Speaker 1: Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires?
Speaker 1: Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Reports suggests that
Speaker 1: he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists,
Speaker 1: was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Last year, more than
Speaker 1: a dozen Russian oligarchs died in the space of nine months.
Speaker 1: Many of the deaths are suspicious with links to the Kremlin.
Speaker 1: This is sad Oligach, an investigation into these recently dead
Speaker 1: Russian billionaires. It's created by me jake Hanrahan and my
Speaker 1: colleague Sergey Slipchenko. Sad Oligarch is a h eleven production
Speaker 1: for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. In this episode, we're going
Speaker 1: to be looking into someone with quite a different profile.
Speaker 1: This case is not about a rich Russian businessman, but
Speaker 1: a rich Russian scientist. He was a friend of the
Speaker 1: Kremlin and he died in mysterious circumstances. The Russian police
Speaker 1: quickly swept the case under the rug, categorizing it as
Speaker 1: an accident, but we think there's more to it. On
Speaker 1: September twenty one, twenty twenty two, anatotally Garishchenko seventy three,
Speaker 1: was visiting the Moscow Aviation Institute the Mai. He had
Speaker 1: a new role at the institute as an advisor to
Speaker 1: the current director, after some serious drama had unfolded previously.
Speaker 1: Until twenty fifteen, Garishchenko was the head of the institute,
Speaker 1: making him an official point of contact for the Kremlin.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, he was even an ally of Putin.
Speaker 1: As Garishchenko made his way down some steps at the institute,
Speaker 1: he apparently tripped and fell. He tumbled hard down several
Speaker 1: flights of stairs. By the time he got to the bottom,
Speaker 1: he was dead. According to an unnamed source in the
Speaker 1: Kremlin linked newspaper Zvestia, Garishchenko died there and then on
Speaker 1: the grounds of the institute. There are quote Erishchenko fell
Speaker 1: from a great height, flying down several flights of stairs.
Speaker 1: Medicks arrived at the scene of the incident and pronounced
Speaker 1: him dead ends quote. It must have been a heavy fall.
Speaker 1: Garishchenko was fairly old, sure, but he was neither unfit
Speaker 1: nor unwell. In fact, in photos he looks really good
Speaker 1: for his age. Presumably he'd bashed his head in on
Speaker 1: the steps on the way down, or perhaps broken his neck.
Speaker 1: We don't know for sure, as no official autopsy was
Speaker 1: ever released to the public. Moscow Aviation Institute released a
Speaker 1: statement at the time of Garishchenko's death, saying, quote the
Speaker 1: death was the result of an accident. His untimely demise
Speaker 1: was a colossal loss for the m AI and the
Speaker 1: scientific and pedagogical community end quote. Garishchenko had worked in
Speaker 1: aviation since nineteen seventy seven. ATMAI, he was a lead engineer,
Speaker 1: chief mechanic and vice director for the development of the
Speaker 1: institute's complex and social issues. From two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: to twenty fifteen, he was the head director of the MAAI.
Speaker 1: He published more than one hundred scientific papers and articles.
Speaker 1: So what does the death of a scientist have to
Speaker 1: do with sad oligach and a totally Garishchenko wasn't just
Speaker 1: any scientist, and the Moscow Aviation Institute isn't just any
Speaker 1: research center. Both are heavily linked to the Kremlin.
Speaker 2: Moscow Aviation Institute was established in nineteen thirty so it
Speaker 2: goes back to Soviet days.
Speaker 1: That's Arab Shabanian, a researcher with a special focus on aviation,
Speaker 1: specifically in the context of global unrest and authoritarian countries.
Speaker 1: I spoke to him to get an idea of the
Speaker 1: cooperation between the MAI and the Russian government.
Speaker 2: The name makes it sound like it's an independent university
Speaker 2: of some kind, but it's really not. It's they work
Speaker 2: for the Russian government and they have since the days
Speaker 2: of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union broke up,
Speaker 2: the Russian government became almost the sole contractor with this,
Speaker 2: with this university, and so a lot of the greats
Speaker 2: in Russian and Soviet history went through this this institute.
Speaker 2: Your Sukhoy's, your mccoyen's, your Illusians, Tupelevs, you know, all
Speaker 2: these famous aircraft names are folks who went through this institute,
Speaker 2: including the man who invented the AK forty seven and
Speaker 2: mister Koalashtikov, he is also an alumni of the institute.
