WEBVTT - Hanged with Hands Bound 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:02.880 Media. 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.000 Something strange is going on. Another member of the Russian 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:08.200 elite has been found dead. 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.280 Reports suggests that he fell out of a window poisoned 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:12.080 with mushrooms. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:15.640 He died of heart failure, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:17.079 How comesy are they? 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:23.000 Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:28.040 the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances. 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:32.240 Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. This is sad 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:38.000 Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently dead 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:42.960 Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created by me jake 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:48.000 Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. This is a 0:00:48.200 --> 0:01:01.960 H eleven Studio and Coolso Media production. September twenty fifth, 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:07.000 twenty twenty five. The region of Krishnodor Kray sits on 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:09.920 the shores of the Black Sea in the south of Russia. 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.800 It's the North Caucus region where men of fought tooth 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:18.240 and nail throughout history, bloodshed for the mountains and the soil. 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:24.920 It's here in a village called navarozdesk Venskaya. The municipal 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:31.120 lawmaker Vitali Kapustin is waiting. He's a local politician for 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:33.880 United Russia Putin's party. 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:36.360 He's pulled up. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.080 To the side of the road near a forest, tall 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:45.560 oak trees, dense foliage. Kapustin is forty three years old. 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:50.840 He won't see forty four. He exits the car with 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.920 a cable in hand, likely a wound metal tyrope. He 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:59.440 attaches one end of it to the car itself, a 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:04.200 large suv. It's the end of the summer. There's a 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.000 cool breeze and the leaves are starting to change. An 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:14.360 otherwise peaceful final scene with a disintegrating hairline and a 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:19.160 somewhat bloated face. Kapussedin looks older than he is. He 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.120 could be late forties, maybe even fifties. He's broad, though, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:28.919 and otherwise in decent shape. Not exactly athletic, but he's 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.480 no slob. This is handy because he heads a little 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.120 way into the forested area begins to. 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:37.720 Climb a large tree. 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.000 Some of them in this area are one hundred feet tall. 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:47.920 With the other end of the car cable in hand, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:52.280 coapussed in, climbs up and up, so high, in fact, 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.440 that if he falls from this height he'll break his legs. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.679 It still, copussed In manages climb, locking his feet into 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:03.760 the bend between. 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:04.680 Branch and tree trunk. 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:08.640 He grips hold of the oak and manages to pull 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:13.320 himself up with no external equipment, all whilst carrying a 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:18.040 thick cable that he's careful not to snack. From this 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.040 vantage point, he can see the forest sprawling out to 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:28.800 the more built up areas of novarodest Venskaya. Perhaps he 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.959 wants one last look at the region he governs from 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.080 up high to this point, many meters up in the 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.160 tree that Kapustin wraps the car cable around a branch 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:46.920 and forms a makeshift noose. He attaches one end to 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.920 the tree, pulls the other over his head, and braces 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:57.160 himself one last look at the trees. Then he jumps. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:04.280 The cable snaps to Kapustin's neck is choked. His body 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:13.920 hangs dangling from a tree. His life slowly eeks away 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:21.080 into the nether as he dies asphyxiation. Another depressed politician 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:31.039 in Russia. This is the strange series of events of 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:35.920 Kapustin's suicide, if we're to believe the official narrative offered 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:40.120 up by the Russian State. If you think it sounds 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:43.360 a bit suspicious that a man would climb high up 0:04:43.400 --> 0:04:46.799 into a tree to hang himself with a car cable, 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.719 wait till you hear what an eyewitness has to say 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:57.360 about Kapustin's body. A news agency close to the area 0:04:57.480 --> 0:05:01.760 reported what eyewitnesses told their reporters people who are at 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:08.000 the scene. They saw Kapustin's body hanging from a tree. 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:13.159 They said, quote, his hands were tied behind his back. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:19.159 You can't just climb those trees like that. Another said, 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.800 I saw how high it was. As far as I 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.120 could tell, his hands seemed to be bound behind him. 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:28.560 A person couldn't climb up there easily. The trees are 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:35.080 very tall. So somehow Capusstin climbed high up into a 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.800 hard tree to scale with a long cable that was 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:42.320 already attached to his suv, hanged himself, all with his 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:44.600 hands tied behind his back. 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:45.919 No, no, no, no no. 