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Speaker 1: Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the

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Speaker 1: Russian elite has been found dead.

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Speaker 2: Reports suggests that he fell out of a window, poisoned

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Speaker 2: with mushrooms.

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Speaker 1: Died of heart failure, died of carbonnoxide poisoning. How comes

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Speaker 1: they are they?

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Speaker 3: Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in

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Speaker 3: the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.

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Speaker 4: Many have hidden links to the Kremlin.

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Speaker 3: This is sad Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into

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Speaker 3: these recently dead Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created

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Speaker 3: by me Jake Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov.

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Speaker 3: This is a H eleven studio and Coolso Media production.

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Speaker 3: September eighth, twenty twenty five. A bridge in Kaliningrad. The

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Speaker 3: Kaliningrad region is an unusual place. It's Russian territory, but

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Speaker 3: it's completely encircled by European countries. It's like an island,

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Speaker 3: only instead of being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by

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Speaker 3: Poland and Lithuania, countries that both have serious hostilities with

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Speaker 3: Russia NATO countries. This six thousand square mile exclave is

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Speaker 3: over four hundred miles from the Russian border. Still, Kaliningrad

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Speaker 3: answers directly to the Kremlin. It's Russia, just not mainland Russia.

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Speaker 3: It's been like this for a while. Originally, though Kaliningrad

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Speaker 3: was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, thought of proto

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Speaker 3: Germany that began in the seventeen hundreds. Back then it

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Speaker 3: was called Koenigsburg. Was eventually seized in nineteen forty five

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Speaker 3: by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.

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Speaker 3: The Communists kicked most of the Germans out and gave

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Speaker 3: the region the new name Kaliningrad. The namesake is a

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Speaker 3: nod to the Soviet politician Mikhail Kalinin.

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Speaker 5: Kalinin, who rose from peasant by to be President of

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Speaker 5: the Supreme Council.

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Speaker 3: When the USSA collapsed in nineteen ninety one, Kaliningrad became

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Speaker 3: part of the new Russia. It's remained that way ever since.

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Speaker 3: Of course, a strategically important area for the Kremlin, a

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Speaker 3: highly militarized fly in Europe's ointment. It's here in Kaliningrad's

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Speaker 3: Gurievsky area, where a body of forty three year old

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Speaker 3: entrepreneur Alexi. Sinitsin is laid out under a bridge. His

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Speaker 3: limbs are stiff, is positioned on the bank of a

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Speaker 3: small river. He's dead, very dead. His body is missing

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Speaker 3: one vital component.

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Speaker 4: It's head. Snitsin has been decapitated.

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Speaker 3: The nailed up spine sticks out from a gaping wound

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Speaker 3: at the neck. Strangely, the head is not near the body,

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Speaker 3: it's some distance away. Next to this gruesome scene is

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Speaker 3: a carefully coiled towing cable high strength nylon rope made

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Speaker 3: for pulling vehicles. Polisa called after this nightmare is discovered

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Speaker 3: by passers by crops arrive not the scene, and then

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Speaker 3: their rapport.

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Speaker 4: They write that.

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Speaker 3: Its quote could be a suicide. How Sennitskin managed to

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Speaker 3: cut off his own head, I don't know. The toe

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Speaker 3: rope is thick, woven, dull. It's not like a piano

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Speaker 3: or razor wire, which in theory, could maybe decapitator man

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Speaker 3: if he used it as a noose. But then how

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Speaker 3: would the body end up on the riverbank with its

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Speaker 3: head in another location? It could be a suicide, but

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Speaker 3: that is very unlikely, it seems. The police are also

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Speaker 3: not so sure. They open a criminal investigation into the case,

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Speaker 3: mostly citing the tow cable suspicious evidence. Such a grizzly

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Speaker 3: scene creates a lot of questions. First and foremost for us,

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Speaker 3: who the hell was Sinnitsin? A death as brutal as

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Speaker 3: this does not happen on a whim. We've been working

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Speaker 3: on this case tirelessly, and the simple answer is so

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Speaker 3: Knitsin is a bit of a ghost. Very little information

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Speaker 3: is out there about him, no real social media presence,

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Speaker 3: no record of his childhood, no real effort made to

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Speaker 3: follow up on the report of his death. Even by

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Speaker 3: the standards of the Kremlins Russia, it's very unusual. I

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Speaker 3: reached out to people associated with him and I got nothing.

