Restored beauty - Andrey Pavlyuchenkov recreated a wonderful wooden tower under a chukhloma. Search results for \"Moscow businessman\" State and municipal administration Educational and methodological kit
All his life, with his brilliant articles, he fought to strengthen the Russian state, bravely exposing corrupt officials, liberal democrats and revolutionaries, warning of the threat looming over the country. The Bolsheviks, who seized power in Russia, did not forgive him for this. Menshikov was shot in 1918 with extreme cruelty in front of his wife and six children.
Mikhail Osipovich was born on October 7, 1859 in Novorzhevo, Pskov province near Lake Valdai, in the family of a collegiate registrar. He graduated from the district school, after which he entered the Technical School of the Naval Department in Kronstadt. Then he participated in several long-distance sea voyages, the literary fruit of which was the first book of essays, “Around the Ports of Europe,” published in 1884. As a naval officer, Menshikov expressed the idea of connecting ships and airplanes, thereby predicting the appearance of aircraft carriers.
Feeling a calling to literary work and journalism, in 1892 Menshikov retired with the rank of captain. He got a job as a correspondent for the Nedelya newspaper, where he soon attracted attention with his talented articles. Then he became the leading publicist for the conservative newspaper Novoye Vremya, where he worked until the revolution.
In this newspaper he wrote his famous column “Letters to Neighbors,” which attracted the attention of the entire educated society of Russia. Some called Menshikov a “reactionary and Black Hundred” (and some still do). However, all this is malicious slander.
In 1911, in the article “Kneeling Russia,” Menshikov, exposing the machinations of the Western backstage against Russia, warned:
“If a huge fund is being raised in America with the goal of flooding Russia with murderers and terrorists, then our government should think about it. Is it possible that even today our state guard will not notice anything in time (as in 1905) and will not prevent trouble?”
The authorities did not take any measures in this regard at that time. What if they accepted? It is unlikely that Trotsky-Bronstein, the main organizer of the October Revolution, would have been able to come to Russia in 1917 with the money of the American banker Jacob Schiff!
Ideologist of national Russia
Menshikov was one of the leading conservative publicists, acting as an ideologist of Russian nationalism. He initiated the creation of the All-Russian National Union (VNS), for which he developed a program and charter. This organization, which had its own faction in the State Duma, included moderate-right elements of educated Russian society: professors, retired military officers, officials, publicists, clergy, and famous scientists. Most of them were sincere patriots, which many of them later proved not only by their struggle against the Bolsheviks, but also by their martyrdom...
Menshikov himself clearly foresaw the national catastrophe of 1917 and, like a true publicist, sounded the alarm, warned, and sought to prevent it. “Orthodoxy,” he wrote, “freed us from ancient savagery, autocracy freed us from anarchy, but the return before our eyes to savagery and anarchy proves that a new principle is needed to save the old ones. This is a nationality... Only nationalism is able to restore to us our lost piety and power.”
In the article “The End of the Century,” written in December 1900, Menshikov called on the Russian people to maintain their role as a nation-forming people:
“We Russians slept for a long time, lulled by our power and glory, but then one heavenly thunder struck after another, and we woke up and saw ourselves under siege - both from the outside and from the inside... We do not want someone else’s, but ours - Russian - land must be ours."
Menshikov saw the opportunity to avoid revolution in strengthening state power, in a consistent and firm national policy. Mikhail Osipovich was convinced that the people, in council with the monarch, should be governed by officials, and not by them. With the passion of a publicist, he showed the mortal danger of bureaucracy for Russia: “Our bureaucracy... has reduced the historical strength of the nation to nothing.”
The need for fundamental change
Menshikov maintained close relationships with the great Russian writers of that time. Gorky admitted in one of his letters that he loved Menshikov because he was his “enemy by heart,” and enemies “better to tell the truth.” For his part, Menshikov called Gorky’s “Song of the Falcon” “evil morality,” because, according to him, what saves the world is not the “madness of the brave” who bring about the uprising, but the “wisdom of the meek,” like Chekhov’s Linden Tree (“In the Ravine”).
There are 48 known letters to him from Chekhov, who treated him with constant respect. Menshikov visited Tolstoy in Yasnaya, but at the same time criticized him in the article “Tolstoy and Power,” where he wrote that he was more dangerous for Russia than all the revolutionaries combined. Tolstoy answered him that while reading this article he experienced “one of the most desirable and dear feelings to me - not just goodwill, but straight love for you...”.
