WEBVTT - The Siberian Heart Attack 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.840 Something strange is going on. Another member of the Russian 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:05.040 elite has been found dead. 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:08.160 Reports suggests that he fell out of a window poisoned 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:09.600 with mushrooms. 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.520 Died of heart failure, the ed of carbon monoxide poisoning. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:14.280 How comes you are they are? There? 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:19.880 Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in 0:00:19.920 --> 0:00:24.960 the space of three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.080 Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. This is sad 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:34.880 Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently dead 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:39.800 Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created by me jake 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:44.839 Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenko. This is a 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:56.600 H eleven studio and Coolso Media production. December twenty seventh, 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.560 twenty twenty three. It's a freezing cold day and Tobolsk, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.720 an ancient city in the east of Russia. The temperature 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:09.640 is as low as minus sixteen. Everything is frozen. The 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:12.040 rivers have a thick layer of ice on the surface 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:17.680 and a heavy blanket of snow covers the ground. This 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:21.920 is the Siberian region, a cold, harsh place that covers 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:27.160 over five million square miles of the Russian Federation. Tubosk 0:01:27.360 --> 0:01:31.320 is considered by some to be the real capital of Siberia. 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.560 Founded in fifteen eighty seven, the city was at one 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.200 point an epicenter of early Russian colonization. Back then, the 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.920 detachment of Cossacks traveled through the rural mountains, attacking and 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:49.200 defeating the Muslim state of Seabit Canate. From thereon, all 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:55.320 helbroke loose in the modern Erado. Tobolsk is a peaceful, 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:59.960 if not isolated place for miles around. When the weather's bed, 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:03.200 there were green hills as far as the eye can see. 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.120 But today the frost is heavy, the ground is white 0:02:08.120 --> 0:02:13.720 with snow, and the roads are thick with traffic stains slush. 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.120 So on this day that we zoom in on politician 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:24.720 Vladimir Igorov, forty six years old or of a weight, overpaid, corrupt. 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:27.720 He's stood by a window on the third floor of 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:29.880 his house on Kedrovoya Street. 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:31.560 It's a rich. 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:36.640 Area, big cars and bigger houses. Igorov is the second 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.800 wealthiest politician in the region. His ill gotten gains have 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:47.519 built him a comfortable lifestyle, well until they didn't. Somehow, 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.640 of Vladimir Igorov falls clean out of the window of 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:56.760 his house around thirty five feet to the concrete his way. 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:00.000 He's free falling at a speed of about fourteen meters 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:03.040 per second. Takes him only one and a half to 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:07.200 hit the concrete. With a force like that, an energy 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.120 of roughly nine thousand duels. Your body breaks as it lands, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:15.720 huge damage to your skeleton, shattered bones, limbs broken from 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.960 their joints, your organs blend up inside of you, internal bleeding, hemorrhaging. 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:27.560 Its game over. According to an eyewitness of Vladimir, Igorov 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.359 hit the ground hard in the courtyard of his house, 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.840 But then there were reports that said he died of 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.400 heart issues. It sounds like a bit of an understatement 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.720 for a man that fell out of his window. I mean, 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:44.720 if your heart bursts upon impact against hard cement from 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:49.640 a higher fall, technically that dying of heart issues. I 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:52.160 don't think that's how they meant it. The press was 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.120 essentially saying he simply had a heart attack and keeled 0:03:56.160 --> 0:04:05.720 over and died. To add to the confusion, Russian newspaper 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:10.880 Commissant was first to report on Igorov's demise. They said 0:04:10.920 --> 0:04:14.520 there was a quote no external signs of criminal death. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:19.800 This was related to them for beatim by the Investigative 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.000 Committee for the twin Men Region, part of a government 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:28.320 agency that explores serious crimes. Not only is that a 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.480 pretty suspect sentence to come out with whilst the body 0:04:31.560 --> 0:04:39.120 is still warm, it's also a very hasty conclusion. Both 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.880 Commercant themselves and state media tast News reported that investigators 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.920 were still establishing the cause of Igorov's death when this 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.680 quote was provided to Bolsk City Council then published an 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:57.000 obituary saying Igorov diet due to quote a result of 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:02.080 an accident. So let's try to get this straight. Vladim 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:06.080 Egorov fell out of a window and died of high issues. 