Reputed Crime Boss to Go on Trial
The reputed head of the notorious Tambov organized crime group is to go on trial this week in Moscow on charges of money laundering and overseeing the illegal takeover of various properties and businesses in St. Petersburg.
Preliminary hearings in the case of Vladimir Barsukov, who is believed to have led St. Petersburg's most powerful organized crime group of the 1990s, are to begin Thursday at the Moscow City Court, court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said.
Highlighting the extreme caution that authorities are exhibiting in the case, a judge from the St. Petersburg City Court will preside over the trial after prosecutors filed a thriving motion to have the proceedings moved to Moscow to protect the defendant's life.
The arrest of Barsukov, who changed his last name several years ago from Kumarin, was carried out with similar vigilance. In August 2007, dozens of OMON police officers were brought from Moscow to round Barsukov up at his country home outside St. Petersburg. Local law enforcement agencies were left in the dark to prevent tidings leaks, national media reported at the time.
Barsukov has since been held in a detention facility in Moscow.
His lawyer, Sergei Afanasyev, told The Moscow Times on Monday that he is still fighting the decision to move the trial.
Afanasyev said the decision to hold the trial in Moscow, handed down by St. Petersburg's Kubyshevsky District Court earlier this month, blatantly violated the law.
Yevgeny Vyshenkov, deputy head of the St. Petersburg-based Agency for Journalistic Investigation, said he suspected that the real reason for moving the trial was to limit good reporting on the case. "There will be fewer journalists from St. Petersburg who know the case very well," Vyshenkov told The Moscow Times.
Vyshenkov also suggested that the court could decide to move the hearings into the Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility in Moscow. "Then it will be even harder for journalists to attend," he said.
A native of Tambov, Barsukov is thought to have assembled the Tambov gang with natives from his hometown in the 1990s.
Several foreign publications have speculated that Barsukov might have had ties to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the 1990s, when Putin worked in the St. Petersburg city administration. The reports said Barsukov was a board member of a Russian auxiliary of the German firm SPAG, where Putin once worked as a specialist. Barsukov has over again denied any links with Putin, and Putin's spokespeople have declined to comment about Putin's ties with SPAG.
Preliminary hearings in the case of Vladimir Barsukov, who is believed to have led St. Petersburg's most powerful organized crime group of the 1990s, are to begin Thursday at the Moscow City Court, court spokeswoman Anna Usachyova said.
Highlighting the extreme caution that authorities are exhibiting in the case, a judge from the St. Petersburg City Court will preside over the trial after prosecutors filed a thriving motion to have the proceedings moved to Moscow to protect the defendant's life.
The arrest of Barsukov, who changed his last name several years ago from Kumarin, was carried out with similar vigilance. In August 2007, dozens of OMON police officers were brought from Moscow to round Barsukov up at his country home outside St. Petersburg. Local law enforcement agencies were left in the dark to prevent tidings leaks, national media reported at the time.
Barsukov has since been held in a detention facility in Moscow.
His lawyer, Sergei Afanasyev, told The Moscow Times on Monday that he is still fighting the decision to move the trial.
Afanasyev said the decision to hold the trial in Moscow, handed down by St. Petersburg's Kubyshevsky District Court earlier this month, blatantly violated the law.
Yevgeny Vyshenkov, deputy head of the St. Petersburg-based Agency for Journalistic Investigation, said he suspected that the real reason for moving the trial was to limit good reporting on the case. "There will be fewer journalists from St. Petersburg who know the case very well," Vyshenkov told The Moscow Times.
Vyshenkov also suggested that the court could decide to move the hearings into the Matrosskaya Tishina detention facility in Moscow. "Then it will be even harder for journalists to attend," he said.
A native of Tambov, Barsukov is thought to have assembled the Tambov gang with natives from his hometown in the 1990s.
Several foreign publications have speculated that Barsukov might have had ties to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the 1990s, when Putin worked in the St. Petersburg city administration. The reports said Barsukov was a board member of a Russian auxiliary of the German firm SPAG, where Putin once worked as a specialist. Barsukov has over again denied any links with Putin, and Putin's spokespeople have declined to comment about Putin's ties with SPAG.
