Speaker 1: Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the
Speaker 1: Russian elite has been found dead. Reports suggests that he
Speaker 1: fell out of a window poisoned with mushrooms. He died
Speaker 1: of heart failure, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. How comesy
Speaker 1: are they?
Speaker 2: Dozens of Russian oligarchs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
Speaker 2: the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 2: Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. This is sad
Speaker 2: Oligach season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently stead of.
Speaker 1: Russian power brokers.
Speaker 2: Sad Oligach is created by me jake Hanrahan and my
Speaker 2: Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. This is a H eleven Studio
Speaker 2: and Coolso Media production. Before we get into this episode,
Speaker 2: tale of Death and Goulags, we have a bit of
Speaker 2: an update from episode seven Hanged with hands bound. If
Speaker 2: you remember, this was the case where businessmen and local
Speaker 2: Putin politician Batally Kapustin was found hanged high up in
Speaker 2: a tree and I witnessed said that his hands were
Speaker 2: tied behind his back. Still, the police deemed it a suicide.
Speaker 2: For that case, I went down the rabbit hole of
Speaker 2: police corruption in the area where Kapustin was hanged, a
Speaker 2: place called at Kresnador Cry. To be frank, it seems
Speaker 2: to be one of the most corrupt regions in the
Speaker 2: whole of Russia, and that saying something. I've kept looking
Speaker 2: into the case, and there seems to be a big
Speaker 2: issue with strange murders, organized crime and state embezzlement all
Speaker 2: in this one area. So I reached out through a
Speaker 2: source in Russia who's involved in documenting the Krasnodar Kry underworld.
Speaker 2: He was going to come on to sad Oligak to
Speaker 2: speak about it, but it was perhaps a little bit
Speaker 2: too risky for him, even under anonymity. It's understandable. He did, though,
Speaker 2: send us a sort of statement or overview of how
Speaker 2: he understands the corruption in Kresnal door Kry. We translated
Speaker 2: this all from Russian and I'm going to read it
Speaker 2: out here in full, as I think it adds some
Speaker 2: great context to the mysterious death of Vitally Kapustin. The
Speaker 2: following is from our anonymous source in Russia.
Speaker 1: Quote.
Speaker 2: Since Soviet times, Krasnal door Kry has held a special
Speaker 2: place within Russia's law enforcement system.
Speaker 1: The reason is simple.
Speaker 2: The country's main results are here, and that's where the
Speaker 2: entire political and security elite go on holiday with their families.
Speaker 2: Their holidays are arranged and facilitated by local officials, police, businessmen, fixers,
Speaker 2: and so on. If you organize a good stay for
Speaker 2: an important guest from Moscow, you're immediately welcomed into the
Speaker 2: inner circle. From that point on, you don't really answer
Speaker 2: to local leadership, but to whichever Moscow official took a
Speaker 2: liking to you. Depending on the guests rank, a local
Speaker 2: bureaucrat or security official can essentially become untouchable with guaranteed
Speaker 2: career advancement. Complaining about them at the local level is
Speaker 2: pointless and often useless. Even at the federal level, this
Speaker 2: dynamic produces chosen ones who feel free to do whatever
Speaker 2: they want. There was even a period when many law
Speaker 2: enforcement personnel from Cresnal door Cry were relocated to Moscow.
Speaker 2: For example, Vladimir Yakovenko, a prosecutor from Sochi, jumped from
Speaker 2: Krasnodor Krei into the presidential administration, then went on to
Speaker 2: head the main investigative directorate of the Investigative Committee in
Speaker 2: Moscow and is now head of Rossi Mushestvo. When he
Speaker 2: was running Moscow's Investigative Directorate, his deputy was another Krasnada native,
Speaker 2: Sergei Senagovski, the son of former Nova Rossiisk mayor Vladimir
Speaker 2: senor Goovsky. Senorgovski ended up involved in a major corruption
Speaker 2: scandal involving bribing Investigative Committee officials to free the crime
Speaker 2: boss Andrei Kotchukov, known as the Italian All its colleagues
Speaker 2: were jailed, but Senyorgovsky got away with just being fired.