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Speaker 3: Every single time brick Wall, You'd think someone would at

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Speaker 3: least want to make sure the correct impression was given

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Speaker 3: about this man after he was left headless under a bridge.

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Speaker 3: This is not a normal death. Researcher Victi Mihiel, who's

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Speaker 3: working on this with us, managed to dig out some information,

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Speaker 3: but honestly, there is not a lot out there.

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Speaker 6: We have no clue and no information about this guy.

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Speaker 6: If you look him up, you cannot find any information

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Speaker 6: other than his birthplace and some very vague stuff such

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Speaker 6: as that he appeared in Russia two times on records,

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Speaker 6: once when he was born in Vorkuta in nineteen eighty two,

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Speaker 6: if I'm not mistaken, and the second one when he

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Speaker 6: self proclaimed as an entrepreneur in twenty fourteen in Saint Petersburg. Well,

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Speaker 6: there is a bit of a distance between Saint Petersburg

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Speaker 6: and Kaliningrad, right in twenty sixteen he moved randomly in

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Speaker 6: Kaliniingrad twenty eighteen started to work for this K potash company,

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Speaker 6: and in twenty twenty two, just four years later, somehow

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Speaker 6: he became the general director the company.

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Speaker 3: Victor mentions here K potash is something I'll get to

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Speaker 3: in a bit related to soap mines and fertilizer. Keep

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Speaker 3: it in the back of your mind, though, as it

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Speaker 3: may hold some answers as to why Senitzin died the

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Speaker 3: way he did.

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Speaker 6: There is no information about his studies, parents, whatever, what

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Speaker 6: makes him eligible to work as a director. When you

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Speaker 6: need studies, when you need a diploma in economics, you

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Speaker 6: need to be even an engineer. I'm saying because an engineer,

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Speaker 6: because this guy was literally making projects, as in engineering

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Speaker 6: projects of the minds which did these extractions and whatnot.

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Speaker 6: But what I was saying, at some point in the

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Speaker 6: Colini Grad collective unconsciousness, people thought, wow, I wonder if

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Speaker 6: we have a director for this company, because for some

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Speaker 6: reason nobody knew the director was from twenty to twenty two,

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Speaker 6: twenty twenty five where this person was to beheaded.

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Speaker 3: This is another interesting point Victors brought up here. Not

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Speaker 3: only is Senitsan's past highly elusive, so are the records

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Speaker 3: of some of the places he worked at. It says

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Speaker 3: if he floated in as a specter and took with

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Speaker 3: him everyone's memories as he left. Maybe it's just bad

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Speaker 3: record keeping in Kaliningrad. Maybe Russia, in all of its

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Speaker 3: iterations throughout history, has been a place of meticulous record keeping.

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Speaker 3: They're literally known for it. From Imperial Russia and the

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Speaker 3: Soviet Union to post USSR collapse and now Planet Putin,

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Speaker 3: bureaucracy has always been a big part of the Russian experience.

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Speaker 3: They're great record keepers, but they're also selective record keepers.

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Speaker 3: When it helps state, red take and minute details are

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Speaker 3: all very important, but when it doesn't help the state,

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Speaker 3: everything suddenly vanish. It many such cases when the Soviet

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Speaker 3: Union went belly up. For example, Russia eventually ended up

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Speaker 3: restricting access to the Soviet era archives. Courts would unlawfully

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Speaker 3: limit the records so researchers couldn't uncover the true horrors

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Speaker 3: of the USSR. They'd reclassified documents, hide them, destroy them,

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Speaker 3: or simply say they got lost along the way. Another

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Speaker 3: example is the twenty sixteen drug scandal, when a state

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Speaker 3: run doping program for Russian Olympic athletes was exposed. It

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Speaker 3: was found that the Russian government was guaranteeing that the

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Speaker 3: tests that came back positive for performance enhancing drugs were hidden.

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Speaker 3: There was an institutional effort that made any incriminating documents disappear. Okay,

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Speaker 3: now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right, enough

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Speaker 3: of that, now back to the shore. You get my point.

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Speaker 3: Records have regularly vanished into the ether in Russia when

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Speaker 3: they might expose stay wrongdoing.

