There are nuances in one of the bloodiest crimes incriminated today to the odious Russian member of the mafia from St. Petersburg, Vladimir Barsukov; that was an attempt on the owner of the Petersburg Oil Terminal, Sergey Vasilyev. The authorities try not to sound off them. According to investigators, in fact, the person who has organized this crime is out of reach of Russian police - he is hiding in London.

40-year-old Mikhail Tyurin is known as "Monya" in criminal circles; he had never got into the field of view of journalists.

 

Hailing from Ryazan

Mikhail Tyurin was born in November 1970 in the village Mozhar, the Ryazanskaya Oblast. After finishing high school he spent some time studying in medical school, then served as conscript in the border troops. Already in the early 90's "Monya" had authority with criminal circles in Ryazan. Tentatively in 2001, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he served in a security company "Victoria 94" and according to people who knew him, he also had authority in the business community. He was repeatedly seen in the casino "Golden Country" accompanied by Vladimir Barsukov and other famous St. Petersburg businessmen. Herewith, Mikhail Tyurin managed to remain unknown to the criminal journalists Petersburg.

His fellow countrymen helped him to get settled in St. Petersburg, and the most famous one is businessman Alexander Baskakov. A few months ago he was convicted along with Vladimir Barsukov to raider attacks in St. Petersburg enterprises. For many years mass media had been calling Baskakov a man from the inner circle of Barsukov.

Most likely, it was "Monya" who invited the Ryazan friends to St. Petersburg and formed a separate Ryazan gang; its hierarchy was topped with legendary Vladimir Barsukov through the relations of Tyurin.

Mikhail Tyurin is said to be taking great interest in sports - he used to go to the gym twice a day, in addition, he was doing yoga. In this regard, he has always been well shaped and attracted attention by his strong athletic body-build. In this case, "Monya» is a very cautious man - he always used the services of security guards.

Tyurin was actively engaged in the business. Since June 2005, he has been a co-owner and CEO of the subsequently liquidated St. Petersburg trading company "Kedr". In late 2005, he became co-owner of OOO “Ekotreyd"- a company registered in the Leningrad region and specialized in trade in food.

As far as we know, Mikhail Tyurin appears in the criminal case in a role Deputy Director General of the Russian-Swiss joint venture "LST-Metal”, based on the plant "Lenvtortsvetmet”. A French citizen, George Lavrov, who is now living in London, used to be among the founders of ZAO "Zavod Lenvtortsvetmet”. People communicating with Mikhail Tyurin in that period of time recalled that he had repeatedly flown to London on factory business and studied English intensively.

Now he seems to have mastered this language to perfection – according to the numerous testimonies, he has been living in the UK for several years and is unlikely to return to Russia soon - he is wanted as one of the organizers of the assassination of Sergei Vasiliev.

 

"Monya" AND HIS MEN

According to Russian detectives, it was Mikhail Tyurin who had organized all the preparations for the audacious assassination of Sergei Vasiliev, and, the preparation of this began back in late 2005 - about six months before the tragedy.

According to investigators, one of the acquaintances of Turin found two killers - brothers Andrey and Oleg Mikhalev - and a man who always was next to them, providing with everything, some Vyacheslav Ezhov (nickname in criminal circles is “Ezhik” ("Hedgehog"). All three of them are hailing from Ryazan and the Ryazanskaya Oblast; as journalists wrote, they were members of the gang “Slony” ("elephants") there.

Investigators assume, in St. Petersburg "Monya" arrangted living conditions for Ryazan killers to get prepared to committing the crime. To begin with, in December 2005 he met the killer Andrei Mikhalev at the Ladozhsky railway station who first came to St. Petersburg and placed him in the hotel "Turist", rent an apartment where the 3 killer had lived for a few months, and ended with providing them with weapons, training firings, the acquisition of vehicles and training safe escape from the scene.

For all this, Mikhail Tyurin mostly used the services of three assistants: Alexandr Korpushov, Alexei Ignatov and Alexander Yurtsev.

Korpushov Alexander is a native of Ryazan, where, apparently, he got acquainted with Mikhail Tyurin. He was often seen together with Turin and, according to investigators, Korpushov took part in the preparation of the assassination of Sergei Vasiliev as representative of the interests of Turin: he met with all parties of the crime preparations, coordinated their activities, assured that orders of "Monya" were followed which he gave personally to the performers. Officially, Alexander Korpushov was a guard of ChOP "Vidas", while a share in ZAO "Zavod Lenvtortsvetmet” was registered on his name.

Alexey Ignatov was born and raised in Ryazan, where in the early 90's he met the authority of the local criminal circles, "Monya." In the early 2000's Ignatov lived in St. Petersburg, where Turin helped him get hired as a driver at the plant "LST-metal", later Ignatov worked as a personal driver of "Monie" for some time. At the time of preparation works of assassination of Sergei Vasiliev Ignatov was a private taxi driver and Mikhail Tyurin enjoyed it: Ignatov prepared cars for the killers, repaired them, drove the criminals to the place of future crimes, to the shooting range for shooting, carrying arms. Based on his testimony, he appears to be thankful for their help in finding employment and to be afraid, in this connection he agreed to participate in the preparation of a crime.

Alexander Yurtsev is a retired military officer, a combat of operations in Azerbaijan, Chechnya and Abkhazia, the recipient of numerous awards and medals. He graduated from the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School, and after the transfer to the reserve he went to Ryazan together with his family. Turin got acquainted with Yurtsev through his wife: "Monya" - the cousin of Yurtsev’s wife. No wonder, "Monya" helped Yurtsev also to get employed after his resignation from the army. Alexander Yurtsev worked as a personal guard of Mikhail Tyurin for several years. At the time of his arrest, he was a member of the St. Petersburg security company "Safari". The Yurtsev’s role in preparing the assassination of Sergei Vasiliev was reduced to weapon testing in February 2006, which the killers fired from then.

Alexander Korpushov is now hiding from the investigation the same as Mikhail Tyurin, he was been put on wanted list. Alexey Ignatov and Alexander Yuriev were convicted by the St. Petersburg City Court. They fully admitted their guilt, assisted the investigation to expose other members of the gang, thus they got relatively light punishments: they were sentenced to 7 and 3 rd years' imprisonment respectively. Yuri Yezhov was also convicted; the criminal proceedings against the Mikhalev brothers recently and against the legendary Vladimir Barsukov are still under investigation.

They say that while the police fail to arrest "Monya”, the full disclosure of that resonant crime is impossible.

 

 

SHEET «R»:

 

An attack on Sergey Vasilyev, the principal owner of SP ZAO "Petersburg Oil Terminal", occurred about 13 h and 30 minutes on May 5, 2006 in the heart of St. Petersburg, in one of the most crowded places in the vicinity of Kamennostrovsky Prospect. Sergei Vasiliev was riding a car Rolls-Royce together with a car "Chevrolet Tahoe" with four of his guards following him went on Levashovsky Prospect. At that time, Vyacheslav Ezhov went on the roadway on a car "VAZ” and blocked the movement of the Rolls-Royce and Chevrolet Tahoe. Then the Mikhalev brothers fired Kalashnikov assault rifles into the two vehicles. One of the guards died of his wounds at the scene, the rest, including Sergei Vasiliev, got injuries of varying severity. In October 2006 the Mikhalev brothers were detained, and on October 25, 2007 Vyacheslav Ezhov was detained in Zelenograd, Moscow region.

This crime had a huge impact primarily due to the fact that "Petersburg Oil Terminal” - one of the largest oil transshipment facilities in the St. Petersburg seaport.