Menshikov was convinced that Russia needed radical changes in all areas of life without exception, this was the only way to save the country, but he had no illusions. “There are no people - that’s why Russia is dying!” – Mikhail Osipovich exclaimed in despair.
Until the end of his days, he gave merciless assessments of the complacent bureaucracy and the liberal intelligentsia: “In essence, you have long drunk away everything that is beautiful and great (below) and devoured (above). They unraveled the church, the aristocracy, and the intelligentsia.”
Menshikov believed that every nation must persistently fight for its national identity. “When it comes,” he wrote, “to the violation of the rights of a Jew, a Finn, a Pole, an Armenian, an indignant cry rises: everyone shouts about respect for such a sacred thing as nationality. But as soon as the Russians mention their nationality, their national values, indignant cries rise - misanthropy! Intolerance! Black Hundred violence! Gross tyranny!
The outstanding Russian philosopher Igor Shafarevich wrote: “Mikhail Osipovich Menshikov is one of a small number of insightful people who lived in that period of Russian history, which to others seemed (and still seems) cloudless. But sensitive people even then, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, saw the main root of the impending troubles that later befell Russia and which we are still experiencing (and it is not clear when they will end). Menshikov saw this fundamental vice of society, which carries with it the danger of future deep upheavals, in the weakening of the national consciousness of the Russian people...”
Portrait of a modern liberal
Many years ago, Menshikov energetically exposed those in Russia who, as today, reviled it, relying on the “democratic and civilized” West. “We,” Menshikov wrote, “do not take our eyes off the West, we are fascinated by it, we want to live just like that and no worse than how “decent” people live in Europe. Under the fear of the most sincere, acute suffering, under the weight of a felt urgency, we need to furnish ourselves with the same luxury that is available to Western society. We must wear the same clothes, sit on the same furniture, eat the same dishes, drink the same wines, see the same sights that Europeans see. In order to satisfy their increased needs, the educated stratum is making ever greater demands on the Russian people.
The intelligentsia and nobility do not want to understand that the high level of consumption in the West is associated with its exploitation of a large part of the rest of the world. No matter how hard Russian people work, they will not be able to achieve the level of income that the West receives by siphoning off unpaid resources and labor from other countries for their benefit...
The educated stratum demands extreme effort from the people in order to ensure a European level of consumption, and when this does not work out, it is indignant at the inertia and backwardness of the Russian people.”
Didn’t Menshikov, more than a hundred years ago, with his incredible insight, paint a portrait of the current Russophobic liberal “elite”?
Courage for honest work
Well, aren’t these words of an outstanding publicist addressed to us today? “The feeling of victory and victory,” Menshikov wrote, “the feeling of domination on one’s land was not at all suitable for bloody battles. Courage is needed for all honest work. Everything that is most precious in the fight against nature, everything that is brilliant in science, the arts, wisdom and faith of the people - everything is driven precisely by the heroism of the heart.
Every progress, every discovery is akin to revelation, and every perfection is a victory. Only a people accustomed to battles, imbued with the instinct of triumph over obstacles, is capable of anything great. If there is no sense of dominance among the people, there is no genius. Noble pride falls - and a person becomes a slave from a master.
We are captive to slavish, unworthy, morally insignificant influences, and it is precisely from here that our poverty and weakness, incomprehensible among a heroic people, arises.”
Wasn't it because of this weakness that Russia collapsed in 1917? Isn’t that why the mighty Soviet Union collapsed in 1991? Isn’t that the same danger that threatens us today if we give in to the global onslaught on Russia from the West?
Revenge of the revolutionaries
Those who undermined the foundations of the Russian Empire, and then seized power in it in February 1917, did not forget or forgive Menshikov for his position as a staunch statesman and fighter for the unity of the Russian people. The publicist was suspended from work at Novoye Vremya. Having lost their home and savings, which were soon confiscated by the Bolsheviks, the winter of 1917–1918. Menshikov spent time in Valdai, where he had a dacha.
In those bitter days, he wrote in his diary: “February 27, 12.III. 1918. Year of the Russian Great Revolution. We are still alive, thanks to the Creator. But we are robbed, ruined, deprived of work, expelled from our city and home, doomed to starvation. And tens of thousands of people were tortured and killed. And all of Russia was thrown into the abyss of shame and disaster unprecedented in history. It’s scary to think about what will happen next - that is, it would be scary if the brain weren’t already filled to the point of insensibility with impressions of violence and horror.”