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Speaker 4: Don't get me wrong, though, This is not just a

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Speaker 4: Russian problem.

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Speaker 3: It is a political problem all across the world, left

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Speaker 3: right up, down center. Everybody is at it. Just take

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Speaker 3: the so called Epstein files for example. The US government

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Speaker 3: on all sides has or is actively hiding important evidence

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Speaker 3: that exposes the involvement of the rich and power full

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Speaker 3: in the world's worst known pedophile human trafficking ring. Try

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Speaker 3: to get your head around that these are people who

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Speaker 3: talk about the morals of their government and excoriate their foes,

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Speaker 3: and yet they are knowingly taking part in an open

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Speaker 3: cover up to help some of the worst people on earth.

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Speaker 3: It's absolutely diabolical, It's corrupt, and sadly, I don't think

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Speaker 3: it will ever change.

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Speaker 7: Anyway.

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Speaker 4: I digress.

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Speaker 3: Still, the fact that this all takes place in Cliningrad

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Speaker 3: might be why things are a little difficult to decipher.

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Speaker 3: It's not exactly an area that has the spotlight. In fact,

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Speaker 3: it's not a place many people in euro have been

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Speaker 3: too atall. A holiday destination, is not. I actually tried

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Speaker 3: to go to Kaliningrad myself in twenty seventeen. At the time,

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Speaker 3: there were rumors that the state had been fortifying the

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Speaker 3: borders and bringing more heavy weapons into the area. I

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Speaker 3: wanted to go and see what I could verify and

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Speaker 3: write a story on it. As a journalist, I had

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Speaker 3: to apply for a visa. I was denied. Later I

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Speaker 3: was told that the reason for this was my recent

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Speaker 3: report in the so called Denetsk People's Republic or the DNR.

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Speaker 3: This is one of the most contentious separatist held areas

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Speaker 3: in East Ukraine. The Russian back militias controlling the area

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Speaker 3: framed it as some kind of post Soviet utopia. They

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Speaker 3: even brought in hardline communist extremists from across Europe to

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Speaker 3: live there and help spread international propaganda.

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Speaker 4: It was very weird. Now I had an inklin.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't quite the war torn red paradise they made out,

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Speaker 3: so I traveled over to see for myself. As soon

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Speaker 3: as I arrived, I was assigned a group of minders

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Speaker 3: who took me on a three day press tour of

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Speaker 3: the region.

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Speaker 4: We've been allowed permission here on condition.

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Speaker 3: That we have a minder, so basically they take us

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Speaker 3: to the people they want us to speak to. It's

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Speaker 3: very controlled, but we've come here anyway because these guys

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Speaker 3: no longer see themselves. I couldn't go freely myself anywhere.

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Speaker 3: It was essentially a North Korea style propaganda campaign.

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Speaker 4: In real time.

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Speaker 3: They put on a show to make it seem as

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Speaker 3: if everything was running great and that the only issue

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Speaker 3: was the Ukrainians attacking them.

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Speaker 4: But every staged event they took me to fell apart.

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Speaker 3: Something would go wrong, and the minders would just hope

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Speaker 3: that I didn't notice.

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Speaker 7: Okay, can we go in.

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Speaker 3: For example, when they took me to an old lady's

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Speaker 3: house that had been bombed, they prompted her to tell

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Speaker 3: me how much she loved the then separatist leader of

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Speaker 3: the DNA, Zakachenko. Only problem was when they presented her

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Speaker 3: with a newspaper with a full page image of Zakachenko.

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Speaker 3: She didn't know who he was.

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Speaker 1: Then.

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Speaker 3: This sweet Bubushka also accidentally let on that the house

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Speaker 3: they were showing us around that wasn't actually hers. She

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Speaker 3: lived in a different house in the same compound. She

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Speaker 3: was being used for propaganda and forced to lie for

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Speaker 3: the camera. In the evenings, the one hotel I was

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Speaker 3: allowed to stay at became a human trafficking hub. Big

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Speaker 3: men with flattheads entered the restaurant bar area with a

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Speaker 3: dozen or so young women. They would offer these women

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Speaker 3: up like cattle to anyone willing to pay.

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Speaker 4: Surprise, surprise, the.

