Murders, Torture, Racketeering: Lawless Popov Gang in 1990s Stavropol

Money, cars, leather jackets... And also contract killings and gang showdowns. That«s how today»s youth imagine the 1990s, learning about that time only from relatives« stories, internet tales, and TV series. Some say that harsh period is too romanticized — that there was nothing good, only shortages and crime. Others, on the contrary, recall their youth and carefree days. We will tell about the dark side of that period in the history of Stavropol — a gang that, not on TV screens but in reality, killed and tortured.

From Athletes to Racketeers

The main character of this criminal story was Valery Popov. The son of a police officer, a former paratrooper, married with children. Little is known about his life before he took the criminal path. In the early 1990s, the then-unemployed Popov formed a gang in Pyatigorsk.

Initially, it included Andrei Gerus (Popov«s right-hand man). Interestingly, during the investigation he refused to cooperate with law enforcement, and later told journalists from the program »Honest Detective« that he only studied at the same school as Popov (7 years apart), and their fathers worked together in the police. Also in the gang were Pyotr Butko (hitman), Andrei Krepyshev, and Sergei Shcherbinin (keeper of the »obshchak« [common fund]). Later they were joined by Pavel Shestakov, Alexei Kim (personal driver), Samvel Sargsyan, Muratbiy Laipanov, Magomet Dekkushev, and others.

At that time, several other groups were operating in the city. At first, Popov«s gang was involved in the standard activities of the period — racketeering in Pyatigorsk and other towns of the Caucasus Mineral Waters (CMW) region. The criminal group consisted of 15–20 people, mostly boxers. The gang»s secret base was located on the territory of the Pyatigorsk brewery, guarded by private security fighters. But then the gang turned to more brutal affairs, and blood was shed...

Revenge or Coincidence?

In May 1995, Pyatigorsk businessman Artur Ayanyan, owner of the «Exclusive Fashion» salon, filed a complaint with the police against Popov«s gangsters who were extorting money from him. One of the gang members was caught red-handed during the cash handover. But justice did not prevail: three days later he was released, and in October of the same year, businessman Ayanyan was killed. Five members of Popov»s organized criminal group were then detained — they were suspected of the crime, but later — oh, miracle! — all were released. Someone provided them with an alibi.

One of those detained on murder charges, by the way, as Komsomolskaya Pravda wrote, was 27-year-old Lev Travnev, the future mayor of Pyatigorsk, who held the post from 2006 to 2017. From 2018 to 2020 he served as the governor«s representative in the CMW region. In April 2020, he again returned to public service as acting head of Pyatigorsk, but a few days later he was sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of abuse of power. As it turned out, Travnev was issuing illegal construction permits left and right. The official was eventually sentenced to 3 years in a penal colony.

Initially, Ayanyan«s murder was investigated together with others in the Popov gang case, but then it was separated into a separate proceeding. By the way, in that same 1995, all 16 volumes of the case disappeared somewhere.

«Members of the gang feared Popov as a person with authority in criminal structures, law enforcement and other government bodies,» the Investigative Committee of Stavropol reported in 2012, during the trial of the gang.

After Ayanyan«s murder went unpunished, the leader and his subordinates realized that they could earn not only through racketeering, and took on more serious matters. Since then, contract killings became the main source of income for the organized criminal group. Sometimes they eliminated people in the gang»s interests.

«As a rule, they used two murder schemes. In the first case, the gang members handcuffed their victims and took them to forest areas, where they killed them and buried the bodies. In the second case, they shot their victims, usually near their homes or in crowded places,» the Investigative Committee said.

Even His Own Feared Him...

«For the »work« done, Popov paid small rewards. Often gang members killed people without any reward, simply on Popov»s orders,« the Investigative Committee reported as the trial against Popov and his associates was in full swing.

The leader took orders for murders of businessmen, officials, police officers, and members of other criminal groups. Ordinary gang members did not contact the murder clients, so they did not know the real cost of the «work».

In 2003, they eliminated the directors of the Pyatigorsk markets «Lyudmila» and «Predgorye», Yuri Timoshenko and Igor Andreev. The first was shot in Pyatigorsk when he left his office and was about to get into his armored SUV; they opened fire with TT and Makarov pistols. Timoshenko was hit by five bullets. The wounded man was taken to the hospital where he underwent emergency surgery, but he died without regaining consciousness. Igor Andreev was killed in Lermontov. Two hitmen shot at the service car he was riding in. Andreev and his driver died. At the scene, the criminals left a Makarov and a gas pistol modified for combat.