Speaker 2: You can also recall the Sapok gang, which terrorized Kuzhnyajovskaya
Speaker 2: for many years and eventually murdered twelve people, including small children.
Speaker 2: During the investigation, it was proven that all law enforcement
Speaker 2: officials in the prisonage of Skaya district were receiving money
Speaker 2: from the gang, yet none of them went to prison.
Speaker 2: Many actually built successful careers. Another example from Krasnodor Krii
Speaker 2: is the well known fixer Andre Mattis, who handles problems
Speaker 2: between law enforcement and business. He reached the federal level
Speaker 2: after organizing holidays in Sochi for FSB officers. Two men
Speaker 2: who controlled the entire judicial system of Krasnodor Krii for
Speaker 2: many years became billionaires. Former head of the Krasnodar Regional
Speaker 2: Court Alexander Shnov and Supreme Court Judge Victor Momotov their
Speaker 2: assets worth tens of billions and now being seized. But
Speaker 2: this isn't an anti corruption drive. It's simply a change
Speaker 2: of ruling clans in Moscow, where one group of corrupt
Speaker 2: officials is being replaced by another. An ordinary person has
Speaker 2: a very little chance of getting justice in the Krasnodor
Speaker 2: Krei region because police, prosecutors and judges often work together.
Speaker 2: For years, there's been a corruption slash criminal alliance involving
Speaker 2: Amen Aretagnan, first deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department
Speaker 2: of the Regional Interior Ministry and Vladimir Kishlak, former head
Speaker 2: of the Civil Division of the Krasnodar Regional Court. Despite
Speaker 2: his position, Atonian Wield's enormous influence over the whole Interior
Speaker 2: Ministry apparatus in the region, and Kishlak still maintains control
Speaker 2: over the regional court. Duo controls key processes the opening
Speaker 2: and closure of criminal cases in the investigative committee, obtaining
Speaker 2: the right decisions in court, corporate raids, an extortion target
Speaker 2: in business people and citizens across the Cuban area. With
Speaker 2: such mutual protection, real miracles can occur, such as outright
Speaker 2: murder being passed off as suicide. One example is the
Speaker 2: case of Constantine Pliganoff, an FSB captain in Komisk Non
Speaker 2: for fighting corruption. He'd been working on a case against
Speaker 2: the head of the Comisk district, Surgey Less. In July
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, Pliganov's body was found in the reeds
Speaker 2: of Lake Tuscan Skuoya, with his legs tied and a
Speaker 2: bullet in the back of his head. It was declared
Speaker 2: an unusual suicide. Recently, Les was arrested on corruption charges
Speaker 2: after attempting to flee with gold bars cast in the
Speaker 2: shape of railway nails and painted black end quote. I
Speaker 2: think it's safe to say our initial suspicions about the
Speaker 2: Capustin case were definitely not paranoia. The statement I just
Speaker 2: read out is backed with a ton of investigative work
Speaker 2: that our anonymous source has spent a long time on.
Speaker 2: Needless to say, the Kresnal Door Crier corruption issues are
Speaker 2: by no means new. What I find most interesting about that, though,
Speaker 2: was the last bit about the death of Konstantine Pluganov
Speaker 2: in the Kersnal door Kryt region. That's the FSB officer
Speaker 2: who was apparently genuinely trying to fight corruption in the area,
Speaker 2: a very hard task knowing what we know now. He
Speaker 2: was found dead in shallow waters with a bullet in
Speaker 2: the back of his head, both legs tied together with rope.
Speaker 1: The police calling.
Speaker 2: Pluganov's death and unusual suicide almost feels like a very
Speaker 2: macab in joke. Now it seems he committed suicide the
Speaker 2: same way a CIA whistleblower might commit suicide. Shot in
Speaker 2: the back of the skull. The suicide thesis obviously does
Speaker 2: not add up.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Both Kapustin and Pluganov were found dead in the same region.
Speaker 2: The two areas are roughly three hours drive away from
Speaker 2: each other, but the police in those areas answer to
Speaker 2: the same boss, and both are accused of extreme corruption.
