Izmestyev named Ural Rakhimov, the son of the ex-president of Bashkiria, as the customer of the murders he organized.
Ivan Petrovsky
On September 30, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia will start considering the case of Igor Izmestyev, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for organizing contract killings and terrorism. Izmest'ev was a senator from Bashkiria from 2001 to 2006, until he was stripped of his status "for combining the duties of a senator with commercial activities." Igor Izmestyev received a seat in the Federation Council due to his closeness to the family of the then President of the Republic of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov and his son Ural. In the early 90s, Izmest'ev rented Bashneft's facilities for processing oil into fuel oil and gasoline. The permission for this was given personally by the son of Murtaza Ural. Izmestyev was close to the family of the Bashkir president, was considered a friend of Ural Rakhimov, and even ran for the presidency in Bashkortostan in 2005, creating the appearance of a democratic choice for Murtaza Rakhimov.
In 2005, first a member of the Kingisepp organized criminal group Ivanov, and then its leader Sergei Finagin, reported after their arrest that they had passed "under Izmestyev" back in 1993. The Kingiseppskys specialized in contract killings and, among other things, eliminated Izmestyev's competitors in the oil business. The leader of the organized crime group Finagin told the investigation that Izmestyev gave them money to buy weapons and "paid at least 100 thousand dollars" for each murder.
In 2007, Izmestyev was arrested, three years later he was sentenced to life imprisonment for creating a gang to attack citizens and organizing 6 contract killings of former business partners. In addition, Izmest'ev's guilt was proven in two other episodes: the attempted murder of the president of the auditing company Promfin Ltd and the founder of ZAO Bashneft-MPK Yuri Bushev and the president's son Ural Rakhimov. The prosecution qualified the blowing up of the security car of Ural Rakhimov as a terrorist act, although the defense in the appeal to the Supreme Court argued that this was done "with the aim of intimidating, but not killing Rakhimov".
In 2009, Rakhimov Jr. sold AFK Sistema, created by him during the reign of his father, Bashneft. First Izvestiev, already in the White Swan life prisoner in Solikamsk, testified against Ural Rakhimov on the circumstances of the privatization of Bashneft and its sale to the main shareholder of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov. Based on his testimony, a criminal case was initiated against Rakhimov and Yevtushenkov. Yevtushenkov did not argue and returned the shares to the state. The case against him was closed. Ural Rakhimov left the country and now lives in Austria. Russia has already asked Austria to extradite Rakhimov, but so far to no avail.
Many people asked for Izvestiev, including the head of the Helsinki group, Lyudmila Alekseyeva, from President Putin. Izvestiev's mother tried to buy him out first, and then contacted other human rights activists, trying to push through the abolition of life sentences for her son.
And then the news came that Igor Izmestyev made a deal with the investigation and on the main point of the verdict. He gave the name of the person who ordered the killings. The ex-senator told the investigation that the customer was the son of the former president of Bashkortostan, Ural Rakhimov. Journalists often wrote about this version, and Izmestyev's defenders hinted at this. But the convicted person himself has never confirmed this version to this day. Now the Presidium of the RF Armed Forces will once again consider the case of the former senator. Bashkiria was again in a fever.
Ural Rakhimov was put on the international wanted list 6 years ago, but he was charged with economic crimes - under Article 160 ("theft of other people's property entrusted to the guilty party, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, by a person using his official position, on an especially large scale") and 174 (“Legalization of money or other property acquired by other persons by criminal means”), for which Rakhimov could go to prison for a year and pay a fine. Now the situation has changed dramatically.
The intensification of cases against the Rakhimov family coincided with their attempt to return to politics. Thus, the Rakhimovs are suspected of being involved in organizing thousands of protest rallies in Bashkiria, and Murtaza Rakhimova's niece called on her fellow countrymen to “resist officials”, “organized protest” so that “the thread of Russian authoritarianism was torn off”.