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.760 The police deemed this at first and already open and 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:56.800 shut case. They concluded it was a suicide. They said 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.240 that the death is quote not criminal. To reiterate, they've claimed, 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:08.360 quote no suspicion of criminal involvement. Now unless pushed in 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.159 was the next Houdini. I think it is highly unlikely 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.120 that the police have got this one right. How does 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.960 a man climb up a tree with his hands tied 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:21.960 behind his back? In general, it will be hard enough 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.440 if they were tied at the front, let alone with 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:35.880 a long cable in his hand. Now, the cable itself 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.679 is interesting to me. Reports suggests that it was quote 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.919 anchored to the suv. If that's why, my assumption is 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.560 that it's some kind of undercar tow cable. 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:46.839 Right. 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.440 So I looked up all the car dealerships in the 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:54.400 local area. This took a minute, as there are almost 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.840 four hundred of them. Almost all of them sell SUVs 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.760 like the one could pushed him drave to his grim end. 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:07.799 Across all of the dealerships, as is the norm in Russia, generally, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:13.640 they sell mostly Chinese cuts, Chiri, Giely, Haval or Moda. 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.920 Oh and of course they all sell the Russian make ladder, 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:24.520 the famous Soviet Iraka produced by state owned Autovas. Side note, 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.600 I absolutely love ladders. I once saw an old ladder 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.880 truck with snow chains on the tires in the mountains 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:35.560 of Armenia. An incredibly good looking machine. I don't know 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.640 what the engines are like, but it looked great anyway. 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.119 If we look at the sales of these three hundred 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.640 and fifty plus car dealerships, it seems the majority of 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:50.120 SUVs sold across all of them is the Chinese Haval 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:55.160 Jollian that's the most popular. It's a pretty standard suv 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.320 all in all, a petrol one point five leads to 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:02.960 turbo seven speed, dual clutch three and forty eliter boot 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:07.040 or trunk. If you're American, front will drive you get 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.040 the idea. In Russia they cost around two million roubles. 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:16.080 That's around twenty five thousand dollars US. Not a problem 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:19.880 for kapusting. So why do I give a fuck about 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:22.400 the car? Well, I want to know if any of 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:26.520 these come with a tow cable for obvious reasons copussed 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.640 in hanged metal cable car nearby anchored you get it. 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:34.000 I did some digging and I couldn't find a single 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:38.280 Haval Jollian in the region that has the cable as standard, 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.480 even the ones that are built in Russia, which do 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:47.440 sometimes have different specifications. The kresnaldor Kryer region of Russia 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:50.680 is actually a pretty mild one. If we're talking about 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.680 the weather, even in winter, you wouldn't need a tow cable, 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.719 perhaps as much as you might need one in Siberia, 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.840 for example, we're pulling cars out of the thick snow 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.000 is needed often. In fact, I had a look and 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.600 none of the top selling SUVs in the area come 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.200 with the tow cable. So by now you might be thinking, Jake, 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.520 why do you have a heart on for the tow cable. Well, 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.160 considering Kapustin's bizarre death, it adds another strange element to 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.840 all of this without one. To me at least, there's 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.920 a very little information on this one. So I've been 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:31.440 digging like a mole, as has Sergei Slipchenko, my partner 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.679 on this project, as well as Victor Mihaiel who's helping 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:39.439 us with research. Sergi found a video from the scene 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:42.600 of the death. It's only ten seconds long and it's 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:47.640 filmed by a passerby whilst driving, but it's something. It's 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.360 actually the first real glimpse we've got of a murder 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:54.720 scene or unusual death scene from any case in the 0:09:54.760 --> 0:10:01.520 whole of season two of sad Oligarch so far. Okay, 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.400 all right, now it's time for a quick ad break. 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.800 All right, enough for that, Now back. 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:13.040 To the show. 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:21.040 If you listen to the previous episode, number six, you 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.800 will have heard me in surgery talking about how difficult 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:28.280 this season has been. Very little information is out there. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.720 There are next to note breadcrumbs to follow, and almost 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:36.400 nobody is talking. So of course we were surprised that 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.400 there was actually a video for this one. As vague 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:45.839 as it is now, the video there's maybe three full 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.680 seconds on the footage that actually shows the full scene. 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.439 It's shot from a distance whilst moving, and the video 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:59.120 quality is potato tier. But we do see something. It's 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:03.120 a bright day, blue sky, no clouds. We see the 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.480 side road next to the forested area. It's a bit 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.040 hard to tell, but next to the trees there are 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:13.200 around nine to ten vehicles parked up on the side road, 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:18.560 a mix of SUVs, saloons, trucks, and what looks like 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:23.080 an ambulance. Strangely, none of the cars look like actual 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:27.040 police carts, no sirens on the roof, no checkered luminous 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:30.560 livery on the sides. The vehicles are a mix of 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:35.360 all black or all white. There's one white suv turned 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:38.920 in a different direction to the others. It's facing the trees. 