Speaker 2: So that's the background there is that it's been very
Speaker 2: tight in with the government, at least as far as
Speaker 2: arms production and manufacturing goes.
Speaker 1: So when it says aviation, it's a lot more than that.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's aviation based, but it's more electrotechnical. They
Speaker 2: have several different schools. They have like aeronautical engineering, but
Speaker 2: they also have remote controls for flying vehicles, so you
Speaker 2: can imagine how that would be useful for more than
Speaker 2: just aircraft. They have like robotics and intelligence systems, astronomics,
Speaker 2: business engineering, things like that, social engineering, anything that can
Speaker 2: be related to aeronautics in some way happens at this institute.
Speaker 1: It's more than just learning how to fly right. And
Speaker 1: what kind of connection would this aviation institute have with
Speaker 1: let's say the military in Russia.
Speaker 2: Think of it like any of the defense contractors in
Speaker 2: the US, but kind of on steroids, right, Like, at
Speaker 2: least in the US, your lockheeds and your raytheons are
Speaker 2: probably going to supply some of America's allies from time
Speaker 2: to time. Whereas the design bureaus that are supported by
Speaker 2: this institute pretty much exclusively sell to the Russian government,
Speaker 2: who then it sells to outside customers. So their sole customer,
Speaker 2: their prime customer and prime interest is the Russian government.
Speaker 1: So this guy, Gusha Chenklo, he was the head for
Speaker 1: many many years of the institute. Then there was some
Speaker 1: kind of drama and then someone else was the head.
Speaker 1: But anyway, this guy was elected twice in a row.
Speaker 1: He made a lot of money through that. What kind
Speaker 1: of connection would the head of an institute like this
Speaker 1: have with the Kremlin. How direct would it be, do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it would be very direct. I
Speaker 2: mean the same in Russia happens in other countries right
Speaker 2: where this guy's name may be on the designs, but
Speaker 2: we both know one dude didn't design a fighter jet.
Speaker 2: There was a whole team behind him. But he's the
Speaker 2: guy who's gotten favor with the government. He's the government's
Speaker 2: favorite guy in this case. So to see him from
Speaker 2: voted to the head of the institute means that he's
Speaker 2: at least friendly with the Kremlin. They wouldn't promote somebody
Speaker 2: to the head of this institute who was not friendly
Speaker 2: or was an unknown entity. They wouldn't want that. And
Speaker 2: I think that seeing the previous leader fall kind of
Speaker 2: proves that if you're not entirely subservient to what the
Speaker 2: Kremlin wants, you might have an accident. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that's what happened, but that's what I would suspect.
Speaker 1: So, as you can see, this aviation scientist suddenly becomes
Speaker 1: a lot more relevant to this series. So who actually
Speaker 1: was anatotally Garishchenko? Anatotally Garishchenko born in nineteen forty nine,
Speaker 1: worked at the Moscow Aviation Institute for most of his career.
Speaker 1: He first got a job there in nineteen ninety seven,
Speaker 1: working his way up with varying progressive roles in engineering
Speaker 1: at the MAI. By all accounts, Garishchenko was very popular
Speaker 1: at his workplace. He was good at what he did well,
Speaker 1: liked and managed the institute well when he was first
Speaker 1: elected as the rector or, the head of the Moscow
Speaker 1: Aviation Institute in two thousand and seven. He was then
Speaker 1: elected a second time as the rector in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: As Aramunmi discussed, the MAI works hand in hand with
Speaker 1: the Kremlin, so much so that Grishchenko was given several
Speaker 1: prestigious awards by the Russian government. Notably, he was awarded
Speaker 1: the Medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland.
Speaker 1: This medal is a big deal for Russian citizens in
Speaker 1: favor of Putin's government. The medal is split into different
Speaker 1: categories for civilians and military, from first class to fourth class.
Speaker 1: It's awarded to Russians for quote outstanding contributions to the
Speaker 1: state associated with the development of Russian statehood, advances in labor, peace,
Speaker 1: friendship and cooperation between nations, or for significant contributions to
Speaker 1: the defense of the fatherland. Ends quote. My guess is
Speaker 1: seen as Garishchenko worked in aviation, he was awarded this medal.
Speaker 1: For the latter half of that statement, generally, if you're
Speaker 1: given this medal, it means Putin likes you. Aram explains.