Speaker 2: All this new information only reinforces for me the theory
Speaker 2: that I put forward at the end of episode. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right,
Speaker 2: enough for that, Now back to the shore. I believe
Speaker 2: Vitaly Kapusstin was murdered and it was shoddily covered up
Speaker 2: by a police force that acts as an enforcement arm
Speaker 2: for the district's corupt politicians and businessmen. And as I
Speaker 2: was Sawce said, these bandits are swapped in and out
Speaker 2: of Moscow and rewarded depending on how much money they
Speaker 2: make this quasi deep state elite. Once again, all roads
Speaker 2: lead to the Kremlin. Now let's get on with this
Speaker 2: episode's case, the multi millionaire tycoon who found himself trapped
Speaker 2: inside a Moscow gulak. July eighth, twenty twenty four, fifty
Speaker 2: two year old oligarch Igor Katelnikov is in a bad
Speaker 2: place mentally, physically, spiritually. Accused of fraud and embezzlement, He's
Speaker 2: locked away in a dingy cell in a Moscow pre
Speaker 2: trialed attention facility. These are considered some of the worst
Speaker 2: prisoner apparatus in Russia. Conditions are absolutely horrendous. Overcrowding is
Speaker 2: the main issue. Cells constructed for four people often hold
Speaker 2: a dozen men at a time. They sleep in shifts
Speaker 2: due to the lack of space that they can manage
Speaker 2: to sleep at all. Humid, filthy, stinking in post trial
Speaker 2: Russian prison colonies, inmates work outside, forced to do backbreaking labor.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not, this is often preferred to the
Speaker 2: nightmare of near twenty four hour lockup in pre trial detention.
Speaker 2: Prisoners here get one hour outside the cell if they're lucky.
Speaker 2: Even then, it's a monotonous walk in a small concrete
Speaker 2: courtyard with a mesh fence roof above. It's claustrophobic, it's
Speaker 2: stifling back inside the overcrowded cell. The open toilets are
Speaker 2: often overflowing or blocked. The stench of shit and piss
Speaker 2: and sweat and blood disgusting cockroaches scutted across the floor.
Speaker 2: Rats are not uncommon either. Every crevice in the room
Speaker 2: is a breeding ground for black mold and good luck.
Speaker 2: If you get sick, there's no real doctor on site.
Speaker 2: First aid is about as good as it gets. This
Speaker 2: is the Sesspeit Katlnikov finds himself in. He is a
Speaker 2: multi millionaire who's lived a very privileged life. He is
Speaker 2: not built for this. He owns a fleet of expensive
Speaker 2: foreign kaz As, serious upmarket real estate, first class flights,
Speaker 2: expensive suits, find dining maids, drivers, the lot, the decay
Speaker 2: and slow rot of overcrowded, sweaty jail cells is not
Speaker 2: the five star treatment Katelnikov.
Speaker 1: Is used to.
Speaker 2: He's found himself in this predetention nightmare for messing around
Speaker 2: with money that was meant to be sent to Russia's
Speaker 2: war machine investment that will extend that Russia's massacre of
Speaker 2: the people in Ukraine.
Speaker 1: Where have we heard before?
Speaker 2: Kotolnikov paces up and down in this small space he
Speaker 2: has in the grotty shared cell. Despite the conditions, he
Speaker 2: is actually in good health. Before he went in, he
Speaker 2: was doing fine. The authorities who put him here in
Speaker 2: this pre trial pit went him to testify it against
Speaker 2: a man called Tima Ivanov. He's a former deputy minister
Speaker 2: of the Russian Department of Defense.
Speaker 1: We'll learn more about him later.
Speaker 2: Prison guard opens up the heavy iron door to the
Speaker 2: rancid cell and calls for Kotlnikov to come with him.
Speaker 2: He's taken to speak with someone more senior, not a
Speaker 2: prison officer, but a lawmaker attached to the case. There's
Speaker 2: pressure to snitch on Ivanov. They want him to get
Speaker 2: up into that perspex witness box in the Russian court.
Speaker 1: And tell all.