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Speaker 3: Local comrades had no qualms about this at all. If

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Speaker 3: that wasn't bad enough, my DNR minders also faked a

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Speaker 3: gun battle at a front line position whilst there They

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Speaker 3: literally told me the shooting will begin soon.

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Speaker 1: Movement for soldiers.

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Speaker 3: And that is that incoming, And sure enough bullets flew

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Speaker 3: past our heads as we ducked into a trench. I

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Speaker 3: covered many wars by this point, and I knew that's

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Speaker 3: just not how it works. Front Lines are, of course,

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Speaker 3: by nature, very unpredictable. At this scene, the DNA commanders

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Speaker 3: explained how the Ukrainians were constantly violating the ceasefire. Only

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Speaker 3: the gunfire was coming from an opposite burm across the way,

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Speaker 3: which I knew was the DNR position. I even checked

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Speaker 3: it when I got back, angulated it on the maps,

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Speaker 3: got analysts to check it out. It was DNR position.

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Speaker 3: No Ukrainians there. The whole thing was staged to influence

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Speaker 3: my reporting. Luckily I twigged early on, and we've been

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Speaker 3: filming every fuck up on the slide. Long story short,

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Speaker 3: I made a documentary showing that the DNR is an

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Speaker 3: authoritarian shitthle ran by Russian commanders and local organized criminals. Now,

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Speaker 3: even though Russia was then pretending they were actually nothing

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Speaker 3: to do with the DNR, I was subsequently not granted

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Speaker 3: permission to enter Kiliningrad or any other Russian territory at

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Speaker 3: that time. All of this is relevant to understanding the

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Speaker 3: psyche of the Kremlin. In practical terms, when it comes

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Speaker 3: to on the ground manipulation, they have no qualms. I mean,

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Speaker 3: just quickly take the DNR for example. Again, all of

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Speaker 3: the leaders who run place when I was there in

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Speaker 3: twenty seventeen have since died in targeted assassinations right there

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Speaker 3: in the DNA. The Russians of course blame Ukraine, but

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Speaker 3: trust me, there is a stack of evidence which suggests

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Speaker 3: it was the Kremlin who took out their own useful

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Speaker 3: idiots when they were no longer needed.

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Speaker 4: So with all this in mind, I'm.

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Speaker 3: Sat here thinking to myself, is it possible that this

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Speaker 3: kind of behavior is also happening in Kaliningrad. Honestly I

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Speaker 3: don't know, but I do want to speak to someone

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Speaker 3: who's actually been there.

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Speaker 4: As I said, I didn't make it there.

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Speaker 3: So I reached out to journalist Sam Farley, who went

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Speaker 3: to Kaliningrad in twenty eighteen. I guess, firstly, just if

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Speaker 3: you can't explain why you went to Cliningrad.

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Speaker 2: The World Cup that Russia held in twenty eighteen, England

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Speaker 2: played there against Belgium. This is weird atmosphere that, like,

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Speaker 2: the place is quite weird itself.

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Speaker 1: We went drove into the.

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Speaker 2: Country and drove out again from Poland, and that border

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Speaker 2: took hours to get over. And I think whenever I

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Speaker 2: think about it now and think how difficult it must be. Now,

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Speaker 2: every place I've ever been to has like some positives.

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Speaker 1: It's not the It's not the nicest place.

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Speaker 3: I understand, Like people keep saying, it's this kind of

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Speaker 3: brutallest place. Is it as bad as it sounds? Like

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Speaker 3: gray concrete and all that.

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Speaker 2: Gray concrete is just the perfect scrypted words for it.

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Speaker 2: The only nice splash of color I can remember was

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Speaker 2: like there there was like a McDonald's that was really

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Speaker 2: lit up well, and it's just red and yellow, and like,

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Speaker 2: genuinely that's the only color in the whole place, Like

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Speaker 2: it's it's incredibly depressing. It almost felt the other kind

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Speaker 2: of moment I kind of remember really well in terms

264
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Speaker 2: of colors. We were staying at the top of a

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Speaker 2: sort of tower block and at the bottom was a

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Speaker 2: shisha bar and kind of walking back to the place,

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Speaker 2: walking to and from the place every day.

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Speaker 1: The place was gray. It was the weather wasn't particularly

269
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Speaker 1: good either, which didn't help.