Speaker 2: It's not like the Medal of Honor in the US,
Speaker 2: which is awarded for military prowess and has to be
Speaker 2: passed by Congress. This is something that can be given
Speaker 2: to people by the Kremlin who the Kremlin likes. It's
Speaker 2: like how Trump gave what's his name that radio show
Speaker 2: hosts the Presidential Medal of Freedom, right where it's like
Speaker 2: it kind of loses meaning after a while because it's
Speaker 2: just like, oh, look, all your friends happen to have
Speaker 2: this medal. Isn't that weird? Huh?
Speaker 1: That's interesting. But I would then say, then that probably
Speaker 1: shows that he was quite in favor in Putin's favorite.
Speaker 1: It's not just reports, oh he was an ally. That
Speaker 1: suggests to me like, yeah, that's the real deal. Definitely
Speaker 1: friends with this guy, at least on a level of
Speaker 1: where he's used for them kind of friends, right.
Speaker 2: Exactly, they were friends. Emphasis on were But yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it's kind of like, you know, if I've got
Speaker 2: the power to hand up medals on my homies, they're
Speaker 2: going to be decked out in metals. That's the way
Speaker 2: it's going to go.
Speaker 1: So it's clear Garishchenko was in good standing with the Kremlin.
Speaker 1: He got middles Awards and was the head of the
Speaker 1: Moscow Aviation Institute, which helped advance technology that assists the
Speaker 1: Kremlin's war efforts all across the world. Garrischenko was Putin's
Speaker 1: guy until he wasn't. Twenty fifteen, storm broke out at
Speaker 1: the m AI serious upheaval assist the universe and research institute.
Speaker 1: The similarly named Moscow Institute of Technological Aviation was shut
Speaker 1: down as it was considered an economic drain. The head
Speaker 1: of this now closed down university, Alexander Rogertsinski, was sent
Speaker 1: to the MAI to replace Garrishchenko with no election. No
Speaker 1: one voted him in as they had with Garishchenko twice.
Speaker 1: No one even knew this guy was coming to take over.
Speaker 1: This caused a lot of trouble at the MAI. Surgery
Speaker 1: explained the.
Speaker 3: Moscow Aviation Institute to the one that remained while the
Speaker 3: other one got shut down. Is actually apparently like a
Speaker 3: really really big deal. It's kind of like the only
Speaker 3: institute that focuses on like aerospace and aviation for Russia,
Speaker 3: and they basically train everybody in the They call it
Speaker 3: like life cycle of aviation, so like from engineers to
Speaker 3: maintenance to researchers, and from what understood, it's the biggest
Speaker 3: and essentially the only place that does that in Russia.
Speaker 3: So Anatoly Greshenko, you know, the one that passed away.
Speaker 3: He got elected as a director in twentousand and seven,
Speaker 3: reelected twenty twelve, and his contract was actually expiring in
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen. From one understand it seemed like he was
Speaker 3: going to get reelected again, but before that happened, a
Speaker 3: sister institute was kind of being run into the ground
Speaker 3: by Rojasinsky. So the guy that eventually replaced him, he's
Speaker 3: definitely he definitely like gets the blame for it.
Speaker 1: I found like a video on some kind.
Speaker 3: Of Russian talk show where he's being questioned like why
Speaker 3: is the university failing to produce graduates? Why is the
Speaker 3: university like ranking poorly things like that, and they're kind
Speaker 3: of they're basically pushing the blame onto him as like
Speaker 3: the director for failing to have results. And that's in
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen. So the Russian Department of Education decided that
Speaker 3: it's losing money, it's not producing results.
Speaker 1: They shut it down.
Speaker 3: But obviously, you know, all these the buildings, intact, a
Speaker 3: lot of professors are still there. They essentially merged it
Speaker 3: with the Moscow Aviation Institute, and MAI basically absorbed it
Speaker 3: and over like oversaw all the projects, all the studies
Speaker 3: that were going at the other institute. And for whatever reason,
Speaker 3: the Education department decided to install Razjatsinski without being elected,
Speaker 3: without really consulting with anyone. For whatever reason, they decided that, like,
Speaker 3: this guy's going to be in charge.
