Original of this material

© The Insider03.26.2024, Photos, illustrations: via The Insider

March marked the 29th anniversary of murders legendary TV presenter Vladislav Listyeva. During this time, four investigative teams were replaced, dozens of leads were worked out, but the customer, organizer and perpetrators of the high-profile murder were never brought to trial. Several persons involved and carriers of valuable information were themselves killed, others died suddenly or went missing. The Insider studied secret reports from FSB informants and police surveillance and found out previously unknown details from Listyev’s life and business, which clarify some of the circumstances of his murder.

The chair of the general director of the TV channel was taken by Listyev; he was rumored to be the favorite presenter of the president’s wife, Naina Yeltsina. Unlike most of the other appointees, Listyev was a true professional on television, but was forced to take into account the interests of those around him. Over time, Korzhakov and Berezovsky drove Chubais out of the news and subjugated almost all the editorial offices. This is what Listyev’s friend, the famous advertiser Alexander Mitroshenkov, wrote in his testimony:

“During that period of time, Listyev unconditionally followed all the instructions and decisions made by Berezovsky. Listyev understood well what he could and could not do, and that the resolution of many issues would depend on Berezovsky’s consent. Berezovsky himself saw in Listyev a master of information broadcasts who could be useful to him in the fight against NTV founder Vladimir Gusinsky and other oligarchs.”

By agreement with Berezovsky, Listyev did not engage in advertising schemes and filled the channel’s network with quality programs such as “Field of Miracles,” “Theme” and “Rush Hour.” In June 1994, an attempt was made on Berezovsky’s life, his driver died. Since then, the oligarch has strengthened his security and sat in the Logovaz reception house. Berezovsky advised Listyev to contact his deputy if problems arise. Badri Patarkatsishvili (Badri) and the singer Joseph Kobzon (Yoshik), who had extensive connections in law enforcement agencies and criminal circles. But Listyev did not think that he needed such a “roof”; why would the beloved presenter of the president’s wife need a “roof”!

Before the arrival of the “family” in Ostankino, complete anarchy was going on there: budgetary funds were barely enough to maintain the studios, control rooms and editing rooms in working order, each editorial office independently looked for sources of income. The leaders in advertising were “Premier SV” Sergei Lisovskytrade and industrial group “BSG” of Gleb Bokiy, “InterVid” Listyev and “Videointernational” Mikhail Lesin. Money for advertising was mostly paid in bags, and the main sponsors were financial pyramids such as MMM, Khoper Invest and Vlastilina, which deceived millions of Russians.

The editors were well aware that they were dealing with scammers, but they played these games with pleasure. The informants reported to curator Eggplant that cash was being brought into the television center in “tons”.

Agent “S.”: “In the Ostankino elevator, I ran into a woman who was carrying suitcases with money to the editorial offices of Channel 1. She began to complain that she was tired of carrying these weights to all these TV stars.”

Conspiratorial meetings with agents took place at Komelkov’s restaurant on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and visitors from the television center also came there and settled any problems that arose with the TV curator. Non-cash payments for advertising took place through Picobank, which is under the “roof” of the leader of the Orekhovskaya organized crime group Sergei Timofeev nicknamed Sylvester.

He also tried to control Sergei Lisovsky and his company Premier SV, which has the strongest positions in the television advertising market. In September 1994, Sylvester was blown up by placing 400 grams of TNT under his Mercedes.

Agent “G”: “Lisovsky is greedy, has no friends, and doesn’t know how to work in a team. Well familiar with Taiwanese – the third most important leader of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group. After the murder of Sylvester, the Fox went under Mikhas Sergey Mikhailovleader of the Solntsevskys – The Insider>”

In 1992, the former instructor of the agitation and propaganda department of the Baumansky district committee of the Komsomol, Sergei Lisovsky, founded the “Lis S” disco in the Olimpiysky sports complex, where officials, security forces, elite prostitutes and members of gangster groups loved to hang out. In the same year, he founded the Premier SV agency and became almost the main monopolist in advertising on television and the production of music videos.