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Speaker 2: The sky was gray, the buildings are gray, and there

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Speaker 2: was just this sort of like luminous green kind of

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Speaker 2: light emanating from the shisha bar, and that's all you

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Speaker 2: really saw was was lights from shop fronts.

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Speaker 1: It's very depressing, and it's not in a.

275
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Speaker 2: It's not kind of Russian or Soviet in like a

276
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Speaker 2: kind of fun interesting way like Transnistria.

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Speaker 1: It's so weird but.

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Speaker 2: Really fun kind of kitchen like it's that's really interesting place.

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Speaker 1: Whereas this just felt depressing.

280
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Speaker 3: Okay, now it's time for a quick outbreak, all right.

281
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Speaker 3: Not for that, now back to the short.

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Speaker 2: It felt like every bad part of Russia combined, and

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Speaker 2: it lacked the vibrancy of any of the other Russian

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Speaker 2: cities I've visited at that tournament or I've been too

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Speaker 2: for that, and.

286
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Speaker 1: Even the people just they just well kind of very.

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Speaker 2: Wire not particularly friendly, like keeping themselves themselves.

288
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Speaker 3: Did you feel at all that there was this kind

289
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Speaker 3: of Russian military presence?

290
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Speaker 2: To be honest, I didn't feel that on the street

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Speaker 2: at all. Anytime I would say I did think like shit,

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Speaker 2: this is this is a bit unusually. It's kind of

293
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Speaker 2: when we did go through that border. Crossing it was

294
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Speaker 2: stacked with soldiers and all sorts of sort of military

295
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Speaker 2: now or security or whatever, and I did kind of

296
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Speaker 2: think this is obviously. I know they had invaded playing

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Speaker 2: like four years prior to that.

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Speaker 1: He didn't feel like Europe was on like a war

299
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Speaker 1: setting at that point. Going through that border, I was

300
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Speaker 1: genuinely quite surprised.

301
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Speaker 2: Every other kind of route I'd gone into Russia, I'd

302
00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:22,280
Speaker 2: done it through air and then it just felt like

303
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:25,679
Speaker 2: every every airport was the same as any other airport

304
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Speaker 2: in the world. Yeah, crossing did feel very, very kind

305
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Speaker 2: of defined, and a lot are if I'm honest.

306
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Speaker 3: So that's the backdrop for where this horrific death took place,

307
00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 3: decapitated amongst the concrete and brutalism. Before his untimely death,

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Speaker 3: Alexi Sanitsin was the CEO of k Potash, the company

309
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Speaker 3: that dealt with different types of natural minerals in the region.

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Speaker 3: It's a bit confusing what Sannitzin was in charge of where,

311
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Speaker 3: so let's speak to surgery to clarify. He's most definitely

312
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Speaker 3: smart than I am. One thing that is confusing me, right,

313
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:13,000
Speaker 3: So some media, and this is both Russian media or

314
00:22:13,040 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 3: at least like Russian focused. One says that he was

315
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:21,439
Speaker 3: the CEO of a salt mine, and another says he

316
00:22:21,720 --> 00:22:25,680
Speaker 3: was the CEO of a fertilizer company. Have you worked

317
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:28,480
Speaker 3: out what's what there is that like the same company

318
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:30,679
Speaker 3: with different parts and people are getting the wrong end

319
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Speaker 3: of the stick. I can't work it out.

320
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Speaker 5: It's like a company and then has a subsidiary. From

321
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:36,920
Speaker 5: my understanding, he's kind of in charge of both, and

322
00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 5: the both things are kind of true because so potash

323
00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,360
Speaker 5: is what he's like the project that's supposed to mine potash,

324
00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:47,760
Speaker 5: which is essentially salt. I mean it's more complex than that,

325
00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:51,360
Speaker 5: but basically just minerals on the ground and they're used

326
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Speaker 5: for fertilizer. So essentially potash is extremely vital to agriculture.

327
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Speaker 5: Back in I think it was twenty twenty three to

328
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Speaker 5: twenty four, the war in Ukraine kind of affected a

329
00:22:59,560 --> 00:23:03,000
Speaker 5: lot of export of potash and attackted a lot of countries.

330
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Speaker 5: I believe it was in Africa and some other southern countries.

331
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Speaker 5: They were near like famine just because they couldn't get

332
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Speaker 5: this fertilizer and the basically messed up all the crop.