Speaker 1: So then they bring in a new guy without any election.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they just basically said this guy is going to
Speaker 3: be in charge.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This is the guy that ran the sister university into
Speaker 1: the ground, but for some reason, the Russian government decided
Speaker 1: to put him in charge in place of Garishchenko, who
Speaker 1: kept the MAI thriving. The sister university was doing so
Speaker 1: badly it had to be closed merged with the one
Speaker 1: that was doing well. So then the head of the
Speaker 1: failing Uni is then put in charge of the thriving one.
Speaker 1: It makes no sense. And then when roger Zinsky was
Speaker 1: put in charge, he wanted Gerrishenko out immediately, even though
Speaker 1: the guy didn't have long left on his contract.
Speaker 3: Initially he was supposed to wait for Geishenko to well,
Speaker 3: his contract was like coming up in I think it
Speaker 3: was the summer twenty fifteen, and so was from that
Speaker 3: point where like all this was happening. It says it
Speaker 3: said that there was two months left right for Geishchenko
Speaker 3: to leave. Anyways, So there's Jasinski receiving a lot of
Speaker 3: backlash from students, from professors. He almost got like, I
Speaker 3: don't know, mad or upset about it, and he removed
Speaker 3: Getashchenko almost overnight.
Speaker 1: Not only was Gerrishchenko removed from his position prematurely by
Speaker 1: an inept guy who the government route forced into the MAI,
Speaker 1: but he was completely wiped out from the organization. His
Speaker 1: name was removed from everywhere immediately. This after four twenty
Speaker 1: years of loyal service.
Speaker 3: He was removed from the website, completely gone. Like there's
Speaker 3: other directors, like previous directors. So these guys were used
Speaker 3: to work here, you know, Geroshinko was completely like deleted
Speaker 3: off the website, replaced by Rajasinski. His office was cleared out,
Speaker 3: name played removed to replaced toward the Rajasinski's. It was
Speaker 3: like overnight the news came out and then the next
Speaker 3: day he was gone, no kind of warning he was gone.
Speaker 1: This reminds me slightly of what happened to Alexander to Yolokov,
Speaker 1: the Gazprom executive from episode two. He had all his
Speaker 1: images wiped from the Gazprom records within twenty four hours
Speaker 1: of being found dead at his home. He worked there
Speaker 1: in prestigious positions for more than twenty years. Similarly, Garishenko's
Speaker 1: profile was removed overnight from the MAI after decades of
Speaker 1: service to the organization. His though, was before he even died.
Speaker 3: And again, this is two months before the contract was
Speaker 3: supposed to end anyway, so they could have just waited
Speaker 3: for him to run up his contract and then quietly
Speaker 3: like replace him.
Speaker 1: Shortly after this happened, Rajetsinski went on a scorched earth
Speaker 1: campaign as the newly installed head of the Moscow Aviation Institute.
Speaker 3: Immediately, Rojasinski started big and dictator basically any professor who
Speaker 3: continued to protest the change or backing get a shink
Speaker 3: In any way kind of like defending him, saying like
Speaker 3: he should have stayed got fired. A lot of people
Speaker 3: lost funding for their programs, their studies, whatever they were
Speaker 3: working on. From what I can understand as punishment for
Speaker 3: supporting Getashinko. They either lost funding or their projects were
Speaker 3: fully like shut down.
Speaker 1: So after running the MAI for years with great popularity
Speaker 1: and efficiency, Garishchenko was removed and this lunatic was installed
Speaker 1: without anyone voting him in. This guy then recked apply,
Speaker 1: acting like a dictator and ruining people's research if they
Speaker 1: dared to speak out against him. Now, Surgery and Me,
Speaker 1: Doug and Doug into why this guy Rojetzinsky was installed,
Speaker 1: But none of it makes sense.
Speaker 3: I can't explain it. The only I can think of
Speaker 3: is he had better connections with the Education Department.
Speaker 1: What did become apparent, though, is that not only was
Speaker 1: Rojetzinsky a hot head, he was a total fraud throughout
Speaker 1: this whole thing.
Speaker 3: It was kind of like a couple of months where
Speaker 3: students were protesting, professors were speaking out about it. This
Speaker 3: online group found that his PhD thesis, the certation, whatever,
Speaker 3: the thing that got him to PhD was like eighty
Speaker 3: percent plagiarized.
Speaker 1: Almost his entire thesis was stolen, and yet there he
Speaker 1: was the new head of Russia's most prestigious aviation institute.