That same year, Popov had a conflict with the gang«s »obshchak« keeper, Sergei Shcherbinin. He began to question Popov»s leadership, for which he later paid. By order of the leader, Shcherbinin was tied up, taken to the base, severely beaten, and then, as usual, taken to the forest and killed.

In 2003, the gangsters attempted to murder the director of the Stavropol market «Yuzhny», criminal authority Vladimir Slizaev, nicknamed Khan. His car was shot up, but he survived — only his wife died.

Ex-Mayor of Stavropol Associated with Gangsters

Not only Stavropol residents suffered from the gang«s actions. It turned out that the ex-mayor of Stavropol, Valery Utkin, was involved in this case. Earlier we wrote that, according to the FSB Directorate for Stavropol Krai, two Rostov residents, wanting to take over the assets of ZAO »Bikom« (»Yuzhny Market« in Stavropol), attempted to assassinate Utkin. The perpetrators and clients — owners of a Rostov private security company, Maxim Kononov and Alexander Savin — planted a bomb in the politician»s car. Then only the driver was injured in the explosion. But Utkin decided to deal with his ill-wishers once and for all.

With the help of bribed police officers, those same Rostovites ended up on the territory of the brewery LLC «Trojan-Beer» in Pyatigorsk. They were handed over to hitmen of Valery Popov«s gang. Before their deaths, they were severely tortured. Everything was filmed on camera. After confessing their involvement in preparing the bombing of Utkin»s car, they were killed.

The ex-mayor was detained only in 2021. The Pyatigorsk court sentenced him to 12.5 years in a strict regime penal colony. The politician pleaded guilty to organizing the murder and went to serve his sentence.

That would be fine, but on July 3, 2024, the Kochubeyevsky District Court changed the sentence to a more lenient one, sending him to forced labor. At that time, Utkin had served half of his sentence. Not only the defense but also a representative of the administration of the Federal Penitentiary Institution Correctional Colony No. 2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Stavropol Krai interceded for the defendant, saying that Utkin behaved well in prison and even managed to qualify as a «second-class seamstress». Moreover, he transferred 2,000 rubles ($22 at current rates) as a donation to the charity fund «People»s Front — Everything for Victory« for participants in the special military operation in Ukraine.

Even the regional court could not challenge this decision on August 30. So Andrei Utkin went to a correctional center. In essence, such places are not at all like colonies. Some convicts may get the opportunity to sleep and spend free time outside the center.

However, later the Prosecutor«s Office of Stavropol Krai found significant violations of the law in such a softening of punishment for the ex-official and appealed to a higher court with a cassation.

As a result, by a ruling of the Fifth Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction, the prosecutor«s arguments were satisfied, and the court decisions on mitigating Andrei Utkin»s sentence were overturned.

Deputies and Directors in the Grave...

In 2004 and 2005, members of the organized criminal group committed several more high-profile crimes. They killed a deputy of the regional Duma, director of the Pyatigorsk confectionery factory Anatoly Plyushchenko.

According to Kommersant, in 2004, Popov«s men killed the general director of the company »Stavropolgazsnab«, Eduard Agadzhanyan, and a city Duma deputy, rector of the Stavropol Institute of Economics and Management Oleg Kaznacheev. At that moment, both were in the cafe »Versailles«. They were fired upon with a Makarov pistol — 10 shots were fired. Eduard Agadzhanyan died on the spot, while the deputy and a waitress from the cafe, who was also wounded, were hospitalized. The next day, Kaznacheev died in the hospital. Possibly, the deceased director of »Stavropolgazsnab« was a personal friend of local authority Sergei Ignatov, who was killed in Stavropol in December 2003 under similar circumstances. In addition, Mr. Agadzhanyan was a witness to that murder, so he might have been undesirable to the gang, reports Kommersant.

Surprisingly, even some representatives of the criminal community believed that Popov was too cruel and called on him to stop the bloody massacres. Among them was thief-in-law Vladimir Zhurakovsky, nicknamed Pukhly (Chubby), who considered the gang to be lawless. In 2005, Popov decided to eliminate Pukhly.