333
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Speaker 5: So it's a big deal. It's it's a big industry

334
00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,560
Speaker 5: and Russia was actually, i believe the biggest or the

335
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 5: second biggest exporter in the world before the war started,

336
00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 5: and they had a major kind of collapse because you know,

337
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,879
Speaker 5: they a lot of their customers were the West, and

338
00:23:25,960 --> 00:23:28,280
Speaker 5: they all got sent they all started sentioning Russia, So

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Speaker 5: that industry had took a big hit.

340
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Speaker 3: So let's work out what could have got Sinitsin into

341
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,960
Speaker 3: hot water. The first lea there is what Sergey just mentioned.

342
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:41,560
Speaker 3: Russia's potash industry nose dive in after it was hit

343
00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 3: with war related sanctions. That is obviously going to affect

344
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Speaker 3: a man who's the CEO of the biggest potash company

345
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Speaker 3: in Kaliningrad. But even by Krimlin standards, they could hardly

346
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:55,760
Speaker 3: blame sinits In for this. They're the ones that decided

347
00:23:55,760 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 3: to invade Ukraine. Either way, the issue resolved itself. After

348
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:04,800
Speaker 3: the initial dip, the potash trade stabilized. Actually in some

349
00:24:04,840 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 3: regions it became even more profitable due to scarcity. Russia

350
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 3: worked around the sanctions and for them everything was fine.

351
00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 3: For some reason, though the profits of k potash did

352
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:22,199
Speaker 3: not reflect this. Sinitsin's company was losing money hand over fist.

353
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 4: K Potash, who.

354
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 3: Sinitsen worked for, was the head of with both companies

355
00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:40,399
Speaker 3: since October twenty twenty two. He was not exactly helping

356
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:43,840
Speaker 3: the company's financial situation, right, Like from the nodes we

357
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 3: have here, like he was in a very dire financial situation.

358
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, so what kind of happened is it sounds like

359
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,640
Speaker 5: there's basically a plan to.

360
00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: Create a factory.

361
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:54,840
Speaker 5: From my understanding, it's not fully operational yet and he's

362
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 5: basically going around from the city, so from Kalingrad to

363
00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:02,320
Speaker 5: the locals and kind of trying to make this thing work.

364
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,160
Speaker 3: Now, this is interesting. Sanitsen was getting pushed back locally.

365
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:11,400
Speaker 3: He needed to rapidly expand the operations of K Potash,

366
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 3: but the people did not want the new factories on

367
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 3: their land. K Potash went on a pr offensive to

368
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:21,680
Speaker 3: try and win over the residents, to let everyone know

369
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,840
Speaker 3: how many new jobs that would provide, how lucrative it

370
00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:27,399
Speaker 3: would be for the town, and even paid for a

371
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:30,479
Speaker 3: big mural to be painted. They paid homage to a

372
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:35,159
Speaker 3: Soviet era fighter pilot. None of it worked. The people

373
00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,320
Speaker 3: weren't having it. They could not be swayed this easy.

374
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 3: This wasn't just some town hall meeting either. Locals actually

375
00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 3: took to the streets to protest k potash.

376
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Speaker 4: They were very angry.

377
00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 5: There was an incident where the residents basically, the residents

378
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,920
Speaker 5: don't want any like construction, mining, et cetera kind of

379
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,240
Speaker 5: going on around them. It can be pretty destructive you

380
00:25:58,320 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 5: have to like dig up, you know, like one of

381
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,639
Speaker 5: those giant like mining holes. It would be like a

382
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 5: pretty large effect.

383
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: In the community.

384
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,119
Speaker 5: And they actually stood up against it. They kind of

385
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:10,239
Speaker 5: the local said we don't want this year putin ended

386
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,840
Speaker 5: up stepping in. Well, you know, the government stepped in.

387
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 5: They always kind of referred that like this issue got

388
00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:18,840
Speaker 5: risen to putin and he stepped in, and they basically

389
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 5: did like assessment. The residents wanted like canceled. They wanted

390
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:26,800
Speaker 5: the project completely canceled. But what ended up happening is

391
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 5: they basically moved it a few I think it was

392
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,200
Speaker 5: just like a few kilometers down from the initial location.