Speaker 1: The only explanation I can think of is that someone
Speaker 1: up in the Kremlin wanted him there for reasons we
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 3: For a year Roja since key kind of one article
Speaker 3: says rain terror on academia, and they say he kind
Speaker 3: of continued to fuck things up for the institute. From
Speaker 3: what I can understand, people are basically saying he's like
Speaker 3: a fraud. And to begin with, I think his like
Speaker 3: study area or whatever. It's like economics, so not exactly
Speaker 3: related to aerospace and aviation. It's kind of weird. And
Speaker 3: also like this is a you know, it's an academic position,
Speaker 3: so you'd kind of think, like, okay, like why is
Speaker 3: there so much drum about this?
Speaker 1: Who cares for this?
Speaker 3: Especially if you're not passionate about it, but especially with
Speaker 3: the MAI. It gets a load of funding from the state.
Speaker 3: They're getting probably billions of rubles a year, and the
Speaker 3: director gets to decide who gets what, Like I said,
Speaker 3: to punish people, he froze at he's froze like funding.
Speaker 3: You know, he can do that, he can redirect it,
Speaker 3: he can send it elsewhere, and I'm sure he's more
Speaker 3: than happy to pocket some of that. You know, that's
Speaker 3: completely possible.
Speaker 1: Of the one year, Rogertzinsky quietly left his position as
Speaker 1: the head of the MAI, having caused so much chaos.
Speaker 1: A new head was brought in, and eventually so was
Speaker 1: anatotally Garishchenko. He took on a new role as an
Speaker 1: advisor to the new head, was that the MAI almost
Speaker 1: every day. He also helped students, help professors, worked on
Speaker 1: various research projects. He was back to doing what he loved.
Speaker 1: That is, until he fell down the stairs to his death.
Speaker 1: So let's address the elephant in the room. Did someone
Speaker 1: push Garishchenko down the stairs? If they did, why, Perhaps
Speaker 1: it has some connection to Russia's continued war on Ukraine.
Speaker 1: After a year and a half of brutal Massacre's regular
Speaker 1: bombings on civilians and countless lives destroyed, Putin's full scale
Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine has been a disaster for the reputation
Speaker 1: of Russia's military. They're nowhere near Kiev. They've lost almost
Speaker 1: fifty thousand soldiers, had two thousand tanks destroyed. More than
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty aircraft have been shot out of
Speaker 1: the sky by the Ukrainians. Before the invasion, Russia's military
Speaker 1: were considered the second best in the world. Not so
Speaker 1: much now. Putin must be absolutely livid. Now we know
Speaker 1: that the Moscow Aviation Institute plays a huge role in
Speaker 1: Russia's military efficiency. Remember, Gerrishchenko was given that fancy medal
Speaker 1: that covers significant contributions to the defense of Russia. Is
Speaker 1: it possible that Gerrishchenko was blamed for some of Russia's
Speaker 1: military dysfunction? There were already indications he was no longer
Speaker 1: in the Kremlin's good books, with the Roger at Zinsky
Speaker 1: madness and all. Maybe someone punished Garishchiko by pushing him
Speaker 1: down those flights of stairs. I spoke with Aram Schabanian
Speaker 1: about this. If it is a case of this guy
Speaker 1: didn't actually fall downstairs, let's say in theory, and maybe
Speaker 1: he did fall out of favor with the Kremlin, and
Speaker 1: he fell so far out of favor that he then
Speaker 1: fell down the stairs and died. What could it possibly
Speaker 1: be that pushed him out of favor. Well, this guy
Speaker 1: is at the Moscow Aviation Institute, and right now there's
Speaker 1: a war going on. Obviously, Russia has invaded Ukraine and
Speaker 1: he's trying to destroy the place. A lot of that
Speaker 1: is of course involving fighter jets, Russian fighter jets. What
Speaker 1: a role have the Russian fighter jets played in Ukraine?
Speaker 1: From what I've seen from the when I was there
Speaker 1: as well in some of the kind of research and
Speaker 1: what I've I've been hearing from people, it seems that
Speaker 1: there's an issue with the Russian fighter jets. Is that right?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yeah, you haven't seen them as heavily engaged as
Speaker 2: you might have expected from the beginning of this war.