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.000 At first glance, it looks like it could be a 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.480 haval Jollian, but on closer inspection, to me at least, 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.720 it looks like it could be a Ladder Neva, another 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:57.520 popular four x four urban suv. There's speculation online that 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:01.840 this white suv was Capustin's cat. We don't know, though 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.000 it's mostly assumption. What we do know is that the 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:09.440 ladder Neva doesn't come with a tow cable attached either. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.480 A look at the driver's handbook shows that the vehicle does, however, 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.679 come with front and rear toelux. If the suv in 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.200 the video is a Ladder Neva and that was Kapustin's car, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:27.000 it makes a bit more sense. But who brought the 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:32.000 tow cable and why did they kill Kapustin. If this 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:35.840 project is anything to go by, it quite possibly had 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.280 something to do with Kapustin's connection to Putin's United Russia 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:51.400 and Kapustin's previous businesses. Let's talk to sergery. So before 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:56.240 we go into Kapustin's venture into politics, maybe let's talk 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.240 a little bit about his business. I understand it was 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.239 quite weird, right, like not exactly conventional. He did construction, 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:05.679 and then he ended up with a snail farm. Like, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.920 maybe let's start at the beginning. What happened with this 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:10.440 guy his business ventures? 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:10.680 Ah? 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.360 Yeah, So it's kind of interesting that in a sense, 0:13:13.400 --> 0:13:15.360 there's not that much information. 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:15.680 About his youth. 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:18.520 It's like he grew up, he went to high school, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:20.880 he went to university, got an engineering degree. 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.920 Have you noticed how many of these guys went to 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.480 university for engineering and ended up doing something completely different. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.640 It's almost like, I don't know, is it like just 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:32.520 a standard thing to do out there in Russia. 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.319 Yeah, it's pretty common. There's a lot of like polytechnic 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.120 universities I see. I see from the Soviet Union days, right, 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:42.480 a lot of universities were very focused on like engineering, 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:47.120 and you know across everything agriculture like tractors, tanks, everything. 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.120 So it's pretty common. Yeah. 0:13:49.240 --> 0:13:53.840 Right, So he does the engineering degree and then it's 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.600 kind of a black hole, right, Like there's not much there. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.000 Yeah, it's kind of been focused trying to look at 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:02.280 it's kind of the more boring, kind of quieter details, right, 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.400 And I don't really see any kind of you know, 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.240 him starting anywhere or maybe getting like some kind of 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:11.760 first job. The first thing I see is that he 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:16.599 created a construction company, Kuban Spitztroyer, So it's for the 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:21.320 region of Kuban where he is. And yeah, it says 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.480 that like the company is doing pretty well. I mean, like, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.760 I don't know there's the thing I can really find 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.760 when he started it or how long it's been around, 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.680 but several articles said that in twenty twenty four, so 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:35.360 kind of like the last reported revenue from the company 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:39.080 was like one billion rubles. Apparently he got quite a 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:43.440 lot of contracts with the state to build infrastructure and buildings. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:50.080 So I imagine roads, et cetera, some roads, some buildings for 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.920 the state. I guess that's the thing. They don't really specify. 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:54.000 They just kind of say contracts. 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.560 Right, That's where he's kind of as far as I 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:56.920 can see. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:59.640 I mean, again, we do not know fuck all about 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.360 these guy, which is quite interesting because of all the 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.280 cases of season two, there's kind of more about his 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.320 death than any of the others in this sense that 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:13.240 we got an eyewitness quote, I think at least two 0:15:13.320 --> 0:15:17.680 eyewitness quotes saying what the fuck lake is? His hands 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.640 were bound. There's no way he could have climbed up 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:20.280 in that tree. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:22.360 We've got the video that you. 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:24.640 Found where the person's driving past and they kind of 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.280 very briefly filmed the scene, and then we've got an 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:31.560 official police statement saying there's nothing criminal involved. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.480 So in a way, there's like more about the. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:38.880 Murder or suicide, but there's very little about his life, 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.240 whereas I feel like it's usually the other way around. 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:42.280 It's a weird one. 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.760 But as far as I can see, the construction business 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:50.480 and then the contracts with the government is kind of 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.720 his first major interaction with you know, working with the 0:15:54.760 --> 0:15:55.560 state as it were. 