In September 1918, Menshikov was arrested, and five days later he was shot. A note published in Izvestia said: “The emergency field headquarters in Valdai shot the famous Black Hundred publicist Menshikov. A monarchist conspiracy was uncovered, headed by Menshikov. An underground Black Hundred newspaper was published calling for the overthrow of Soviet power.”
There was not a word of truth in this message. There was no conspiracy and Menshikov no longer published any newspaper.
He was retaliated against for his previous position as a staunch Russian patriot. In a letter to his wife from prison, where he spent six days, Menshikov wrote that the security officers did not hide from him that this trial was an “act of revenge” for his articles published before the revolution.
The execution of the outstanding son of Russia took place on September 20, 1918 on the shore of Lake Valdai opposite the Iversky Monastery. His widow, Maria Vasilievna, who witnessed the execution with her children, later wrote in her memoirs: “Arriving in custody at the place of execution, the husband stood facing the Iversky Monastery, clearly visible from this place, knelt down and began to pray. The first volley was fired to intimidate, but this shot wounded the husband’s left arm near the hand. The bullet tore out a piece of meat. After this shot, the husband looked back. A new salvo followed. They shot me in the back. The husband fell to the ground. Now Davidson jumped up to him with a revolver and shot him point-blank twice in the left temple.<…>The children saw the shooting of their father and cried in horror.<…>Security officer Davidson, having shot him in the temple, said that he was doing it with great pleasure.”
Today, Menshikov’s grave, miraculously preserved, is located in the old city cemetery of the city of Valdai (Novgorod region), next to the Church of Peter and Paul. Only many years later did the relatives achieve the rehabilitation of the famous writer. In 1995, Novgorod writers, with the support of the Valdai public administration, unveiled a marble memorial plaque on Menshikov’s estate with the words: “Executed for his convictions.”
In connection with the anniversary of the publicist, the All-Russian Menshikov Readings were held at the St. Petersburg State Maritime Technical University. “In Russia there was and is no publicist equal to Menshikov,” emphasized Captain 1st Rank Reserve Mikhail Nenashev, Chairman of the All-Russian Fleet Support Movement, in his speech.
Vladimir Malyshev
And he restored a piece of our history.
Near Kostroma, a businessman saved an architectural treasure of the pre-revolutionary era with his own money
It was like in a fairy tale: the centuries-old pines parted and a tower appeared in the middle of the dense forest. And there’s not a soul around for tens of kilometers! This pearl of Russian architecture was saved by Moscow entrepreneur Andrei Pavlyuchenkov. I could have bought a yacht or a villa on the Cote d'Azur. But you won’t find such beauty either in Nice or even on Rublyovka.
Chukhloma is not an oriental dish. A tiny town in the very heart of the Kostroma region. 5.5 thousand inhabitants. But a century ago merchant life was in full swing here. The famous golden crucian carp from Lake Chukhloma were served on the table of the emperor himself. One of the local rich people was Martyan Sazonov. Himself a serf, he had a construction workshop in St. Petersburg. Simply put, he was a finishing foreman. He has accumulated considerable capital. According to one version, he worked with his team on the construction of the Russian pavilion of the World Exhibition in Paris. There I met the architect Ropet. How the tower project came to Sazonov is a mystery shrouded in darkness. Did you buy it, spy on it, or borrow it out of friendship? We will never know this again.
After the death of his wife in 1895, he returned to his native village of Astashovo, near Chukhloma. He remarried the sexton’s daughter and decided to surprise his wife, and the entire Chukhloma district. Construction of the miracle tower began.
The author of the tower is the famous architect Ropet (real name Ivan Petrov. Then, as now in pop music, it was fashionable to distort names in a foreign way). Ropet-Petrov was the founder of the “pseudo-Russian style” in architecture. His Russian pavilion at the World Exhibition in Paris was admired by the whole world. The Nizhny Novgorod fair also could not do without his project. And the Chukhloma tower is a hunting lodge for Alexander III in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. The house was never built. But the project did not disappear.
...35 workers dragged a giant 37-meter pine tree to the place where the tower was laid. Behind him was a barrel of beer to quench his thirst. Martyan’s friends came to the laying. They passed the cap around. It was instantly filled with gold ducats. They were laid as the foundation - for good luck.