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.680 Was the Russian authority said it was an accident just 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:14.560 after they told the media that they're still investigating. Sounds 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:16.320 to me like the right hand they didn't know what 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:21.520 the left hand was doing. So why the confusion and 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:25.679 why does it seem so fishy from the get go? Well, 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.839 in the words of the seventeenth century Sufi poet Rumy, 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:35.799 greed makes a man easy pray for death. Vladim Egorov 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:44.720 was a very greedy man on a scale of one 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.800 to ten. How corrupt would you say this ego of 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.599 fellow was one being like not corrupt at all and 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:58.400 ten being Joseph Muscat level corruption like that fellow from Malta, Like, 0:05:58.520 --> 0:05:59.760 how corrupt was this guy? 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.839 From what I can see like quite Crplet's say definitely 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.400 in the upper side, and we could say maybe like eight, 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:07.479 but I feel like if we knew everything, it would 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:08.240 definitely be a ten. 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:13.360 That's journalist Sergei Slipchenko, my partner on this project. You 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.880 remember him from the first season together. We've once again 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:22.039 been working away researching these strange deaths of the Russian elite, 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.920 not because we particularly give a shit about them, many 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:29.880 have supported or profited from Putin's war on Ukraine, but 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:34.440 because to investigate these strange deaths is to better understand 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.119 the turmoil inside the Kremlin. That's my theory, at least 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:39.760 back to Sergi. 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.200 You know, when I was initially looking into him, it 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.480 was like, oh, he passed away, and they're like, if 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:48.000 you remember in twenty sixteen he was charged for essentially 0:06:48.040 --> 0:06:51.240 not charging businessmen like for the lens, you know, like 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.040 they're like renting like space. I don't know exactly what 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.039 it was, whether it was like farmland, or actual like 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.960 industrial space or something like that. But essentially he was 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:03.040 and charging people for the rent, like he wasn't collecting it. 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.120 He was working for the city of Taboysk and he's 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.479 working as the head of the committee for I believe 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.680 it translates to like land rights and forestry, so essentially 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:15.960 kind of overlooking the city's lands forests, and part of 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.840 his job was, you know, collecting rent. People are supposed 0:07:18.840 --> 0:07:21.880 to pay him for using the land. And what he 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.240 was found guilty of was negligence of essentially not collecting 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.800 rent from several businessmen, allegedly his friends, right, so they 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:31.960 can run their business. 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:33.680 They don't have to pay him. 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.640 I mean, the thing is is like officially he didn't 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.280 collect it at all, and that's the city lost it. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:42.120 If I had to guess, I would think he collected it. 0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:44.280 He just didn't put it into the city's budget kind 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:46.760 of thing, right, which was supposed to. In these articles, 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:48.520 the ones that came out around his death, they just 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:53.560 mentioned like his sentencing, which was one point six million rubles, 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.600 which I looked up in twenty sixteen. 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.400 That was about twenty thousand dollars like. 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.960 American twenty thousand years d but actually found in our 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.679 article from the time when this is kind of happening, 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:05.520 like in twenty fourteen, is when he was accused of 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.840 this by deputies of Tubolsk City DUMO, so essentially like 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:13.000 local politicians. They sent a letter to the regional prosecutor 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.440 and they actually claimed he stole forty four million rubles. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:18.480 They said that, like he caused forty four million in 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.160 damages to the city budget, which I again kind of 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:24.840 converted at the time that was one million and a 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.920 quarter when in a quarter million USD. So what they 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.560 kind of alleged was a lot higher than when he 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.120 was charged for, which you know could be depending on 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:37.920 the city, Like the city decided, okay, we can only 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.080 prove that one point six million rubles was the crime, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:44.160 whereas in reality was much higher. 