Once upon a time in Pushkino: a 23-year-old criminal dispute reached the court
The prosecution demanded 16 years in prison for Dmitry Lesnyakov (Les), the leader of the Pushkin gang, for the murder of three people. He is already serving a life sentence, so a new sentence will only lead to a tougher regime. For the last non-convicted brigadier of the Taganskaya group, Vladimir Panasenko (a Frenchman), the state prosecution requested 15 years. He had been wanted for 20 years and was detained along with his driver Denis Arkhipov (Hipa) only two years ago. For Arkhipov, the prosecutor insists on 13 years in prison. The details of the case and the positions of the defendants are in the Izvestia material.
In the early noughties
The charges against Dmitry Lesnyakov, the leader of the Pushkin organized crime group, and Vladimir Panasenko, the foreman of the Taganskaya group, are based on murder 23 years ago. According to the case file, in the 90s, the Frenchman headed the Tagansky branch in Zheleznodorozhny near Moscow and was in close contact with Pushkin's bandits, which is why he decided to help Les deal with three former colleagues. The reason for the conflict was money.
In the summer of 2003, the "gang of the Forest" split due to the distribution of criminal proceeds. According to investigators, three of its participants — Ignatkin, Kashin and Yakushov — decided to act independently and get out of the custody of the leader. By that time, the Forest group had taken over Pushkino, establishing control over almost all the leading enterprises in the area, including one of the largest markets in the Moscow region, as well as the Rostov construction holding company VANTH, the largest in southern Russia.
Les did not want to lose control of the enterprises. Internal strife began in the gang, and the Tagansky foreman, a Frenchman, agreed to help a friend kill his rebellious subordinates.
According to investigators, they developed a plan together and involved 18 members of their gangs in its implementation. For this purpose, a cafe "Paradise Corner" was rented in Lyubertsy, where Ignatkin, Kashin and Yakushov were allegedly invited to a memorial service for their fallen comrades. Not suspecting danger, they came to the meeting. The signal for the massacre was a toast to the bandits who had been killed shortly before. At that moment, the crowd, among whom, according to the investigation, were six defendants, attacked Ignatkin, Kashin and Yakushov. The Frenchman gave instructions and, seeing that all three of them could no longer resist, ordered them to be dragged into the back room.
Here, as follows from the case file, the beaten were handcuffed and tortured, after which they were strangled with ropes and, packing the bodies in bags, they were taken out of the city, burying them in the Lyubertsy district.
According to the prosecution, the defendants in the case were initially other members of the two gangs. Six of them have made a deal with the investigation and are already serving their sentences.
The second episode
In addition to the massacre at the Paradise Corner cafe, four defendants, including Panasenko and his driver Arkhipov, are charged with the murder of one of the Tagansky members, Andrei Mironov. In the 2000s, he came to the attention of law enforcement agencies due to the distribution of drugs. Suspecting him of collaborating with the police, the bandits decided to eliminate the potential threat, it follows from the case file.
According to the prosecution, the Frenchman and another defendant, Egorov, decided to disguise the murder as a drug overdose. Mironov was brought to an apartment rented in advance, ostensibly to discuss the issues that had arisen, where he was attacked and injected with a lethal dose of morphine*. The body was left at a deserted bus stop.
The position of the participants
All the defendants pleaded not guilty. Dmitry Lesnyakov refused to testify. Vladimir Panasenko stated that he had never headed an organized crime group. According to him, on August 23, he was indeed at the Paradise Corner cafe, but he did not know anything about the crime, did not plan it and did not give any instructions to other participants.
Speaking in the debate, the Frenchman called the accusations against him "nonsense." He stated that he had no motive to kill either Mironov or the strangers in the cafe.
— I did not commit these murders specifically. Yes, we buried (corpses. — Ed.), I'm to blame for this, I'm to blame for not informing," Panasenko said emotionally.
Hipa, in turn, claimed that one of the defendants in the case had slandered him and Panasenko out of personal hostility.
In the arguments, the lawyers insisted that the murder in the cafe was not planned and happened spontaneously. Arkhipov's lawyer noted that what happened in the "Paradise Corner" was a shock to his client. However, in the evening, fearing for his life, he took part in hiding the bodies.
The defenders also expressed distrust of the testimony of other members of the groups who had concluded pre-trial agreements with the investigation, whose cases were separated into separate proceedings. According to the lawyers, they slandered their clients in order to mitigate their punishment, and asked them to find the accused innocent or to release them from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The state prosecutor, on the contrary, considered the involvement of all the defendants in the crime fully proven. He asked for Panasenko to be sentenced to 15 years in a high—security penal colony, Arkhipov to 13 years, and the rest to be sentenced from 13 to 14 years in prison. They asked for 16 years for Lesnyakov, but since he is already serving a life sentence, he may be transferred to a special regime colony.
In the last word, the defendants said almost nothing. Lesnyakov limited himself to the phrase "Thank you all!". If the court finds them guilty, they will probably become the last convicts from among the active members of the Taganskaya group.
Lawyer, adviser to the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of the Russian Federation Sergey Nasonov explained that with a new guilty verdict, punishment is imposed based on the totality of sentences. If a person has already received a life sentence, it absorbs any other punishment. According to him, the court can terminate the criminal prosecution if the statute of limitations has expired, but it is not obliged to do so.
* The consumption of narcotic drugs or psychotropic drugs without a doctor's prescription is harmful to health and is prohibited by the legislation of the Russian Federation
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