The tower was unique not only for its time. How much does a heating system cost? Seven “Dutch women” with tiles released heat through clever chimneys. They say that the chimney began to smoke only two hours after the fire was lit - this is how the house was heated in such an intricate way.
The priests scolded Martyan at all costs. The golden spire played in the sun and was visible seven miles away. The pilgrims put crosses on it, confusing it with a temple. They prayed to God, but in fact to Martyan...
Martyan lived truly happily with his huge family and died in September 1414. True, local historians cannot find his grave. But what a grave! In Soviet times, the whole tower was lost!
And it was like that. During collectivization, the collective farm board with a cinema booth and a communications department was housed in a spacious mansion. Visiting commissars were lodging. And then, when the course went towards consolidating farms, the village of Astashovo ceased to exist. The peasants dismantled their houses and moved closer to the main estate. They forgot about the tower for half a century.
And he stood alone in a pine forest. Overgrown with birches. The tower tilted. And only in this century, tireless jeepers occasionally came across it and, to everyone’s amazement, posted photos on Instagram. One of these posts was read by a young Moscow businessman, Andrei Pavlyuchenkov. He himself is extremely fond of travel and adventure. That's why I went to Chukhloma.
The tower amazed me,” says Andrey. - Volunteers organized themselves on the Internet. For three years we traveled and tried to put the building in order. In Galich, a crane was hired to strengthen the tower. But it became clear that serious restoration could not be done. They were looking for oligarchs to buy and take this dying treasure to their home in Rublyovka. There were none. Then I bought the land with the tower and began restoration. I will say this, if it were not for the enthusiasm of the volunteers, the deal would not have taken place. The local leadership agreed. We were just lucky.
First of all, the tower itself was lucky. Andrey paved a road through the dense forest. Conducted electricity. I dismantled the tower log by log and took it out for restoration. Now the tower stands as good as new. Finishing work is underway inside. This year Andrey will open a guest house and a museum in the mansion. For the exhibition, Pavlyuchenkov travels around local villages and obtains exhibits - spinning wheels, benches, chests of drawers and samovars.
Andrey Pavlichenkov, a financier from Moscow, restored a unique tower in Chukhloma, Kostroma region, and is developing regional tourism.
“I first saw this abandoned and dilapidated tower several years ago in the forest in the former village of Astashovo, Chukhloma district, Kostroma region. Then I became interested in its history, and it turned out that this forest tower is a unique monument of wooden architecture of Russian architecture of the 19th century. It turned out to be one of the four buildings that have come down to us by Ivan Petrovich Ropet, a remarkable architect, one of the creators of the “pseudo-Russian style.” Ropet graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in the same year as Ilya Repin. In architecture, he promoted the ideas of the exoticism of Russian culture and the dissimilarity between Russia and Europe. This “pseudo-Russian style” created a sensation among foreigners who admired Ropet’s pavilions at the international exhibition in Paris. And such a work of architectural art slowly fell into decay in an extinct village!
About history
The tower has a very interesting history. Its builder was a native of this village, Martyan Sazonov, he was born a serf. He was a carpenter, then the owner of a workshop in St. Petersburg. After the death of his wife, he returned to his village and married the sexton’s daughter. She was 30 years younger than him. They say that the tower was conceived by the architect Ropet as a hunting lodge for the emperor. Martyan Sazonov, choosing a house project for his young wife, of course, could not help but know about this. This is how the former serf managed to build a unique royal tower for his family. With the revolution, the decline of the tower began. After the confiscation, it housed a collective farm, a club, a cinema booth, a post office, a ticket office, a library and even a paramedic station. Then, in the 1970s, the building and the village itself were abandoned.
About recovery
I was immediately struck by its beauty and grandeur. My friends and I explored various abandoned places in the surrounding areas. There were a lot of beautiful objects there. At first we just took pictures and posted beautiful photos from the Russian hinterland on the Internet. But the more I saw the desolation reigning there, the more I wanted to breathe new life into these beautiful places. The ideological inspirer of the restoration of the tower was Vasya Kireev, it all started with him. If it weren't for him, nothing would have happened. And we enthusiastically set about restoring the unique structure.