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:56.480 That's the thing. 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.240 He became a deputy in twenty nineteen. They don't really 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.880 specify when he got the state contracts, but the point 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:03.480 is he is making a lot of money from these 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.920 state contracts right again, infrastructure, various buildings, and that sounds 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:10.360 like that's his kind of first and like main job. 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.040 The other things you mentioned sound like a bit more 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.200 of like maybe like a side hustle kind of thing, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.120 or like a passion project. Especially with the snail farm. 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.080 It sounds like he has a couple of it says 0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:23.720 like stores selling tobacco and food. I think they're referring 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:27.120 to like convenience stores basically. Again, the construction company sounds 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.640 like his kind of main endeavor and like his biggest 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.440 money maker again, like one billion in revenue it says 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.760 in twenty twenty four, so it sounds like he's doing 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:38.880 pretty well. Again, he's a deputy, so he also has 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.720 that going on. As you mentioned, the snail farm was 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:44.600 pretty recent. It sounds like maybe in the last. 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:44.880 Year or two. 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.160 He's kind of working on this for some reason. He's 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:49.880 very passionate. Like one article went into detail how he 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.360 has two types of snails, like one from Africa one 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:57.240 from Europe. He like apparently took time kind of learning 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.240 from farmers in Russia and like some other areas. So 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.360 it sounds pretty kind of devoted to the whole snail thing. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:08.119 His other project was looking to develop like agritourism, so 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:11.680 kind of opening farms, petting farms. You know, you come 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:15.800 like feed some animals, maybe write them if that's the thing. 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.199 And I guess he was kind of trying to like 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:20.280 open multiple businesses. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:21.440 He's a bit of an entrepreneur. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.480 Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's kind of he has like his 0:17:23.560 --> 0:17:25.320 hand on a lot of things, but even for the 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.520 snail farm, he got five million rubles, which isn't a 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.680 whole lot, but I mean even that they're considering like 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:34.439 a snail farm for context, like it's not very common 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.240 to kind of pretty weird for Eastern Europe. 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.600 So this guy I had this idea, right, like you know, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.879 snail farm. As far as we know, it was fairly successful. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:43.440 Right it doesn't. 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.680 I've not seen any kind of indication that it totally failed. 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:49.399 I think it was Again, it's I think it was 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:51.240 a twenty twenty two that he got funding for it, 0:17:51.280 --> 0:17:53.000 So it sounds like he's kind of like was in 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.440 the process of making it work. Yeah, I didn't see 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.680 that it was you know, booming, nor did I see 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.359 that it failed. I think he was just kind of 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.280 in the process of like setting it up. Same thing 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:05.200 with his like agriturism idea of like opening petting zoos 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.200 and having like farm tours. It kind of sounds like 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.359 these were things he was working on. It sounds like 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:14.080 the construction company is quite like established, and same with 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.440 his stores, and then the other things were more like 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:18.600 like projects he was starting. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:20.919 So how did he end up in politics? 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.600 Yeah, That's the thing. I don't really see much before that. 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.240 I just like, in twenty nineteen, he became a deputy 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:29.679 and that's it. I was trying to find like his 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.840 kind of rise or if he did anything before that. 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:33.840 I think you've seen like a lot of these folks 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:38.120 will join like a local committee or some kind of council, 0:18:38.240 --> 0:18:41.040 you know, something more kind of lower level. But this guy, 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.119 I'm not really seeing much of that. It sounds like 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:45.560 he kind of had the construction company, then he just 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.960 became a deputy. Really don't see anything where he's he Like, 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.040 it kind of seems like this whole deputy thing is 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.720 his first step into politics. I mean it's not uncommon. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.960 It's not like unseen, you know, not everybody starts off 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.400 in like some kind of smaller government and then moves up. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.359 Something he decided to do and it worked. I mean, 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.440 becoming a deputy definitely has its financial benefits. I'm sure 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:10.120 a lot of these contracts work after he became a deputy. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.000 You know, if if he's making one billion rubles in 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.399 twenty twenty four, sounds like he has enough contracts to 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.880 go around to kind of pay that much. It could 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.120 have been could have been a business decision as much 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.760 as it was some kind of passion to be a politician. 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:25.080 That was my thought. 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.800 I thought, like, probably business decisions. So I've got the notere. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.800 It says he was elected to the public office in 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:37.000 the village of Otra Denskoya in twenty nineteen. Came in 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:41.520 as a municipal deputy for the t t Choresque district 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.720 in twenty twenty three, So essentially he kind of came 0:19:44.760 --> 0:19:46.520 in as like a council member. 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:47.440 Is that is that right? 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.560 Like he was elected to the council as such in 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:54.480 the area. Okay, all right, now it's time for a 0:19:54.560 --> 0:20:01.919 quick outbreak, all right, not for that. 0:20:02.880 --> 0:20:03.960 Now back to the shore. 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.919 In Russia, how it works is like you can be 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:13.720 a part of United Russia, like Putin's party can be 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.560 at different levels, but kind of support the party and 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.919 be part of that party. The tekhotskis it sounds like 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:22.960 that's where he grew up and spent most of his life. 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.560 I don't really see him doing much outside of this, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:28.600 of this Kuban area. From what I can see, he's 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.480 done everything there, Like all his businesses are set up there, 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.399 all his stores are within that region. It's it's kind 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.120 of like his hometown and he doesn't really go out 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:37.680 of there much. 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:38.520 Yeah, I read it. 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.159 It said he was like really well known in the 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.800 area and he tried a district commission on agriculture and 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:51.280 land management, utilities, transport, communications, public communities. Basically his businesses. 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:53.680 He's a bit of an entrepreneur. From what I'm getting, right, 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.560 it seems like his fingers in many different pies. To me, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.480 it seems like, yeah, this is a bit of a hustler. 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.560 He's a bit of an entrepreneur. You know, the Snell Farm. 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:04.800 I ready, his mother has the Snell Farm. Now it's 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:07.440 uncertain if she had one before or if she took 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:10.040 it over or whatever. It's just in her name maybe 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:14.080 who knows. But basically it's the thing I'm getting is, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:16.160 I feel like he was a bit of an entrepreneur 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:22.680 and he's saw by getting involved with politics, specifically Putin's party. 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:25.560 Obviously you're not going to try and go into another 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.560 party that's kind of opposing him to move your business empire. 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:31.960 It feels like he looked at Putin's party, he ran 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:34.280 for it. He's well known in the area, seems pretty 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:37.760 well liked. From what I've found, and basically that would 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.840 have allowed him, I think, to really build up his business. 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:43.480 Even if we look here, he was the chair of 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:47.800 the District Commission on Agriculture and Land Management. We've seen 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.199 time and time again guys that get involved in this 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.639 politically tend to make money, but they also tend to 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.280 come a cropper. Like this is not an unusual pattern 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:58.200 for us, right. 0:21:58.600 --> 0:22:01.160 Yeah, like you said, you know, he's getting into politics, 0:22:01.160 --> 0:22:04.800 he's overseeing stuff that he's kind of already working on, right, 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.520 Like you said, agriculture, he's looking to develop essentially businesses, 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.439 right Like he's it doesn't really talk about like these 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.199 are his businesses kind of that he just almost like 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:14.760 working on. 0:22:14.720 --> 0:22:16.240 The idea of agritourism. 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.000 But like he's on the agricultural board. He has all 0:22:19.040 --> 0:22:21.960 these different companies that are, if not you know, straight 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:24.520 up and agricultural, it's just kind of adjacent to it. 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:26.840 And yeah, like I think they see it as like, 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:29.600 you know, I can make some like kind of like 0:22:29.600 --> 0:22:32.720 a make an easy path to make his businesses work, 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.840 to kind of fund his businesses and profit from it 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:38.719 in that way. And yeah, it's pretty common. You know, 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:40.800 you're in charge of the funding. You're in charge of 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:44.280 what the policies are, so you just kind of do 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:46.879 as you please, and you're an entrepreneur. 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:46.879 On the side. 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:48.760 It is that simple, So why not. 0:22:49.280 --> 0:22:52.320 Yeah, it's really weird this guy. 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:57.800 From what we've seen obviously what's available, there's just nothing 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:02.320 that indicates, Ah, that might be what happened, as in, 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:05.080 there's no clear sign of corruption. Not to say it 0:23:05.119 --> 0:23:07.720 wasn't happening, It very much could have been. He was, 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:11.640 you know, as soon as he gets involved with politics. 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.680 It's only a couple years really later, and he's dead. 0:23:16.160 --> 0:23:18.320 To me, this is one of the weirdest ones possible. 0:23:18.480 --> 0:23:22.560 Like his hands were allegedly bounds. And I say allegedly 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:24.320 because you know it's an eyewitness statement. 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:24.920 Who knows. 0:23:25.000 --> 0:23:27.960 But I really think there's a lot of merit in that. 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.240 If you're in Russia and someone dies in a weird 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:35.040 way like this, it's very easy to just shut your mouth. 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:37.000 The fact that someone was like Noah, I saw that 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.840 his hands were bound. He was way too high up 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:42.960