Zhurakovsky came to Pyatigorsk to meet with businessman Omar Dasaneli. They met at the Intourist hotel, had dinner, drank, and in the evening Pukhly«s wife came to pick him up. He said goodbye to Dasaneli and, leaving his BMW with driver, left with his wife. Then Omar Dasaneli and the driver Sergei left the hotel and got into the BMW, but at that moment the hitmen opened fire with automatic weapons. Both died on the spot. As it turned out later, the killers mistook the Georgian businessman for the thief-in-law because they looked similar.

Also killed was the adviser to the governor of Stavropol Krai, Yuri Prachev, along with the police officer accompanying him, Yuri Shvedov. Three masked men shot at the car. Both died on the spot. It turned out that Popov told his subordinates that Prachev was a former FSB officer and that therefore he needed to be dealt with, but later it became known that it was a contract killing, for which Popov received $50,000.

The Police Covered for Them

Many questions arise as to why the group remained unpunished for so long. The criminals were suspected, detained, but still released. It«s all simply banal: they had connections in the police.

The investigation established that several law enforcement officers were members of the gang, for example, Deputy Head of the Anti-Corruption Department of the Organized Crime Control Directorate of the regional Main Internal Affairs Directorate Vladimir Mokhonchenko, and the head of one of the City Internal Affairs Departments of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. The gangsters also had connections with employees of representative and executive bodies of government at various levels.

Police officers regularly informed Popov about the plans of the leadership and the progress of murder investigations. He used all this for his own benefit.

Popov also had a conflict with thief-in-law Erik Sagatelov, known as Erik Ashkhabadsky. The reason is as old as the world: they fought for spheres of influence.

The head of the Karachay Internal Affairs Directorate and gang member Muratbiy Laipanov ordered subordinates to help the gangsters kidnap the authority in Dombay. The police officer staged a detention, but they delivered Erik to Popov. The killers inflicted several stab wounds on Sagatelov, then shot him. The body was thrown into the gorge of the Mara River in Karachay-Cherkessia.

«According to the investigation, from 2005 to 2006, Mokhonchenko maintained trusting comradely relations with the leader of the organized criminal group Valery Popov, to whom he, possessing professional knowledge and skills of operational search activities, using information that became known to him during his service, provided the necessary assistance and coordinated his actions in order to conceal involvement in the murder of thief-in-law Erik Sagatelov,» the Russian Investigative Committee reported in 2012.

The End of the «Popov Gang» Era

The gang was arrested in 2006. Not all were found — only 9 people. The rest were put on the wanted list. During the investigation, a version of the gang«s formation in 2000 was voiced. This same period appears in the official statements of the regional Investigative Committee, which the press service published in 2012, during the trial. Law enforcement officers were able to prove the gang members» guilt in the murder of 20 people, including Stavropol Krai governor«s adviser Yuri Prachev and Yuri Shvedov, former owner of the basketball club »Lokomotiv« in Mineralnye Vody Alexander Sukhachev, and others. Of course, this is only part; many cases remained unsolved, although the investigation lasted more than 3 years.

According to the Investigative Committee, for committing a number of murders, Popov, Butko, Gerus, and Shestakov were sentenced to various terms. Muravyov was on the wanted list until 2009. Popov, Butko, Gerus, and Shestakov were given life sentences in a special regime colony, Muravyov received 13 years, Alexei Kim went to a colony for 9 years, and police officer Murat Laipanov received 4 years. Later, Alexei Shatalov«s participation in the criminal group was proven. He was given a life sentence.

Vladimir Mokhonchenko also did not escape punishment. Under Part 1 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official powers), he was given 1 year and 11 months in a penal colony with deprivation of the right to hold positions in state and municipal service for 2 years. Interestingly, Mokhonchenko is still in prison now. This is connected with another case of complicity in murder at a brewery. According to the investigation, in 2004, one of the high-ranking ex-officials of Stavropol organized the murder of two men whom he believed were attempting to kill him. Mokhonchenko was involved to deliver the victims to the brewery.

The first hearing was held on June 29, 2022, and on August 2, Mokhonchenko was found guilty. The court sentenced the former law enforcement officer to 8 years and 6 months in a strict regime penal colony.