Speaker 2: I mean you would have expected them to be flying
Speaker 2: close air support missions regularly, and they really haven't done
Speaker 2: that since the first couple of days of the war.
Speaker 2: There's still a problem, but it's not like in say Syria,
Speaker 2: where a Russian jet would just circle the area and
Speaker 2: strike at will. Right the air space is more contested
Speaker 2: than that, and so they can they can fight the
Speaker 2: Ukrainians from a distance, but their fighters directly over the
Speaker 2: target are pretty vulnerable still when all is said and done.
Speaker 2: A large part of why the Russians didn't succeed in
Speaker 2: taking Kiev in the early days is going to be
Speaker 2: come down to the lack of close air support. If
Speaker 2: the Russian fighters were willing to press the risks and
Speaker 2: they were willing to go over Ukrainian airspace, they could
Speaker 2: be a real risk or a real threat to Ukrainian drones,
Speaker 2: not quad copters, but larger drones, the birectors and stuff
Speaker 2: like that. The thing is, these Russian fighter pilots and
Speaker 2: strike pilots aren't really as willing to take these risks
Speaker 2: because they recognize that the airspace over Ukraine itself is contested,
Speaker 2: so they are more willing to engage in standoff attacks.
Speaker 2: And you see that with everything from fighter jets launching
Speaker 2: longer range missiles to Russian attack helicopters pulling up at
Speaker 2: the last minute near the battlefield and lobbing rockets over
Speaker 2: the horizon rather than directly engaging a target. Pilots understand
Speaker 2: that when they get shot down, things don't go very
Speaker 2: well for them, and that's pretty universal in a lot
Speaker 2: of wars. I mean, pilots to get lynched. They understand
Speaker 2: the risks involved there, and so I think that's why
Speaker 2: a lot of them are a lot more risk averse.
Speaker 2: And I think the Kremlin will be very frustrated with
Speaker 2: that as we go forward, because they're going to say, well,
Speaker 2: you're not taking the same risks that the ground forces
Speaker 2: are taking.
Speaker 1: Right, That's not the institute's fault, right. The institute is
Speaker 1: the people that build them and make them right, So
Speaker 1: why would the Kremlin then see them as responsible for that?
Speaker 2: Putin, he could say, you didn't design aircraft or components
Speaker 2: or avionics or whatever it may be that could counter
Speaker 2: the Ukrainians adequately or quickly enough. You lost the war
Speaker 2: for us. Look how quickly the Americans adapted. Look how
Speaker 2: quickly everybody else can adapt?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And I think that part of this problem is because
Speaker 2: the Russian Air Force as an independent entity is still
Speaker 2: very new. Under the Soviet Union, Russian air power was
Speaker 2: subservient to the army. There wasn't an independent air force,
Speaker 2: and so that means that everything the air wing of
Speaker 2: the army did was with the army in mind. So
Speaker 2: they had a lot more close air support aircraft, a
Speaker 2: lot of the Su twenty five's and stuff. They didn't
Speaker 2: spend as much on the quote unquote sexy fighters like
Speaker 2: the US did, and the long range bombers, and so
Speaker 2: that's why the US had an advantage in airpower for
Speaker 2: the longest time. The Russians have only recently started to
Speaker 2: catch up with spending a lot more money on advanced
Speaker 2: fighters and things like that.
Speaker 1: So maybe Putin or someone else high up in the
Speaker 1: Kremlin had Garishchenko pushed down some stairs as punishment and
Speaker 1: a message to fix things right in the war an assassination,
Speaker 1: but make it look like an accident. Maybe there's another
Speaker 1: angle to this case, though, that we yet to look into,
Speaker 1: something that makes it even more relevant to sad Oligach.
Speaker 1: Money Now, Whilst the average Russian academic is unlikely to
Speaker 1: make big money in Russia, it's different for people like Garishchenko,
Speaker 1: people who become the head of an institute as major
Speaker 1: as the Mai. SERGEI went through Russian income documents and
Speaker 1: found that Garishchenko was quite the highest flyer.