About help
We turned to the regional administration with a request to provide assistance in this painstaking and expensive task. But they told us that there was no money and suggested we wait. And for two years my volunteers and I tried to restore the tower on our own. The regional government several times sent student volunteer groups of 15 people each to help us. The guys helped take out the garbage, of which there were several dozen tons. But when I realized that the region would never have the money, I offered to buy the tower from the local administration. They agreed, and then I financed all the work myself.
About the locals
The locals greeted us warily at first. If we had told them that we were going to take this tower away from the village, we would have been received with hostility. And I didn’t even have such an intention. There are such wonderful places there. Amazing nature. I really wanted to restore this forgotten object by people. Now we have excellent relations, some residents work together with us.
About restoration
The wonderful restorer Alexander Popov helped us in our work. Restoring wooden buildings is very difficult. Much more difficult than stone ones. The tower was dismantled and then put back together, replacing rotten logs. We have 60 percent old, reclaimed wood, 40 percent new. Several thousand threaded parts were also made to order to replace the lost ones. Restoring some decorative elements required researching old photographs and drawings. It was truly a piece of jewelry. But it was worth it! Now our tower has become the main attraction of the area. We plan to open a museum and a hotel there. I completely restored the infrastructure of the area: I made a road, installed electricity, water, and cleaned the local ponds. Whenever possible, I provide assistance to the village council. I create jobs. During the warm season, seasonal workers come to us. We also conduct excursions around the tower and the surrounding area. Now we are training a guide from local residents so that he can conduct excursions for tourists. We regularly hold the “Full Chukhloma” jeep festival. You won’t believe it, we even have traffic jams now!
About plans
I have plans to open a museum, a hotel, and make this place an attractive tourist magnet. I found a person who will be responsible for positioning our place abroad. Many foreigners from different countries have already visited us. And this despite active anti-Russian propaganda. We are trying to break the stereotypes that are imposed on them in the minds of foreigners. I would really like to see life in the Russian outback again, as it was many years ago. So that there are no abandoned and forgotten unique architectural objects. So that people live proudly on their land.
About Me
I am a financier, grew up in Moscow, graduated from one of the best Moscow mathematics schools. He received his education in the USA and Great Britain. For a long time he worked in Russia in a Western investment fund. Hobbies include tourism and mountaineering. My father has been doing this all my life, and his passion was passed on to me. I traveled a lot around the country, visited the provinces, saw with my own eyes that our villages were dying out, half of our country in the regions was literally in ruins, all the heritage that remained from the Russian Empire had fallen into decay. My grandmother is from a Siberian village, her village fell into the flood zone of the Ilimsk hydroelectric power station; the village was flooded in the 70s, when the hydroelectric power station was being built. Many people in our country have a village where they can come, but I don’t have such a place. The rest of my grandparents are city residents, and my only grandmother, who always talked about her village, could not take me there. Therefore, since childhood, I had such a dream of a village where I could come as if it were my home. And I managed to realize it!”
As Kommersant has learned, the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) has completed interrogations of the former head of the operational search department of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement and gave detailed testimony against the participants in the murder of Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya. Now the investigation is closely focused on the alleged organizers of the crime, Lom-Ali Gaitukaev and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, as well as the person who ordered the murder. For the role of the last ICR, the entrepreneur Boris Berezovsky, whom the accused Pavlyuchenkov mentioned in his testimony, is trying on.
Accused of committing a crime under paragraphs “b”, “g”, “h” of Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder of a person in connection with his official activities, organized by a group for hire), retired Colonel Pavlyuchenkov seems to have become a key figure in the investigation. After Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin personally endorsed the conclusion of a pre-trial agreement with him in early September, the ex-policeman gave detailed testimony about who was part of the group organized to kill Anna Politkovskaya, how the roles were distributed between the members of the organized crime group and who, according to his version , could have been the customer of a high-profile crime. Judging by the reports of the Investigative Committee, the information provided by Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov coincided with the investigative version.
It turned out that the group was put together by the Chechen “authority” Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, who had previously been involved in fraud with advice notes, and after his imprisonment he mastered a new business - organizing murders for hire. The group included another ex-policeman Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, the brothers Dzhabrail, Ibragim and Rustam Makhmudov, as well as Pavlyuchenkov himself. The latter, with the help of subordinate police officers, found out the address where Anna Politkovskaya lived and her daily routine. Then the Makhmudov brothers joined in the surveillance, to whom Pavlyuchenkov handed over an Izh gas pistol, converted to fire live ammunition. On October 7, 2006, in the elevator of a building on Lesnaya Street, Rustam Makhmudov, as the investigation established, shot and killed a journalist.
