Petukhov, Vladimir Arkadevich

Born in the city of Kotlas, Arkhangelsk region. In 1969 he graduated from the Ukhta Mining and Oil College. While studying in 1968, he completed practical training as an assistant driller in the Ukhta drilling office. After graduating from college he served in the army. After serving in the army, he worked as a driller in the Perm Region, an assistant to a drilling foreman in the Khabarovsk Territory, and a drilling foreman in the Primorsky Territory ^[1] .

Work as an oilman in Nefteyugansk

Since 1978 he worked in Nefteyugansk . He began working as a driller at the Nefteyugansk Directorate for Enhanced Oil Recovery and Overhaul of Wells, then he held the positions of foreman, technologist, head of the department of engineering and technology for oil production, and preparation of oil and gas transport. In 1981 he graduated in absentia from the Tyumen Industrial Institute with a degree in Technology and Complex Mechanization of the Development of Oil and Gas Fields, qualifying as a mining engineer ^[1] .

In 1982-1987, he worked in the Yuganskneftegaz apparatus as the chief engineer of the central research laboratory, and the head of the chemicalization production department. In April 1987, by decision of Glavtyumenneftegaz, as part of a group of employees of Yuganskneftegaz, he was assigned to work at the Varyoganneftegaz production association in the Nizhnevartovsk district. During the year, Petukhov headed the production department for current and overhaul wells at Varioganneftegaz ^[1] .

In 1983 he entered the graduate school of the Tyumen SIBNIINP . In 1987 he defended his thesis, receiving the degree of candidate of technical sciences. Since 1988, he worked at the NPO Technique and Technology for Oil Production, which was part of Glavtyumenneftegaz. ^[one]

In 1990, he headed the research and development enterprise “Debit”, which was engaged in the repair of oil wells, increasing oil recovery and introducing Petukhov’s inventions into production ^[1] .

Mayor and Conflict with Yukos

In 1994, he was elected to the City Duma of the first convocation of Nefteyugansk. October 27, 1996 was elected mayor of Nefteyugansk ^[1] .

On the territory of Nefteyugansk was a subsidiary of Yukos Yuganskneftegaz. In May 1998, Petukhov accused Yukos of not paying taxes to the local budget, which is why workers are not getting paid ^[2] .

Petukhov went on a hunger strike, demanding: institute criminal proceedings in connection with YUKOS's large non-payment of taxes in 1996-1998, remove the head of the tax inspectorate of Nefteyugansk and the head of the tax inspectorate of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and pay off the accumulated arrears of 1 , 2 trillion non-denominated rubles, stop the interference in the activities of local authorities of Nefteyugansk by Yukos ^[2] .

The hunger strike of Petukhov lasted a week and ended after the promise of the governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug Alexander Filipenko to verify information and take measures ^[2] .

Murder

A few days after the end of the hunger strike on the morning of June 26, 1998, on the way to work on foot, Petukhov was shot from a submachine gun near the city administration building. His guard was injured. The murder occurred on the birthday of Mikhail Khodorkovsky , which was considered by many observers as a “gift to the birthday man”.

Farida Islamova, Petukhov’s wife, a few days after the murder of her husband sent a statement to President Boris Yeltsin , where she said that the cause of the murder “could be the mayor’s attempt to verify the activities of NK Yukos caused by tax non-payments” ^[2] . Later Farida Islamova noted: “Only Khodorkovsky needed the murder of her husband, no one else could. But one must understand that Khodorkovsky himself will not do this. Everyone in the city said that he gathered around himself the Shvonders and the Sharikovs, and he himself came to intimidate us: here he is, the king of Yukos ” ^[2] .

After the mayor’s murder, rallies were held in Nefteyugansk, at which Yukos was accused of murder, residents blocked roads, demanding an investigation of the crime, windows were broken in the office of the local Yukos unit ^[3] .

Investigation

The investigation found that the crime was committed by members of the so-called Kamyshin organized criminal group Popov and Prikhodko. Soon, the corpse of the suspect Prikhodko with two gunshot wounds was discovered near the Nefteyugansk- Tyumen highway, and a little later unknown people shot and killed Popov. As a result, the criminal case was dismissed.

They tested various versions of the motives for the murder, including a possible interest in the crime of the mayor’s wife, who, after the murder of her husband, entered into inheritance rights - by some estimates, more than $ 500 thousand. The version of possible involvement in the organization of the murder of the former head of Nefteyugansk Sevrin was also checked, in relation to the company of which, on the initiative of the late Petukhov, a criminal case was filed about tax evasion. The version of a possible connection between the murder of Mayor Petukhov and his official relations with the leadership of Yukos, which had serious interests in this territory, was not confirmed ^[4] .