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:45.559 And that's what those guys alleged. 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.400 Like that article that was reading kind of paints a 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.760 picture of what kind of personal Goo was because in 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.839 addition to the letter like claiming that he did this, 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:57.679 I guess you can say Besslumuan right fraud. They were 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.240 also those two deputies that reported him. They actually reached 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:04.200 out to the regional like a head of I think 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.240 it's an Investigative Committee essentially a regional like I guess 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.280 you could say FBI kind of comparative that they oversee 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.280 the region's security. They're mostly involved in like economic crimes 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:17.760 and criminal crimes prosecution on a federal level, they're in charge. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.360 And they reached out to them saying that they were 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.280 concerned about threats from you Gotov. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.040 According to them, he would talk kind of openly like 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.640 they should be killed and buried. That's a quote that 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:28.640 they give to a newspaper. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:34.240 So the reports from this don't have much information. In Russia, 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.360 the press isn't free, and reporting on government corruption is 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:42.640 a bad idea for a journalist's career. On the twenty 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.600 twenty five Press Freedom Index, Russia was ranked one hundred 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.920 and seventy one out of one hundred and eighty, the 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:54.679 latter being the worst. All independent Russia news channels are banned. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.800 If you try to criticize the state, you might end 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:04.719 up in serious trouble. Okay, now, with time for a 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:13.760 quick outbreak. All right, enough for that. Now back to 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:21.199 the shore. Still, we've deduced that Vladimir Igorov was up 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.840 to one of two things in regards to what he 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.679 was care and charged for one, he was allowing his 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:31.840 friends and associates to use state owned land for free, 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:37.400 abusing his position to likely court favor with other wealthy individuals. 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:42.200 Or two, he was saving state owned land for his 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.679 friends and associates, making sure they got. 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:46.600 The plots they wanted. 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:49.320 Instead of putting the rent they then paid for these 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:52.640 areas back into the local council kitty as he was 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.760 supposed to, he simply kept all the rent for himself 0:10:56.080 --> 0:11:01.280 put it in his pocket. Wam double corruption? Personally, I'm 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.439 with Surgery on this. I think option two is most 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:06.640 likely both pretty much. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:07.439 As bad as each other. 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:11.520 Though Igorov was happy to steal from his community and 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.959 threaten the people who weren't happy about it. This wasn't 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.560 just the discruntal public though. The people he threatened held 0:11:18.600 --> 0:11:20.600 some way in the Toposka area. 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.679 So they're the deputies right there. Essentially, It's like if 0:11:25.720 --> 0:11:28.200 a politician came to the police and was like, Hey, 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:32.760 this other you know, bureaucrat or whatever is like embezzling 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.440 funds and then he was like openly talking about, you 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.680 know what, those guys should be killed. That that was 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.800 their concern. They reached out to the guy they're like, hey, 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.520 can you look into this, And interestingly, at the bottom 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.640 of the article, it's like, at least according to these politicians, 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:50.920 the head never heard about their complaint and they're not 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:56.160 looking into it. So allegedly nothing was done about those 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.160 threats or at least their concerns about those threats. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:01.880 But they're saying they're saying they didn't even hear about it. 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:04.400 They said that, like, you know, they reported it, and 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.600 they said they didn't hear anything about it, that like 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:12.240 their that their concerns weren't hurt, and that they couldn't 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.160 file an official complaint kind of thing. That's according to them, 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.560 So I mean, it's kind of like he said, she said, 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:19.720 but yeah, they said that they weren't even heard that 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:22.199 there was no official you know, you can like file 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.920 like an official complain of the police basically, and nobody 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:29.520 took them in. Two years later, he again, he did 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:33.560 get prosecuted. They found kind of like negligence. I guess 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.360 that he just happened not to pay attention to collecting 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.840 those you know, millions, but he didn't even get punished 0:12:38.840 --> 0:12:39.120 for it. 