393
00:26:31,560 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 5: So they were like, Okay, this is still happening, but

394
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 5: I guess we'll just move it over a bit.

395
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:36,560
Speaker 4: I believe it was the.

396
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,959
Speaker 5: Mine itself and the processing plant. So it was supposed

397
00:26:39,960 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 5: to be kind of like the entire operation in one

398
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 5: place they got slightly moved down, which you know was

399
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,439
Speaker 5: kind of like a victory for those residents, but it

400
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,760
Speaker 5: also didn't really address like it's still happening just a

401
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:50,560
Speaker 5: little further off.

402
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,120
Speaker 3: So, Surge, you just mentioned, it's at this stage that

403
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:00,240
Speaker 3: the Russian government on the mainland became made away of

404
00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 3: the issue so much so that they got involved directly.

405
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,679
Speaker 3: Could this potentially be the turning point that led to

406
00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 3: Sinitsyn's death. We don't know, but there was a lot

407
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:21,800
Speaker 3: more scandal to come. Remember that, mind, we were just

408
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,480
Speaker 3: talking about. Well, it's still not being finished. Even with

409
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 3: the new construction location. It's actually still in the design stage.

410
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:34,119
Speaker 3: K Potash didn't manage to fully sway the locals even

411
00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:35,720
Speaker 3: after the Kremlin got involved.

412
00:27:36,119 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 4: They're still angry.

413
00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,160
Speaker 3: The estimated date for the project's completion is now over

414
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 3: a decade delayed from when it was originally meant to

415
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 3: be finished. It won't be done, they say until maybe

416
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:50,000
Speaker 3: twenty thirty two.

417
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:51,320
Speaker 4: And how long it.

418
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,919
Speaker 3: Will take them to recoup the losses is anyone's guess.

419
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 4: God knows.

420
00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:00,720
Speaker 3: Kay Potash needs the money right now. The company's bottom

421
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 3: line is in the toilet they're working at a negative

422
00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:09,640
Speaker 3: of three point four billion rubles that's around forty two

423
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:15,360
Speaker 3: million dollars. Their assets are a loss of fifteen billion

424
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 3: rubles one hundred and eighty five million dollars. K Potash,

425
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 3: which Sinitsen was running until his untimely death, has more

426
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:30,000
Speaker 3: debt than it has assets, and it is not making money.

427
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:34,800
Speaker 3: If that wasn't bad enough, k Potash has investors at

428
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 3: the door.

429
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 4: They want their money.

430
00:28:39,760 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 7: There are at.

431
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,080
Speaker 4: Least thirty three legal cases.

432
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 3: Against the company because of course they can't afford to pay.

433
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,600
Speaker 3: If Sad the Oligarch has taught us anything is that

434
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 3: you probably don't want to owe money to anything involved

435
00:28:54,360 --> 00:29:00,280
Speaker 3: with Russian state agricultural projects. Trust me on this. Along

436
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 3: with all this, there will been several other strange issues

437
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 3: attached to k Potash. For example, a water supply company

438
00:29:07,560 --> 00:29:10,800
Speaker 3: tried to extort them out of around two hundred and

439
00:29:10,800 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 3: fifty thousand dollars, claiming the company it was using more

440
00:29:14,120 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 3: water than what they did. Seems like everybody in that

441
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:22,880
Speaker 3: region is on the take. Then there's the case of

442
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 3: a journalist K Potash actually got.

443
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:26,280
Speaker 4: Sent to prison.

444
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:31,840
Speaker 3: He was writing negative articles about them because well, they

445
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 3: were doing a lot of negative stuff. In a strange

446
00:29:36,920 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 3: turn of events, k Potash claims the reporter blackmailed the company,

447
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 3: saying he'd stop the articles if they gave him one

448
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 3: million rubles around twelve grand. This journalist was sent to

449
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:53,600
Speaker 3: prison for three years over this and his publication was

450
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:58,239
Speaker 3: shut down. To this day, he says he's innocent and

451
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:00,680
Speaker 3: was quote framed for his crime.

452
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 4: Very dodgy situation.

453
00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 3: Now, none of this points in any one direction other

454
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 3: than total chaos. It seems as if Ka Potash is

455
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:17,240
Speaker 3: an absolute disaster from the ground up.

456
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:19,160
Speaker 4: They even got.