An unnamed source from The Daily Telegraph, a friend of the FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, said: Litvinenko had information that the assassination of the mayor of Neftyugansk was organized by FSB officers in order to discredit the Yukos leadership. ^[five]

On June 19, 2003, the head of the Yukos internal economic security department, Alexei Pichugin , was detained , who was convicted in 2005 on charges of organizing a series of killings.

On March 31, 2005, the day after the verdict was passed to Alexei Pichugin, Vladimir Shapiro, who was in custody on charges of the murder of a Muscovite woman, wrote a statement stating that Pichugin and Leonid Nevzlin were behind the murder of Petukhov, and presented himself as a transmitter of money for the crime the crime. Gennady Shevtsov, accused of robberies in the Rostov Region, made the same kind of statement on May 11, 2005 ^[4] .

As a result, Alexey Pichugin was charged with organizing the murder of Petukhov. According to the prosecution, in the summer of 1998 Pichugin entered into a criminal conspiracy with a shareholder and first deputy chairman of the board of the Yukos oil company Nevzlin and other unidentified persons from among the senior employees of the Yukos oil company, aimed at killing Petukhov, whose actions to return concealed taxes and fees by the Yukos oil company to the federal, regional and local budgets contradicted their personal and official interests. Pichugin suggested that Gorin (who was later killed) look for people who were ready to commit this crime for a fee. At the same time, Pichugin gave Gorin a photograph of the victim, his address of his place of residence and work, and he was negotiating the amount of the material reward for the murder in the amount of at least 150,000 US dollars (927,000 rubles), the timing of his commission.

Gorin to participate in the murder, attracted the inhabitants of Volgograd Goritovsky and Shapiro. Having agreed to participate in the crime, they incited Evgeny Reshetnikov and Gennady Tsigelnik (Shevtsov) to participate in the crime for monetary reward. They were given part of the cash reward as an advance - about 1,000 US dollars (6,180 rubles), provided information about the victim, and subsequently 10,000 US dollars (61,800 rubles), transferred by Nevzlin and Pichugin through Gorin for the execution of the crime.

Goritovsky in June 1998 in Volgograd handed over to the Reshetnikov and Tsigelnik (Shevtsov) a hunting carbine of the KO-8.2 model, cartridges for it and two F-1 fragmentation defensive grenades. Reshetnikov, in addition, to commit a crime, made a homemade firearm, representing a modification of the K6-92 submachine gun "Wolf" ("Borz").

In June 1998, Tsigelnik (Shevtsov) with Reshetnikov arrived from Volgograd to Nefteyugansk in a VAZ-2121 car, where they watched Petukhov for a long time, collected information about him, his guards and travel routes.

On June 26, 1998, at about 8 o’clock in the morning on the pedestrian path between the intersection of Neftyanikov and Molodezhnaya streets in the 2nd micro district of Nefteyugansk, Reshetnikov shot Petukhov, who was on his way to work, and his guards. Tsigelnik (Shevtsov), armed to commit a crime with a 8.2-mm caliber KO-8.2 model’s hunting carbine and an F-1 grenade, monitored the environment and, if necessary, had to remove obstacles in the commission of the crime ^[6] .

In August 2006, the court found Pichugin guilty of organizing the murder of Petukhov and sentenced him to 24 years in prison. Vladimir Shapiro received 19 years, and Gennady Tsigelnik and Evgeny Reshetnikov - 18 years in prison each ^[7] . In 2007, the Pichugin case was sent for a new trial and Pichugin was sentenced to life imprisonment ^[8] . In 2008, the former co-owner of Yukos, Leonid Nevzlin, who was hiding from justice in Israel, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment ^[9] .

Opinions

In December 2009, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said: “The mayor of Nefteyugansk, where the main production activities of Yukos were carried out, what did he demand from the company? Taxes pay. They killed it. ” Putin stressed: “The problem is that such crimes should not be repeated here” ^[10] .

Some witnesses from the defense of Aleksey Pichugin pointed out in court that the killing of Petukhov was unprofitable for Yukos, as it disrupted the negotiation process with the administration of Nefteyugansk and generally negatively affected the company's reputation ^[11] .

• Petukhov, Vladimir - an article in the Tapedia . year 2012.
• Nikanorov S. Remembering the victims, we forget about the victims // Nezavisimaya Gazeta , December 4, 2009