The other day, the Investigative Committee completed interrogations of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov. In the near future, the investigation will separate his case into separate proceedings, and if no surprises occur, it will be considered by the court in a special manner, which guarantees the accused a minimum sentence. The defense of the ex-policeman, who, by the way, did not object to his arrest by the Basmanny Court, appealed the preventive measure previously chosen for him. Considering Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov’s active cooperation with the investigation and his state of health, the defense expects that he will be transferred from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest.
Meanwhile, the Investigative Committee has already given way to the testimony of Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov. In the near future, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov (by the way, he received an eight-year sentence for extorting money from Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov) and Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, who is serving a 15-year sentence for organizing an assassination attempt in 2006 in Ukraine on businessman Gennady Korban, will be brought to Moscow from the colony. According to information from Alexey Mikhalchik, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov’s defense attorney, they plan to carry out investigative actions with him - a confrontation with Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov and interrogation. By the way, a new charge of organizing the murder of a journalist was brought against him a year ago, when the Investigative Committee resumed the investigation of the high-profile case after the acquittal of all defendants by the Moscow District Military Court. Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, who has not yet been officially accused of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, will also have to undergo interrogations and confrontations.
According to the version that Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov told the investigation, negotiations on the preparation of the murder of Anna Politkovskaya were conducted by Lom-Ali Gaitukaev in Ukraine, since the alleged mastermind of the crime was not allowed to enter Russia at that time. From Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov learned that “he will have to work according to Politkovskaya” and that he will be well paid for it. Moreover, at first it was only about surveillance, but then an instruction was allegedly received from Lom-Ali Gaitukaev - the murder should be committed no later than October 7 (the birthday of then President Vladimir Putin), or even better on this day. The customer insisted on this. There were still several months before the X-day, therefore, said Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, there was no need to rush, but it was better to prepare everything well. At the same time, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov did not rule out that the order for the journalist could have come to the Chechen “authority” from businessman Boris Berezovsky. The ex-policeman’s defense refused to confirm this version, and the Investigative Committee left it without comment.
However, the investigation has already spoken about the possible involvement of a political emigrant in this case. This, in particular, was stated in an interview with Izvestia in April 2008 by Dmitry Dovgiy, the head of the main investigative department of the Investigative Committee at the prosecutor's office, who was removed from office at that time and is now serving a nine-year sentence for a bribe. When asked who ordered the murder of the journalist, he answered: “Our deepest conviction is that it was Boris Abramovich Berezovsky - through Khozh-Akhmed Nukhaev. At that time, it was beneficial for him to do so.” As Mr. Dovgy noted, Anna Politkovskaya was killed not because of her publications, but because she was in opposition to the authorities.
Boris Berezovsky himself told Kommersant yesterday that the new suspicions of the investigation were not a revelation to him. The entrepreneur recalled that the version of this was announced by President Putin, who said that the traces of the crime lead to London. Mr. Berezovsky connected the new suspicions with the political processes currently taking place in Russia. Regarding his alleged connection with Lom-Ali Gaitukaev, the entrepreneur said that he does not remember such a person at all, since he met with hundreds of Chechens, and he generally learned about the existence of policeman Pavlyuchenkov from the media. The entrepreneur's lawyer, Andrei Borovkov, told Kommersant that the investigation did not inform him and other defenders about new suspicions. The Basmanny Court, as its press secretary Ekaterina Korotova reported, did not receive any petitions from the Investigative Committee regarding Mr. Berezovsky.
The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Sergei Sokolov, admitted that “old ideas could get new blood,” but, as he believes, the person who ordered the murder of his newspaper columnist is not abroad, but in Russia. And the lawyer for Mrs. Politkovskaya’s children, Anna Stavitskaya, told Kommersant that in the “old” case there was no indication of Boris Berezovsky’s involvement in the murder. The defense was not introduced to the new materials. In any case, she said, evidence is important, and “the victims do not need the designated customer in this case.”
Alexey Sokovnin, Nikolay Sergeev
© frame ntv.ru
Relatives fear for the life of ex-policeman Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, who is serving a sentence for complicity in the murder of Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya, and who is the main witness in the case of the execution of Paul Klebnikov.
