A gang of henchmen of the Ukrainian special services who kidnapped Russians has been sentenced

Gang leaders sentenced to 19 years

The verdict against a gang of kidnappers of businessmen was handed down on Monday by the Moscow Regional Court. The gang consisted of citizens of Ukraine, and the “track record” of those convicted is impressive: organization of a criminal community and participation in it, kidnapping, robbery, illegal trafficking in weapons, explosives or explosive devices, attempted murder, abuse of power, arms smuggling.

The criminal community was created in 2014 in Kyiv by Igor Mishchenko, Andrey Baidala and Dmitry Shimansky. Previously, all three were related to the activities of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Later, the rest of the defendants joined the ranks of the group. They planned to kidnap Russian citizens, move them to the territory of Ukraine, seize their property, organize and commit murders and other grave and especially grave crimes.

The investigation established that the group was put together from April 2014 to October 2019, and in 2020, the attackers kidnapped a businessman in Chelyabinsk, who was then moved to the Oryol and Kaluga regions. The criminals held the entrepreneur in order to obtain funds from his cryptocurrency accounts, which contained bitcoins worth more than 50 million rubles.

In addition, the group committed at least two attempted murders, against an employee of the DPR Ministry of Internal Affairs and against a republican militia. The second failed thanks to the work of the Russian FSB, which detained the villains.

During the investigation, it became clear that the criminals also smuggled weapons and explosives across the border. Grenades, improvised explosive devices and rifled firearms were seized from them.

All convicts have Russian citizenship; only two were born in the Ukrainian SSR, Kormich – in Dnepropetrovsk, Dolgov – in Donetsk.

Most of the convicts looked depressed at the verdict, but judging by their reaction, the announced verdict was not a big surprise.

The court punished Timur Makarov and Eduard Tavgorashvili most severely – they were given 19 years in a maximum security colony and a year and a half of restriction of freedom at their place of residence. In addition, the first will pay a fine of 700 thousand, the second – 500 thousand rubles. Maxim Pyzin will go to prison for 17 years and pay 500 thousand rubles. After his release from prison, he, like the rest of the gang, will face a one-year restriction of freedom. Ervin Ismailov received 15 years in prison, his fine was 600 thousand rubles. Denis Usenko was sentenced to 14 years in prison, a fine of 400 thousand, Oksana Kapkaeva – to 13 years of general regime and 400 thousand. Evgeniy Moroz received 11 years in prison, a 300 thousand fine. Sergei Dunaev, Vadim Dolgov and Maxim Mishchenko received 10 years in prison, the first was fined 400 thousand, the second and third – 200 thousand each. Andrei Kormich has the mildest punishment – 9 years in prison, a 200 thousand fine and 1 year of restriction of freedom.

In addition, the convicted will have to compensate for the damage caused to the businessman – 293.5 million rubles, as well as moral damage; each member of the community will pay from 50 to 200 thousand.