The operational reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the disco was being looked after by Solntsevo authority Sergei Sibirsky (aka Versace, later went missing), and the Premier SV accountants were controlled by another resident of the Solntsevo district Alexander Averin (Avera Jr.). In 2017, Avera died from cirrhosis of the liver.

In January 1993, the editor-in-chief of Ostankino music programs Valery Kurzhiyamsky, who was in conflict with Premier SV over the promotion of some musicians on TV, was killed in the entrance of his own house. However, the investigation came to the conclusion that Kurzhiyamsky unintentionally killed by some teenagers.

In March 1993, the producer of the popular group “Combination”, Alexander Shishinin, was killed with a sharpening knife. The producer was going to sue Lisovsky for ownership of the Combination trademark and had good prospects. A few hours before his death, Shishinin contacted the police and reported that he had been threatened with physical harm over the phone. Lisovsky was among the suspects, but the murder fell into the category of “hangings”. In 1994, businessman Gleb Bokiy, who was considered the second advertiser after Lisovsky, was shot at point-blank range. After Bokiy’s death, his advertising time went to Premier SV.

In a narrow circle, Boris Berezovsky more than once spoke negatively about Lisovsky and subsequently planned to squeeze him out of Ostankino, as he did in St. Petersburg Konstantin Yakovlev (Kostya-Mogila), who controlled local TV. Kostya-Mogila was also tested for involvement in the murder of Listyev; in 2003, he was shot in Moscow along with his guards. In turn, Listyev convinced the oligarch that at first it would be impossible to do without Lisovsky, since he had been working with brands such as Marlboro, Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble for a long time and it would not be easy to replace him. 8 days before Listyev’s murder, Berezovsky gathered the shareholders of ORT and announced the suspension of the broadcast of advertising on the TV channel from April 1, 1995. Moreover, the general director of the TV channel Listyev was not invited to the meeting.

This was an open blow to Lisovsky, who had already collected an annual advance payment from Premier SV clients. The Ostankino tower froze in anticipation of the outcome.

Agent “Belgrade”: “In 1992, I established a construction company with 100% foreign capital. A day before Listyev’s murder, I went to his reception to pick up cash. He was busy, Lisovsky was with him. As I heard through the door, they had a tough conversation about advertising and films: “No, no way…, suck your dick!”

According to investigators, Lisovsky allegedly complained to his authoritative acquaintances that he had been framed by ORT, and they sent killers. They could not reach Berezovsky, the choice fell on Listyev, who traveled without security. The criminal case involved teams of killers from Novokuznetsk, Kazan, Izhevsk, Chita and FSB Vympel fighters who accepted orders for murders. Among other suspects, Solntsevo authority Igor Dashdamirov (Dushman), whose phone number was found in Lisovsky’s notebook, and the direct perpetrators of the murder, the Ageikin brothers, were considered by investigators. Dushman hid abroad for a long time, and when he was extradited to Russia (*aggressor country), they could not prove his involvement in the murder.

Former paratrooper Alexander Ageikin died in Israel from a drug overdose, and his brother Andrei now lives in Moscow. As a source familiar with the investigation told The Insider, when Lisovsky became a public figure and entered Yeltsin’s election headquarters, a command came from above to stop operational activities against him. After the murder of Vlad, Berezovsky negotiated with the French advertising company Ip-GAVAZ, but they, after analyzing the criminal situation around Ostankino, refused to cooperate. In the end, Berezovsky and Lisovsky agreed on an advertising partnership, and the payment scheme they came up with lasted until 1998, when the financial crisis broke out in Russia (*aggressor country).

One of the leaders of the Golyanovskaya organized crime group aroused operational interest Igor Vugin. He represented the financial interests of Listyev’s InterVida in negotiations with Effect Bank regarding the return of a loan issued for the purchase of a building on Mashkova Street. The reason for suspicion was information from agent “D.”: “After Listyev’s murder, Politkovsky got drunk. Vugin, Kim and Solonenko were sitting at the table. Politkovsky began accusing Vugin of Listyev’s murder.”