As a source familiar with the situation told Rosbalt, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov is serving his sentence in one of the colonies - in Kolpino, Ryazan region. “He had severe epileptic seizures every two or three days, recently they became daily. When he falls, Pavlyuchenkov receives various injuries to his limbs and head. As a result, he fell into a semi-conscious state,” the agency’s source said. The other day, Pavlyuchenkov, in serious condition, was hospitalized from the colony to the intensive care unit of one of the specialized hospitals in Ryazan. “It’s not good to say, but Dmitry’s condition now is like that of a vegetable. He doesn’t understand anything, doesn’t really recognize anyone, and can’t move without outside help. His mother came to see him and was horrified. If this continues, then, I’m afraid, Pavlyuchenkov will not live to see the end of his term,” noted a Rosbalt source.
This information was confirmed by Pavlyuchenkov’s lawyer Karen Nersisyan: “I am now preparing a petition for a full medical examination of Dmitry. The person is actually doomed to death.” According to the defense lawyer, Pavlyuchenkov has three diseases that are on the list of diseases that do not allow a person to be kept in prison, but their degrees are not sufficient to replace the punishment on medical grounds. “These degrees are determined very subjectively, and Dmitry’s condition has deteriorated greatly after previous examinations,” Nersisyan noted.
In November 2014, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, sentenced to 11 years in prison, was transported from Moscow to the place where he was serving his sentence. However, on the way he had another epileptic attack and was urgently hospitalized. The treatment took almost two months, after which Pavlyuchenkov was taken to a colony in Kolpino. At the same time, measures were taken to ensure his safety in connection with the threats received.
Thus, in November 2013, Pavlyuchenkov reported that when he was being taken to court in a paddy wagon along with other prisoners, two persons of Slavic appearance, previously unknown to him, said that he should “shut up about Khlebnikov.” Otherwise, they threatened Pavlyuchenkov himself and his family members with problems. The unknown people made it clear that they were acting on behalf of immigrants from Chechnya, against whom he was testifying. According to him, those who threatened did not say anything about the “Politkovskaya case”.
This happened shortly after a former employee of the 4th department of the Operational Search Directorate (OPU) of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, gave detailed testimony in the “Khlebnikov case.” He said that in the early summer of 2004, the Chechen “authority” Lom-Ali Gaitukaev (accused of Politkovskaya’s murder) approached him and asked him to organize surveillance of Paul Klebnikov and former Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Yan Sergunin with the help of the OPU. Pavlyuchenkov reported the results of his work to the then-current employee of the Moscow RUBOP Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, who was under recognizance not to leave on charges of abuse of power. The surveillance of Khlebnikov and Sergunin was carried out by the same employees of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate who later participated in the surveillance of Politkovskaya - Oleg Shoshin, Dmitry Lebedev, Kirsanov and Golubovich.
According to Pavlyuchenkov, in fact, the murders of Khlebnikov and Sergunin were prepared according to the scenario according to which Politkovskaya was later eliminated. Gaitukaev maintained contact with the “customers” and allocated money, surveillance was carried out by Pavlyuchenkov’s subordinates, and Khadzhikurbanov coordinated the work of all persons related to the crimes. True, the services of OPU employees were not required for long in 2004. Ten days later, Gaitukaev asked Pavlyuchenkov to remove surveillance from Khlebnikov and Sergunin, saying that other people would do this in the future (according to the investigation, these were the Dukuzov brothers and their acquaintances). Moreover, the “authority” never paid the policemen for their services.
The Investigative Committee even took former OPD employees to the house where Khlebnikov lived, where they showed on the spot where the surveillance car was located, how they followed the “object”, etc. It turned out that along with the OPD employees, the ex-Khlebnikov also took part in the surveillance. employee of the Moscow RUBOP Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, whom the Investigative Committee considers one of the organizers of the murder of Politkovskaya.
Paul Klebnikov was shot on the evening of July 9, 2004, at the exit from the editorial office on Dokukina Street near the Botanical Garden metro station. Investigators believe that Kazbek Dukuzov was the direct perpetrator of the murder.
According to the Investigative Committee, this killer had previously dealt with the former Deputy Prime Minister of Chechnya, Yan Sergunin. He was killed on June 25, 2004 near the Vostochny Dvorik restaurant on Pokrovka Street in Moscow.
According to operational data, Kazbek Dukuzov is now on the territory of Chechnya. Recently, in the colony, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was interrogated in the “Khlebnikov case”.
