Maksim Kurochkin

Maxim Borisovich Kurochkin, nicknamed Mad Max, from the late 1990s until 2006, he had a large business in Ukraine (he owned five regional power companies, several hotels, and one large market); in 2004, he became involved in Ukrainian politics (as a sponsor) at the highest level—founder of the "Russian Club" in Kyiv in 2004. He was mentioned in connection with the case of the poisoning of Yushchenko in 2004. In the 2006 parliamentary elections in Ukraine, he sponsored the party "Russian–Ukrainian Union" (part of the Vitrenko Bloc). In Ukraine, he was considered the organizer of the storming of the "Ozerka" market in Dnipropetrovsk on October 30, 2006

His father, Boris Ivanovich Kurochkin, was a diplomat. In addition to diplomatic service, he wrote poetry and even songs.

Maxim Kurochkin was personally acquainted with a number of politicians and political analysts: In Russia — with businessman and politician Alexander Babakov Kurochkin is said to have been involved in robberies, extortion and other criminal activities. Several criminal cases were opened against Kurochkin, but all of them quickly came to nothing.

The press reported that the reason for Kurochkin's "untouchability" lay in his cooperation with Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo. Allegedly, Rushailo sought to use Kurochkin's group to push Chechen and other organized criminal groups out of Moscow's markets. Hotels: the Premier Palace and Dnipro in Kyiv; the Oreanda in Yalta; the Dniester in Lviv; At the club's opening, Prime Minister Yanukovych said: "Today we have come to a practical solution — the decision to create the Russian Club, which will take on a whole range of functions in relations between our states, primarily humanitarian and also economic." In a letter to Rinat Akhmetov (handed over from the courtroom on 18 March 2007 through correspondent Sonia Koshkina), Kurochkin demanded that he "sort out" those who killed his people: "Rinat! The day before yesterday my people were killed. I came to visit you; unfortunately, you and I never met. Sort this out, please! I will give you what you really want. Rinat, I know what you truly want – a long, long life in a healthy body. Yours. Deal with them like a true Muslim – as written in the Koran". However, Kurochkin was kept in the detention center, probably because on the eve of his arrival (30 October 2006) his people had taken part in a scandalous seizure of the "Ozerka" market. It is also believed that influential politicians, friends of Kurochkin in Russia and Ukraine, for some reason abandoned him in 2006. people armed with stun grenades and traumatic pistols attempted to break into the "Ozerka" market early in the morning in order to seize the management building. However, a unit of the "Berkut" special police force that arrived at the scene disarmed the attackers and forced them to lie down in long rows on the asphalt. Ninety people were detained, and two "Berkut" officers were injured. A significant part of this nighttime and morning attack was filmed and shown on Ukrainian television. The attackers were mostly hired professional security guards dressed in camouflage. The market's management accused Maxim Kurochkin of the attempted seizure.

Murder of Kurochkin's people Shortly after Kurochkin's arrest, the most important members of his group were killed:

On December 16, 2006, at 1:00 a.m., the first deputy director of the central "Ozerka" market, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Vorobyov (a Russian citizen born in 1967), was shot dead on the steps as he was leaving the "Salut" cinema entertainment complex in Dnipropetrovsk. His 24-year-old female companion received a gunshot wound to her right leg and was hospitalized. The killer fired more than 20 shots at close range from a pistol before fleeing.

Murder Kurochkin was killed on 27 March 2007 at around 17:00 in the courtyard of the Sviatoshynskyi District Court in Kyiv by a shot to the heart, after the end of a court hearing in his case. At the hearing immediately before his death he had asked to be released and said that he did not want to die. Kurochkin was shot from a "Finnish sniper rifle 'Sako TRG-42'", The car was later found abandoned in Kyiv.

According to the newspaper Segodnya, Kurochkin's last words were "Vot blyad". The same shot also wounded the police sergeant Andrei Litvinchuk, who was escorting Kurochkin.

However, on 8 October, the Kyiv prosecutor's office filed an appeal against the decision of the Sviatoshynskyi District Court.

Investigation into Kurochkin's murder, 2007–2010 In May 2007, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) arrested six individuals, including Furman, Pugachev, and Yeremenko, suspected of involvement in the murder of Kurochkin and members of his team — the deputy director of the Ozerka market, Vorobyov, and three people on the Obukhiv highway.

By 8 April 2008, the investigations into the murder of the deputy director of the Ozerka market and the killings on the Obukhiv highway had been completed.

On 26 March 2010, the Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv announced that the identity of the hitman who killed M. Kurochkin had been established. The killer was put on the wanted list. This man had previously lived in Dnipropetrovsk but had obtained Russian citizenship. At one time, he had worked in a special unit of the security forces. However, the police stated that the chances of finding him were extremely slim, because "such people do not live long."

On 2 December 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Ukraine) announced that the person who ordered Kurochkin's murder was a Russian citizen and was located outside Ukraine. Russian law enforcement agencies were involved in the search.

Reaction five years later Ukraine's Ombudsman Nina Karpachova recalled that Kurochkin's murder in the courtroom "shocked, sounding like a shot at Ukraine's image". (criminal boss Zhora Armani), born in 1976, a native of Dnipropetrovsk, a former special forces soldier and athlete, who obtained Russian citizenship in the 2000s.

Ratushny was charged in absentia (and placed on the wanted list in Ukraine) in May 2007; in April 2008 he was placed on the international wanted list, but the case was soon suspended; it was reopened only in early 2011 – materials on Ratushny were sent to the "National Central Bureau of Interpol in Ukraine". Since October 2011, the case has been handled by the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry states that the Kurochkin case has stalled: "If Armani hasn't been eliminated, he's hidden somewhere under a fake passport with a changed appearance".

Multimedia Diagram of the "shot at Kurochkin" — shows the layout of the buildings and the direction of the shot. Aired on the Ukrainian TV channel "Inter" in March 2007. A short account of Kurochkin's story, presented on the programme "Exclamation Mark" (Znahk oklyku) on the Ukrainian TV channel "TBi". May 2010. Video fragment about the "attempt to seize Ozerka" on 30 October 2006 by the raiders of M. Kurochkin. A more detailed version was shown on Ukrainian television. Vorobyov (deputy director of the Ozerka market) at a press conference in the premises of the Union of Journalists in Dnipropetrovsk: "Kurochkin will soon enter (Ukraine), and will soon be here." 3 November 2006. Maksim Kurochkin is detained at Kyiv Boryspil Airport upon arrival in Ukraine. 20 November 2006. Kurochkin's last seconds before stepping into the courtyard where he was killed. 28 March 2007. The verdict is handed down to the killers of Vorobyov (deputy director of the Ozerka market). 23 March 2010. When the judge asked him to state his name, Kurochkin introduced himself as the "messiah". He also "blessed" everyone present and professed his love for his "common‑law wife" Yulia: "And do you love me like that? But I still love you more than anyone else." After Kurochkin's murder, an ambulance takes away a wounded policeman. Boris Ivanovich Kurochkin, song "Mama". 4 May 2010.