives of the influential Kurgan OPS: the reason for the meeting, as in the story with the Globe, was again the Arlekino nightclub on Krasnaya Presnya. The Kurgan people wanted to ask the criminal king of the capital whether this evil place would 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, took off next to the house number 46 on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. According to operational data, the mass of a TNT charge attached by 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 started talking on a 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 that day for some reason he ended up in the car alone.

There is still no answer to the question of who exactly is behind the death of Sylvester. He had enough enemies: the murder could be payback 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 a closed coffin at the Khovansky cemetery. The inscription on Sylvester's tombstone reads: "Hurry up to admire a person, for you will miss the joy." Thus ended the life of a man whose name was associated with one of the bloodiest periods of the criminal life of the capital. Sylvester's wife Olga Zhlobinskaya, after the death of her husband, 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 OPS itself, Timofeev's associates stood at its helm, and the history of one of the most formidable gangs in Moscow continued.

***

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

Next, we suggest recalling the fate of the members of the Orekhovskaya organized criminal group, which in the 90s was one of the most influential and most brutal groups in Moscow. The gang is involved in high-profile murders, but due to internal squabbles, it has significantly weakened by the early 2000s. Most of its prominent members were either killed or sentenced to long prison terms.

OPG members Viktor Komakhin (second from left; shot dead in 1995) and Igor Chernakov (third from left; was killed in 1994 the day after the murder of OPG leader Sylvester).

In the 90s, playing thimbles brought serious profits. The Orekhovskaya brigades protected thimble-makers near the shops "Polish Fashion", "Leipzig", "Electronics", "Belgrade" near the metro stations "Domodedovskaya" and "Yugo-Zapadnaya".

Also, the Orekhovskaya organized crime group extorted money from drivers who were engaged in private transportation near the Kashirskaya metro station. In 1989, gas stations in the Sovietsky and Krasnogvardeisky districts of Moscow came under the control of the group.
In the photo (from left to right): Andrei Pylev (Karlik; in prison), Sergei Ananyevsky (Kultik, killed in 1996), Grigory Gusyatinsky (Grisha Severny; killed in 1995) and Sergei Butorin (Osya; received a life sentence).

The leader of the group was Sergei Timofeev, who received the nickname Sylvester for his resemblance to the actor Sylvester Stallone. He was killed on September 13, 1994 - his Mercedes 600 was blown up on 3rd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. The murder of Sylvester was a blow to the organized criminal group, and the division of his inheritance cost the lives of most of the Orekhovskaya leaders. The killers have not yet been found, and even Boris Berezovsky was named among the possible organizers: it was Sylvester who was associated with the attempt on the businessman in the summer of 1994.

According to one version, the murder of Sylvester could be revenge for the execution of the leader of the Bauman organized crime group Valery Dlugach, nicknamed Globus (pictured right). Dlugach was killed in 1993 by Alexander Solonik, the killer of the Kurgan organized criminal group, which at that moment was collaborating with the Orekhovskaya.

While Sylvester was alive, his power united several teams whose leaders were friends: pentathlete Igor Abramov (Dispatcher; killed in 1993), boxing champion of the USSR in 1981 Oleg Kalistratov (Kalistrat; killed in 1993), hockey player Igor Chernakov (Dvoechnik; photo right; killed in 1995), boxer Dmitry Sharapov (Dimon; killed in 1993), bodybuilder Leonid Kleshchenko (Uzbek Sr.; photo left; killed in 1993).

In 1993-1994, the Medvedkov group joined the Orekhovskaya organized criminal group.
In the photo: one of the leaders of the "Orekhovskaya" Sergei Butorin (left) with Medvedkov's colleague Andrey Pylev (Karlik; now serving a prison term).

One of the most high-profile cases of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group was the murder of businessman Otari Kvantrishvili associated with criminal circles. He was killed on April 5, 1994, when leaving the Krasnopresnensky baths, by one of the "Orekhov" - Alexei Sherstobitov (Lesha Soldat; in 2008 he was sentenced to 23 years in prison).

The heirs of Sylvester fought for power for more than one year. On March 4, 1996, not far from the US embassy on Novinsky Boulevard, Sylvester's closest assistant and his heir to the organized criminal group, Sergei Ananievskiy (Kultik; pictured in the middle), was killed. He got his nickname because he was engaged in bodybuilding and was the champion of the USSR in 1991 in powerlifting. As it turned out later, the killer was Pavel Zelenin, a member of the Kurgan organized criminal group.