Speaker 3: I listened to the salaries for these directors. It starts
Speaker 3: off pretty low, and some of the smaller regions, kind
Speaker 3: of core regions with around five hundred thousand rubles, which
Speaker 3: I think translates to about twenty thousand dollars. And I
Speaker 3: saw one with a director in Saint Petersburg. It sounds
Speaker 3: like this guy is from like Putin circle. He made
Speaker 3: two hundred and forty six million rubles, which seemed a
Speaker 3: lot to me. And I think that translates to a
Speaker 3: couple million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a year to be the head of a scientific institute. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And we know that Gerrishchenko was
Speaker 1: an ally of Putin, so I think, you know, perhaps
Speaker 1: he was on the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Actually, I was trying to find anything on him and Rojasinski,
Speaker 3: and I found some documents. It's titled like anti corruption
Speaker 3: documents or something. Essentially when you work for a government institute.
Speaker 3: I know this because this is something they do in Ukraine,
Speaker 3: but essentially you kind of declare like these are the
Speaker 3: homes I own, these are the assets, this is the
Speaker 3: money I have. And I found some on both Rajasinski
Speaker 3: and get a Shinko from around this. Well, first I
Speaker 3: looked at it was Jasinski and he only has one salary,
Speaker 3: the declaration or whatever.
Speaker 1: The following is a small look into the life of
Speaker 1: the form ahead of the Mai or Jetzinski. No, the
Speaker 1: salary he pulled in in one year versus the assets
Speaker 1: he declared on the phone.
Speaker 3: Seventy thousand USD, So that would be from the first
Speaker 3: year he worked there, right, or the only year he
Speaker 3: worked there. Then he has a porschekm and he has
Speaker 3: two apartments. Then his wife, her declaration has twelve million rubles,
Speaker 3: which again is two hundred thousand USD. And I was like, wow, okay,
Speaker 3: this guy is kind of seeing to be set up,
Speaker 3: like I don't know, like basically a Hollywood villain, you know,
Speaker 3: came in removed this passionate professor who's such a good guy.
Speaker 3: Everybody loves him, everybody's gussing about him. He's driving this
Speaker 3: Porschekyen and I'm like, I'm starting to feel bad for
Speaker 3: he had a shinko. And then I look at his assets.
Speaker 1: Now this the following is a look into anatotly garish Chenko's,
Speaker 1: or at least what he himself declared on the anti
Speaker 1: corruption forms that surge you uncovered.
Speaker 3: This guy has three apartments, a datcha so summer home.
Speaker 3: He has three garages, which I assume are connected to
Speaker 3: the apartment slash homes. He has another home, two cars,
Speaker 3: and this is the stuff that he declared.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: His salary is pretty similar the salary is pretty normal.
Speaker 1: But then he has all these assets. Well, how did
Speaker 1: the garish chenco afford all this fancy stuff? Was it
Speaker 1: gifts or did he have some kind of secondary income.
Speaker 1: He didn't declare one, but he did declare his garages,
Speaker 1: his three apartments, his cars, and his holiday homes.
Speaker 3: When you declare these things, you're kind of saying like,
Speaker 3: this is what I'm willing to show you. If you
Speaker 3: want to say I have something else, like go ahead
Speaker 3: and improve it. You know, this is not like you're
Speaker 3: obligated to reveal everything. This is the stuff he was
Speaker 3: comfortable saying.
Speaker 1: But wait, there's more. The head academic of the MAI
Speaker 1: not only had all of these garages, the houses, and
Speaker 1: the kas, he also owned land also. He has two
Speaker 1: land plots.
Speaker 3: One is six hundred and sixty five square kilometers, one
Speaker 3: is three thousand square kilometers.
Speaker 1: How does the head of a research university on seventy
Speaker 1: grand a year end up with a load of land,
Speaker 1: three apartments, a holiday home, their own home, two cars,
Speaker 1: and two garages. Maybe Garishchenko was getting more than medals
Speaker 1: from the Kremlin. Perhaps in this opaque world of Russian
Speaker 1: government funded research facilities that have direct ramifications to the
Speaker 1: ongoing shambles that is Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Getting assassinated
Speaker 1: is a possible workplace hazard. It's either that or Garishenko
Speaker 1: simply just fell down the stairs and it was an accident.
Speaker 1: Everything else is a coincidence. The chilling thing is I
Speaker 1: think in this case, both results are possible. Sad Oligarch
Speaker 1: is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced,
Speaker 1: researched and edited by me Jake Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenkok
Speaker 1: co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music by Sam Black, artwork
Speaker 1: by Adam mcdoyle, sound mix by Splicing Block. Go to
Speaker 1: Jakeanrahan dot com for more information