Speaker 2: But for whatever reason, Katelnikov will not do it. He refuses,
Speaker 2: point blank, He's not going to inform. He will not
Speaker 2: stand up in that court and speak against Ivanov some
Speaker 2: kind of punishment for this refusal. After the meeting, Katelnikov
Speaker 2: is put into solitary confinement, small cell, no windows, no communication,
Speaker 2: and then Katelnikov dies. This is literally all we know
Speaker 2: about his death. There are no other details anywhere. Nobody
Speaker 2: is speaking. Did he die from the awful conditions some
Speaker 2: and of health complication, or was he killed after being
Speaker 2: put into solitary confinement. Katelnikov's role within what we'll discover
Speaker 2: is a complicated web of military corruption leading all the
Speaker 2: way to the Kremlin could quite likely be what got
Speaker 2: his card punched. Avamurkachiva, a member of Russia's Presidential Council
Speaker 2: for Human Rights, called the death suspicious and mentioned that
Speaker 2: Katelnikov seemed to be in good health prior.
Speaker 1: To his death.
Speaker 2: Either way, July eighth was an especially unlucky day, as
Speaker 2: another man involved in the Katelnikov case died on that
Speaker 2: same date. What a coincidence. There's actually a bit of
Speaker 2: an underlying pattern that I've not really mentioned on sad Oligarch.
Speaker 2: But if you put all the dates and locations of
Speaker 2: these strange deaths into a mapping program, there are notable
Speaker 2: clusters here and debth. That's not to say someone is
Speaker 2: planning the deaths on certain dates or anything, but I
Speaker 2: think it does show there are potential links to these
Speaker 2: dead oligarchs and their cronies that we've not quite worked
Speaker 2: out yet. The elite network of the oligarch deep state
Speaker 2: is quite a small world anyway. We'll get into the
Speaker 2: Kotelnikov web of corruption in a bit, but first let's
Speaker 2: establish who he really was. Let's talk to our friend Sergey.
Speaker 2: So we know almost nothing at all about Kotelnikov's death
Speaker 2: other than he was ushered away into solitary confinement after
Speaker 2: refusing to give evidence against this Ivan offeler, and then
Speaker 2: he died randomly dead.
Speaker 1: Don't know anything else.
Speaker 3: I think that's what's kind of interesting, Like it doesn't
Speaker 3: seem like he has any kind of not background, Like
Speaker 3: he's not, you know, a relative of anyone who's not
Speaker 3: like some rich person's son. It kind of seems like
Speaker 3: he he was the middleman for the military and like
Speaker 3: different businesses, essentially running a fraud scheme. Like it almost
Speaker 3: seems like he was an important till this thing happened, right,
Speaker 3: and nobody kind of cared. And even in this story
Speaker 3: he's kind of more so a witness for like the
Speaker 3: higher military guys. Right, His main kind of prominence is
Speaker 3: like he did he did a lot, right. He went
Speaker 3: to the Bugalkov so ex deputy Minister of Defense. He
Speaker 3: went to him, got him to give him different contracts.
Speaker 3: It seems like mostly in the food kind of like
Speaker 3: logistics area, right, So not not particularly like weapons or
Speaker 3: anything like that, but food rations for the military.
Speaker 2: So this is where the fraud and embezzlement began, at
Speaker 2: least for the case that landed Kotelnikov in jail. Who
Speaker 2: knows what else he got away with before this. Now
Speaker 2: he was already rich and up to no goods, but
Speaker 2: he was kind of a nobody as far as go
Speaker 2: until this. It doesn't seem he was on anyone's radar
Speaker 2: still through his state contacts, from working on government projects
Speaker 2: through his various businesses. Kotelnikov got a contract to supply
Speaker 2: rations to Russian soldiers invading Ukraine. These rations are meant
Speaker 2: to sustain soldiers for a day or two between supply
Speaker 2: line runs whilst fighting in the trenches.
Speaker 1: A typical ration pack.