After the death of Sergei Ananyevsky, Sergei Volodin (Dragon; in the photo on the left) became the head of the organized criminal group. In the photo: the funeral of Sergei Ananyevsky at the Khovansky cemetery.

Shortly after the murder of Sergei Ananyevsky, Sergei Volodin (right) was also shot. Sergei Butorin (Osya) becomes the new leader of the organized crime group.

Having become the leader of the organized crime group, Sergei Butorin entered into an alliance with the “Medvedkovskaya” brothers Andrei and Oleg Pylev (Malaya and Sanych) and collaborated with the Kurgan organized criminal group, which did not prevent him from becoming the customer of the main killer of the “Kurgan” Alexander Solonik. In 1996, Butorin staged his own funeral and temporarily went into the shadows, and in the early 2000s he fled to Spain, but was arrested in 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he is currently serving.

Alexander Solonik (Valeryanych) is a killer of the Kurgan organized crime group, involved in the murder of the adopted son of the thief in law Yaponchik and the leader of the Bauman organized crime group Vladislav Vanner, nicknamed Bobon. Made three escapes from custody. He was killed in Greece in 1997 by Alexander Pustovalov (Sasha Soldat; sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2005) by a member of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group, on the orders of Sergei Butorin.

Sergey Butorin (pictured) and his accomplices are behind many high-profile murders: the leaders of the Kuntsevo group Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Kuligin, the falconer group Vladimir Kutepov (Kutep) and others.

Marat Polyansky - a killer, a member of the Orekhovskaya and Medvedkovskaya organized crime groups. He was involved in the murder of the killer of the Kurgan organized crime group Alexander Solonik, as well as Otari Kvantrishvili. He was arrested in February 2001 in Spain. In January 2013, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Oleg Pylev (pictured) was detained in 2002 in Odessa, Andrey Pylev - in 2003 in Spain. Oleg Pylev was sentenced to 24 years in prison, Andrei - to 21 years.

In September 1994, one of the most influential criminal authorities 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 authority gave rise to a lot of rumors, and many began to argue that what had happened was just a competent staging.

Chief Orekhovskiy

In the mid-1980s, Timofeev got in touch with punks from the Orekhovo metropolitan area. 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, nightclubs obeyed him. "Mzdu" Timofeev was paid by many large entrepreneurs. The worst enemies of the Orekhovskys were Caucasian organized criminal 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. Exploded brand new Mercedes-600, which was the authority.

The car was blown up with a radio-controlled device. How did it get into Sylvester's Mercedes? According to some reports, a "hellish car" weighing about a kilogram was put into the car when it was in the car wash. After the explosion, the Mercedes caught fire, it was extinguished, and the charred and mutilated body of the victim was pulled out of the wreckage of the car.

Whose handiwork

The operatives immediately began to work out several versions of what had happened. The people of Valery Globus Dlugach or Otari Kvantrishvili, by that time already dead criminal authorities, were suspected of killing Sylvester. Both during their lifetime were at enmity with the Orekhovskys because of business interests. Globus, moreover, did business with Caucasian organized crime groups, which was unacceptable for Timofeev.

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

fake death

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

This led many to say that in the blown up Mercedes, in fact, there was not the leader of the Orekhovskys, but a completely different person. Sylvester himself at the time of the explosion had already flown to the United States under an assumed name. There he underwent 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 sent his wife and daughter to the United States. The version with a staged incident was later confirmed by some representatives of the Solntsevo group.

The charred corpse found in the Mercedes could only be identified by Sylvester's personal dentist, and even then only by the teeth. But this did not reassure the skeptics: in their opinion, the authority could well have colluded with his dentist. Fuel to the fire of various speculations was added by a business card and a declaration found at the scene in the name of a certain manager Sergei Zhlobinsky.

Kill the boss

However, such "conspiracy theories" did not convince law enforcement officers. In 2011, an end was put in the investigation of the high-profile case. In September, the Moscow City Court found guilty of the murder of Sylvester and sentenced his closest 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 the start of movement from house number 46. Timofeev was talking on the phone at that moment. Later, his body was found 11 meters from the scene. After the explosion, Osya rushed to the car, made sure that his boss was dead, and then hurried to leave the scene.

Butorin explained his act by the fact 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 have taken the threat away from him. In addition, Osya himself wanted to take the place of the leader of the Orekhovskaya organized criminal group.