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.559 So, as you can see, Vladimir Igorov should have been 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:48.440 prosecuted his crimes were not committed past the statute of limitations. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.880 It was only two years before he was brought to court, 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:53.560 so we should have got. 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:56.480 What was coming to right. We looked it up. 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.760 He was supposed to be sentenced to two years correcttional labor. 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.040 This means he would have been allowed to continue working 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.920 in his position in the local government, but would have 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:11.080 been fined five to twenty percent of his wages. This 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.280 money was to be renumerated into the community k offfers 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:17.760 until Igorov had paid back all the money he'd stolen. 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:23.280 For some reason, though this didn't happen. They may Igorov 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.080 completely got away with it. 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:27.880 Even though it was just two years later. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.000 They said it was kind of too late to charge 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:33.839 him with it, and he never faced any punishment. There 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.240 was actually a similar incident in twenty eleven, so this 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.199 would be three years prior to that. Same thing happened 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:42.319 where he was kind of losing money for the city budget, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.560 and allegedly nothing happened. Same two politicians complained to Well 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.360 apparently directly to putin like directly to him. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.720 He got some kind of punishment, but nothing changed. 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.199 Essentially, right, this was an open letter to Poot and 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:58.160 It wasn't like they kind of called him up, but 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:02.520 there was this public open letter as in, we've tried everything, 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.560 this guy is stealing for some reason. He's not really 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:10.520 being prosecuted. DEPO in please help was basically what was happening. 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:13.400 Yeah, like that's the idea, right that like nobody's above him. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:15.360 So like if you're kind of I guess, like you 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.600 could say last resort and you know this has happened 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.280 in twenty eleven. Then again three years later they send 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:25.720 another letter to the they're like municipal our prosecutor, and 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:27.960 you know, clearly something came out of it in twenty sixteen, 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:31.920 but again they were claiming forty four million rubles in damage. Right, 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.760 all they found was one point six million. That's like 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:37.920 less than one tenth of what they claimed. And he 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.640 didn't even get punishment for It's like, yeah, you're guilty, 0:14:40.680 --> 0:14:43.760 but oh well, we can't do anything about it. Essentially, 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:46.000 that's all that came out of it, right, not even 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.200 a slap on the wrist. It was just like, yeah, 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.560 you did that, but we can't do anything. And he 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:53.880 later on he becomes he went on to be like 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:56.280 part of the Federal Party and stuff. He became a 0:14:56.320 --> 0:15:00.720 deputy of United Russia. 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:08.080 It's complicated, but United Russia is Putin's party. Tawilauners himself 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.760 through politics and the media to be Russia's perpetual leader, 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:17.200 or you could say dictator. Putin uses the party to 0:15:17.400 --> 0:15:21.280 maintain power by acting as it's the facto leader. He 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.120 actually ran as an independent in the last election, but 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.080 it's all smoke and mirrors. It simply allowed him to 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.840 keep power no matter what, whilst trying to present the 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:38.160 voting system as democratic and open, it's anything but. As 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:41.359 the man both behind the scenes and at the forefront, 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:46.320 Putin uses United Russia to secure legislative and political back 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:51.200 in for whatever he wants to happen. Through this broadly 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.360 popular political party, he can maintain his grip on the 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:57.520 government and push through his many murderous policies. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:15:58.360 Throughout the world. 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.960 Everyone knows that United Russia is Putin's party. It just 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:05.760 has to go around the houses a little bit to 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.680 pretend like he's not actually running things with an iron fist. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:19.000 So Igorov himself was a staunch supporter of Putins United Russia, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.800 as Sergei said, he joined up and became a member. 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.440 It will probably be no surprise to learn then that 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.560 Igorov was a big fan of the twenty twenty two 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:39.880 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Award that has taken the lives 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.360 of over thirteen thousand civilians, almost eight hundred of them 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:49.760 being children. More than forty six thousand Ukrainian military have 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.800 been killed in that time and half a million wounded. 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:07.240 We found Vladimir Igorov's VK profile still up almost two 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:12.320 years after his death. VK is essentially just Russian Facebook. 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:15.280 Here's an idea of the sort of thing Igorov would 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:19.040 post up there. In the context of a twenty twenty 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:24.520 three Russian Victory Day post, he writes, quote, Dear Tobolsk residents, 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.439 our dear veterans, The memory of World War II unites 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.679 us today and makes us invincible in the face of 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:36.679 many new challenges one by older generations. Victory still inspires 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:41.080 us to new achievements, strengthens our spirit, helps us overcome 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:47.440 difficulties and move forward. Our fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:52.120 defended our motherland. Now is our turn to stand as 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:56.159 a war for our country, to protect our honest historic memory. 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.400 Even today, every Russian is bitter to hear and see 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:04.560 attempts to rewrite history to take away the conquered peace 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.760 and freedom for humanity from our people. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:08.800 End quote. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:13.240 Igorov also posted about his family who were training in 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.240 the Russian military in preparation for a deployment to Ukraine 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.680 to help with the invasion. In twenty twenty two, Igorov 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:26.080 posted up several pictures with said family with this caption quote, Today, 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.399 a significant event happened in our family. Having served his 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.400 military service in the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:38.440 our son, nephew, grandson, and brother, Yuri Igorov was demobilized 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.399 by the Federation. My older brother and I decided to 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.439 meet him at the checkpoint of the military unit. We 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.200 thank his commanders and officers for creating decent and comfortable 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:50.000 conditions for his service. 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:51.080 End quote. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.879 Now, whilst Igorov loved the war, as in he was 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.400 proud that his country invaded Ukraine, he didn't quite want 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.840 his family to actually serve in not properly anyway. As 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.800 is with any rich, corrupt politician, whether it be Russia, 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:10.400 England or America, it's never their kids who actually end 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:11.640 up on the front lines. 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:12.560 Not really. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.920 Igorov posed as a man of the people but actually 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:18.600 he was a thieving glutton. 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.760 Looking back on Vladimir segav life, we can already see 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.639 a picture of building up that which consists of the 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.560 local archetypal, corrupted magne that leaves a good life. 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:31.800 That's Victor Mihail. 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:35.280 He's a researcher on my team who's been working with 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:39.400 us on this season of sad Oligach. Victor's been looking 0:19:39.400 --> 0:19:42.720 into Igorov's laviage lifestyle and how it allowed him to 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:45.520 circumvent the laws that normal people have to stick to. 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.000 Just as a quick reminder here, this is not just 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:56.320 a Russian thing. It's a politician thing. Okay, now it's 0:19:56.440 --> 0:20:05.040 time for a quick outbreak or enough of that, now 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:10.360 back to the shore. So what kind of flash is stuff? 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:11.760 Was ego of up too? 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:15.760 You know, meeting with influential people, partying, eating only the 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:22.639 good stuff, circumventing even pandemic restrictions to make insane megalomania celebrations, 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.600 all while constantly hitting news headlines and wile successfully by 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.200 passing the law and his conviction for an authoriosed selling 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.560 of land. This kind of flest also has benefits for 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:37.320 the people who are in your circle or around you 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.800 or in your family, and one such an example can 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.119 be illustrated by an event which happened on twenty eight 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:48.600 November twenty twenty two. One of his nephews, Yuryegorov, was 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.760 released as demobilized from his mandatory service in the Russian 0:20:52.880 --> 0:21:00.600 Army on twenty eight November, being when Russian invasion of 0:21:00.720 --> 0:21:02.880 Ukraine was still in full swing. It was the first 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.919 year one can guess that the son of a local 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:08.560 baron will have much trouble in such an environment and 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.800 he will have guests rights, since that's exactly what happened. 