Speaker 2: For them includes canned meat, dry crackers, a bit of chocolate,
Speaker 2: a bit fruit, a drink, and sometimes matches to get
Speaker 2: field supply stoves going. At least that's what's meant to
Speaker 2: be in their rations. There are multiple reports of Russian
Speaker 2: soldiers tearing open their packs to find nowhere near the
Speaker 2: right items, or not even having enough to go around.
Speaker 2: This was happening even at the very start of the war. Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, now it is time for a quick tagbreak.
Speaker 2: All right, enough for that, Now back to the shop.
Speaker 2: This from a twenty twenty two Reuter's article explains the issues.
Speaker 2: Quote all soldiers on the front mentioned an acute shortage
Speaker 2: of supplies. The sources described little or no safe drinking water,
Speaker 2: field rations for one man being shared among several and
Speaker 2: units having to scavenge for food. We drank water with
Speaker 2: dead frogs in it, said a student conscript. Supplies for
Speaker 2: the soldiers right now are a disaster. So the source
Speaker 2: close to the don Yatsk separatist leadership, who spoke on
Speaker 2: condition of anonymity. Neither the Kremlin nor the separatist authorities
Speaker 2: replied to Reuter's questions about supplies and equipment for the
Speaker 2: draftees from Dombas end quote. No surprise there. Honestly, I
Speaker 2: don't get why they didn't get rid of the frogs
Speaker 2: in the water before they drank it, But anyway, that's
Speaker 2: a d n R four yea. As we can see,
Speaker 2: issues with rations have been a serious problem throughout the invasion,
Speaker 2: from the start to the present. Even so, what was
Speaker 2: the full scam that Ktelnikov and several collaborators got caught
Speaker 2: red handed in the middle of surgery explains.
Speaker 3: Pretty typical scheme. They do this in a lot of
Speaker 3: industries with different products, but this one specifically seems like
Speaker 3: they were responsible for getting rations for the Russian military.
Speaker 3: Usually it would be like canned food, dry dry food
Speaker 3: that can kind of last long, you know, typical military rations.
Speaker 1: They were supposed to be.
Speaker 3: Delivering, from my understanding, canned beef and you know, kind
Speaker 3: of process it and it kind of looks like a
Speaker 3: very processed slop of meat. It's I mean, like, I'm
Speaker 3: sure it's better than nothing, but it's not great to
Speaker 3: begin with. And what they were doing is, first they
Speaker 3: were using cheaper materials. The biggest d of standout is
Speaker 3: they were ordering beef, they were getting chicken instead, or
Speaker 3: they were mixing other meats together to kind of reduce
Speaker 3: the price that they had to pay right much cheaper
Speaker 3: to get chicken than beef, especially this time. I'm sure
Speaker 3: then some deliveries were just not making it. They were
Speaker 3: basically doing everything they could to lower the price while
Speaker 3: delivering the minimum, and they get to keep the difference.
Speaker 3: The damages are one point three billion rubles. Let's say
Speaker 3: they had contracts, and this was various contracts from the military,
Speaker 3: not one giant contract. If they got all these contracts,
Speaker 3: they can cut a little here, cut a little there,
Speaker 3: and you know, keep half the money if they if
Speaker 3: they're good enough while making it seem like they're delivering
Speaker 3: what they need to, they're fulfilling their orders and the
Speaker 3: military is getting what it needs. You know, they're getting
Speaker 3: these contracts from the military, so I'm sure whoever is
Speaker 3: in charge can also kind of say like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: we're good, we're getting what we need.
Speaker 2: Now this bit is why, this is how the scam
Speaker 2: became a full on conspiracy. Now, I know it's all
Speaker 2: a bit confus using, so let me break it down
Speaker 2: simply to make the chain work and to steal a
Speaker 2: lot more money. Several people in the circle needed to
Speaker 2: be involved in the same way as the people outside
Speaker 2: of the circle. The circle in this case being the military.
Speaker 2: Katolnikov needed people on the inside that were okay with
Speaker 2: fucking over their own soldiers to make a buck. Turns
Speaker 2: out there were plenty, So think of it this way.