457
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,080
Speaker 3: Fined in twenty twenty one for filing documents to the

458
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:26,280
Speaker 3: wrong government body. Alex Knitzin did not have his ship

459
00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 3: in order whatsoever. With a company like Kay Potash in

460
00:30:31,720 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 3: a place like Kleningrads, I think it's safe to say

461
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:38,400
Speaker 3: that it's no stretch to imagine there might have been

462
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,840
Speaker 3: unsavory characters involved who are owed.

463
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:47,320
Speaker 4: Money, a lot of money. Could this be wise?

464
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,479
Speaker 3: And Knitsin had his head cut off and was dumped

465
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:56,520
Speaker 3: under a bridge, after all, he was the CEO. Not

466
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,080
Speaker 3: saying he should ever come to harm, but if there's

467
00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,160
Speaker 3: anyone to blame for the catastrophic financial losses.

468
00:31:02,600 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 7: It's obviously him.

469
00:31:06,520 --> 00:31:10,280
Speaker 3: Still, the police of the region are leaning publicly into

470
00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 3: the claims of a suicide, but at the same time

471
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 3: they have opened up a potential murder case. Whilst confusing,

472
00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,680
Speaker 3: at least they are doing their jobs properly, or at

473
00:31:22,760 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 3: least it looks like that. It's all very closed off still.

474
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:29,400
Speaker 3: But what we have found out though, is that they've

475
00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 3: used this investigation to confiscate documents from the offices.

476
00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:35,880
Speaker 7: Of k Potash.

477
00:31:36,280 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 3: We also know that examinations have been ordered and colleagues

478
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 3: and relatives of Sinitsin are being interviewed. Naturally, the police

479
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 3: no more than they're letting on. In another report talking

480
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 3: about Sinitsin, we found the following statement quote The enterprise

481
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:58,480
Speaker 3: itself is quite closed, non public in nature, and its

482
00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 3: general director was not present in any way in the

483
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 3: Killiningrad public space. He did not give any interviews. Most

484
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 3: heads of enterprises of this level are visible. I can't

485
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:18,080
Speaker 3: say the same about Senitsin end quote. As I said

486
00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 3: at the start, he was a very private man. Whilst

487
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 3: this case is puzzling, we still don't know one quite

488
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:32,960
Speaker 3: crucial detail. Where was Sinitsin's head found In all of

489
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 3: the reports from the police and the media. They just

490
00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:39,600
Speaker 3: state that the head was found in another place. Was

491
00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 3: that next to the body in the river or twenty

492
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 3: meters down the road?

493
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 4: We just don't know.

494
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:49,320
Speaker 3: I think that detail would tell us a lot. There

495
00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:53,240
Speaker 3: are also still no real images of the crime scene,

496
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 3: no further reports from the press, and no quotes from eyewitnesses.

497
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:03,480
Speaker 3: This to me shocking from such a brutal and unusual death.

498
00:33:05,320 --> 00:33:08,280
Speaker 3: Because opaik as all of this is, I've come to

499
00:33:08,320 --> 00:33:12,080
Speaker 3: think that whatever happened to Alexi Sinitsin is one of

500
00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:18,000
Speaker 3: two scenarios. There was a brutally violent murder. The victim's

501
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:20,360
Speaker 3: head was cut from the body and then dumped in

502
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 3: a public place to send a message, likely connected to

503
00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:28,560
Speaker 3: some kind of organized crime, the state, or both. Or

504
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 3: it was the most unlikely suicide in Kliningrad's history.

505
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 7: You decide.

506
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 3: You've been listening to sad Oliga season two. Produced by

507
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:12,600
Speaker 3: H eleven Studios for Cool Zone Media. Writing, editing, producing,

508
00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:19,480
Speaker 3: concept and recording by myself Jake Hanrahan, Research and reporting

509
00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:25,839
Speaker 3: by Sergei Slipchenko, me and victim Mihail. Executive producing by

510
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 3: Sophie Lichtman, Music by Sam Black, artwork by George Jutful

511
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:39,439
Speaker 3: sound mixed by splicing Block. See my other projects at

512
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:43,359
Speaker 3: Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on social media at jake

513
00:34:43,560 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 3: Underscore Hanrahan, that's h A N R A H A M.

514
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 3: Can't Castolic CATHOLICSIC Catholic