Akhat Bragin

Akhat (Alexander) Khafizovich (Sergeevich) Bragin (, , ; 1953 — 15 October 1995) was a Ukrainian businessman of Volga Tatar descent. He was a mafia figure of the Donetsk Oblast and later the president of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk until his death.

Biography Akhat Hafizovich Bragin was born in 1953 in the Kuibyshevskyi District of Donetsk city, Ukrainian SSR. Before he became the president of Shakhtar Donetsk, he was also a butcher at a local market in Oktyabrsky Raion.

Education Donetsk Soviet Trade Institute (today Donetsk National University of Economy and Trade), dropped out.

Convictions 24 November 1971 – convicted (the Criminal Code of Ukraine) by the Kuibyshev District Court of Donetsk to a conditional year of imprisonment with correctional term of 2 years without confiscation of property

Personal life Bragin had a wife and two children.

Assassination and attempts

An attempt to kill Bragin took place on 19 March 1994 at Pisky (Bragin's hometown). Pisky, Yasynuvata Raion is a rural settlement of Yasynuvata Raion, just to the west from the Donetsk International Airport. A group of bandits from the Ryabin-Kushnir gang (run by Yevhen Kushnir and Anatoliy Ryabi) opened fire on Bragin's pigeon coop while Bragin was visiting his birds. Bragin survived the attempt.

Bragin died in a bomb attack on Sunday 15 October 1995 at the Shakhtar Stadium in Donetsk. After this event, Rinat Akhmetov became president and chairman of Shaktar Donetsk. The reason for Akhat's murder was his business dealings. Known in the criminal underworld as 'Alik the Greek', his organization got into conflicts with several others. The investigation into his death made little progress until the confession of a rival gangster, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of former policeman Vyacheslav Synenko.

Legacy In honor of Akhat Bragin, the mosque of Donetsk is called Ahat Jami.