Speaker 2: Katnikov and his link into the military contract to supply
Speaker 2: food for rations A, person A and B. They need
Speaker 2: someone within the military to get the dodgy rations into
Speaker 2: rotation and sign it all off without a hitch. This
Speaker 2: is persons C. To keep the fraud going and pocket
Speaker 2: bigger profits, they need all the i's dotted and all
Speaker 2: the t's crossed.
Speaker 1: For this.
Speaker 2: They need a few people close to accounting and supply
Speaker 2: to essentially forge documents, lie about money, keep everything moving.
Speaker 2: This is person D, E, F and so on. A
Speaker 2: chain is built up. The more people involved usually means
Speaker 2: the less money to go around. But these people all
Speaker 2: became a cog in the operation. Person DEE and F
Speaker 2: wouldn't make money without person A, B and C.
Speaker 1: You get it.
Speaker 2: Everyone started making money by facilitating the supply of dodgy
Speaker 2: food to soldiers who are sent out to fight a
Speaker 2: war for Putin's megalamania and frantic paranoia. Honestly, I cannot
Speaker 2: think of a more perfect situation to demonstrate the characteristics
Speaker 2: of Putin's Russia in twenty twenty five. It's almost two
Speaker 2: on the nose. I think something else was going on though,
Speaker 2: as well, because, like you said, okay, his companies were
Speaker 2: making like, you know, a collective maybe seven eight million
Speaker 2: dollars in US money, which is is good money, obviously,
Speaker 2: Like fuck me, it's it's incredible. I wish I was
Speaker 2: making money like that, but that doesn't really put you
Speaker 2: at the oligarch states he was at. He had from
Speaker 2: what I see, he had like a fleet of cars,
Speaker 2: all this real estate, and I think the fact he's
Speaker 2: involved in this case as well as we see he's
Speaker 2: doing some kind of corruption, stealing from the government, stealing
Speaker 2: from the military in the middle of you know, Russia's invasion,
Speaker 2: which is a huge no no, as we've learned during
Speaker 2: this series. That itself makes me think, well, this is
Speaker 2: not his first rodeo. You know, his money has been
Speaker 2: coming from somewhere else as well as these businesses, perhaps
Speaker 2: their front for something else. I don't know, it's just speculation,
Speaker 2: but I don't think it's unreasonable.
Speaker 1: No, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: If he's already kind of involved in this, right, he
Speaker 3: clearly knows what he's doing. He knows people's kind of
Speaker 3: what's interesting. I think a lot of these cases we
Speaker 3: see politicians or somebody who's in some way has some
Speaker 3: kind of power, whether they were on a committee of
Speaker 3: like a regional office, or they were like some kind
Speaker 3: of parliamentarian. Again, he kind of seems like the middleman,
Speaker 3: and he kind of seems like maybe the domino that started,
Speaker 3: kind of like a domino effect, because we see that
Speaker 3: a lot of multiple officers or like some kind of
Speaker 3: military ranking guys start getting arrested or removed from their
Speaker 3: offices following his arrest. So I don't know if there
Speaker 3: was an investigation on going and then they kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, started taking people out if he got arrested
Speaker 3: and then he maybe sold somebody out or something, But
Speaker 3: it definitely seems like he was doing a lot of
Speaker 3: the connecting, and I think he knew a lot of
Speaker 3: the I guess you could say operation maybe from there
Speaker 3: that's where like the investigation is going on.
Speaker 2: This case gets even more complicated and even more strange.
Speaker 2: So I'm going to break it down into two parts.
Speaker 2: This is part of Next Week, Part two. You've been
Speaker 2: listening to sad Oliga season two, produced by H eleven
Speaker 2: Studios for.
Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2: Writing, editing, producing, concept and recording by myself, Jake Hanrahan.
Speaker 2: Research and reporting by Sergei Slipchenko, Me and Victim Mihail.
Speaker 2: Executive producing by Sophie Lichtmin. Music by Sam Black at
Speaker 2: work by George Zutful. Sound mixed by Splicing Block. See
Speaker 2: my other projects at Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on
Speaker 2: social media at Jake the School Hanrahan.
Speaker 1: That's h A N r A h A N
Speaker 2: Mhm