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:14.600 He hasn't been deployed. 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:16.680 Or signing a contract to go in an active combat zone. 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.040 But asper the words of Vladimirgorov himself on his v 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:23.160 contact page, he had more than decent and even more 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.200 comfortable conditions in the army. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.200 So Igorov's nephew, who he wrote the glowing VK post 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.000 about how proud he is how he served the country, 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:38.080 actually did for court. He basically went in for some 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.719 Kushti training just to say he took part. Obviously it 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:44.879 was mandatory military service, but not the same kind of 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:49.080 military service that your average person has. This was again 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.240 facilitated by Igorov's connections that it built over the years. 0:21:53.400 --> 0:21:58.879 Compiling his Empire of Dirt, we found out that Igorov 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:04.000 was also part of so called entrepreneur group named Opera Rossi. 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.000 This group is tied to the invasion of Ukraine, providing 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:13.679 economic and rehabilitation courses to Russian military. Perhaps these connections 0:22:13.720 --> 0:22:17.200 are how he got his family through what is essentially 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.560 live action role playing the war. 0:22:20.760 --> 0:22:24.480 Looking at the profiles that commented on the post when 0:22:24.520 --> 0:22:28.240 Vladimirgrov celebrated at the mobilization of his nephew, I also 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:32.880 found the people who give such comments. These comments consisting 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.040 of also parents who had their sons serving the same way, 0:22:36.200 --> 0:22:37.879 and by checking the profiles you can see that they 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.880 are by no means of ordinary people. They are either lawyers, economists, 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:45.480 even civilian playing pilots who comment that their sons also 0:22:45.560 --> 0:22:47.560 serve and they are already home while putting a lot 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:51.360 of laughing emogies. And some people just say that they 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.159 serve nearby and that there were no problems and so on, 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.879 that it was very comfortable to me. At least, it 0:22:56.880 --> 0:22:59.240 seems like a nest of people who have it very 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.040 good in life. They even you know, use their influence 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.439 to just send their stance to a mandatory military service 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.159 just more like a symbolic approach, because they will not 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:13.640 be treated the same way as a regular conscript, So 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:16.760 this service is really symbolic. 0:23:19.920 --> 0:23:22.200 All this should give you an idea of what kind 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:26.680 of man Vladimir Igorov was. This was a politician who 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.399 stole from his own people, got fat off the theft, 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:32.479 and then acted like a member of the mafia. Remember, 0:23:32.480 --> 0:23:34.960 he was telling anyone who'd listen that he wants the 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.320 people who discovered his corruption to be murdered and buried 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:42.000 in a shallow grave along with other rich folks in 0:23:42.040 --> 0:23:44.640 the region. His family was sent to what is basically 0:23:44.680 --> 0:23:49.159 a simulation of mandatory military service. You can start to 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.320 see how many people might have been sick of him. 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:55.119 Now, As I mentioned. 0:23:54.760 --> 0:23:58.280 At the start, the Russian newspaper Commissant was the very 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:03.240 first outlet to mention Egov's death. They reported very quickly 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:07.200 that there were quote no external signs of criminal death, 0:24:07.880 --> 0:24:14.280 criminal death being an awkward way of saying murder. After 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:19.520 the initial talk of Igorov's fast relocation from window to pavement, 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:22.919 Commissant was quick to put the news out there that 0:24:22.960 --> 0:24:25.960 he'd had a heart attack. You have to wonder, though, 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:29.200 did they know the cause of death before the official 0:24:29.240 --> 0:24:34.080 word from the coroner. Let's look a little bit closer 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:37.920 at Commissant. So we dug around a bit, and basically 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:42.720 this newspaper is a pro Kremlin wreck, propaganda for Putin 0:24:42.800 --> 0:24:46.919 and his regime. It's owned by a man named Alisha Usmanov. 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:50.960 According to the US government, not exactly trustworthy, but according 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:55.480 to them, Usmanov is quote one of Russia's most politically 0:24:55.520 --> 0:25:01.159 influential oligachs with close ties to the Kremlin. Even believe 0:25:01.240 --> 0:25:04.040 that he had a hand in a so called Russian 0:25:04.040 --> 0:25:09.359