There was every reason to suspect the Golyanov bandits: they were responsible for 40 contract killings, kidnappings, racketeering, and they brutally dealt with those who did not want to pay tribute. As soon as the investigators began to get closer to Vugin, the deputy head of the department of the FSB Information and Analytical Directorate, Colonel, appeared on the horizon Igor Kushnikov and demanded that operational activities be stopped.

In 2002, during the trial of the leaders of the Golyanovskaya group, it turned out that the security officer supplied the bandits with weapons, FSB IDs and special non-inspection coupons for cars used by security forces. After the trial, Colonel Kushnikov disappeared from radar. His name surfaced in January 2024 in a high-profile story involving a heating cutoff in Klimovsk, when almost 200 houses were left without heat. As it turned out, the emergency boiler room was located on the territory of the Klimovsky cartridge plant; a specialized enterprise was headed by former security officer Kushnikov.

Along the way, one well-known film producer (his last name is in the editorial office) and a resident of Crimea, Alexander Pokidko, nicknamed Bruno, were checked for involvement in Listyev’s murder. The first, together with Listyev, was involved in the hotel business in Germany and had a reputation as an avid gambler. For gambling debts to the filmmaker, his office on Vernadsky Avenue was blown up, and he borrowed money from Listyev to pay off the cheaters.

However, the filmmaker did not intend to repay the debt to Listyev himself and even threatened Vlad that he would hire FSB officers or bandits he knew and would solve all the problems. The Insider contacted this man’s wife, she confirmed that her husband used to be a big fan of card games, but then gave up. She knew nothing about Listyev’s debt, but at the end of the conversation she said that her husband died of Covid in 2021.

With the Crimean, everything turned out to be much more interesting: Listyev planned to buy real estate in Crimea, and he was introduced to Bruno, who used the ID of a GRU officer in the name of Sergei Petrovich Bystrov. He protected the Simferopol airport, the Moscow Hotel and a number of commercial firms. The TV presenter asked the fake GRU officer to find him a plot of land by the sea and act as a guarantor of the invested funds, and in return he promised to buy a sea boat.

But then Vlad changed his mind, which seriously angered Bruno. However, the “intelligence officer” turned out to have a cast-iron alibi: on the day of Listyev’s murder, he and his henchmen hanged an intractable businessman in a forest near Moscow. Since 2001, Pokidko-Bruno has been on the federal wanted list under the name Konstantin Vyacheslavovich Zhuk.

Ataman Filin The last to be arrested on suspicion of Listyev’s murder were the Cossack ataman Mikhail Filin and his right hand Mikhail Burasov. The lead was again a report from an informant.

Agent “S.”: “A week before Listyev’s murder, I was in Filin’s office. There was also a person there I didn’t know. He said that Lisovsky had problems on television, to which Filin replied: “Soon the problems will end.”

Filin has a very stormy biography: he served in the Marine Corps in the Pacific Fleet. Then he served in the capital’s riot police, but was fired for his connections with a gang of scammers in the automobile market. In 1991, Filin was going to buy the title of “thief in law,” but Sylvester opposed it: “A cop, although a former one, cannot be a respected thief.”

Filin made his first capital by selling weapons stolen from a Russian military base in Transnistria, then he was seen in Yugoslavia as part of mercenaries from Russia (*aggressor country). Returning home, he established the “Cossack Brotherhood” and awarded himself the rank of general. In October 1993, Filin guarded active participants in the failed putsch Albert Makashov and Vyacheslav Achalov, and later he was seen more than once at rallies of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). There were several attempts on the chieftain’s life and his car was blown up. Gradually, he took over several companies and security companies.

In the criminal case, there is testimony from witnesses about how Filin sent his soldiers to guard Lisovsky when he had problems. So, the Filin Cossacks came to the “strelka” with the Izmailovo bandits (who wrested the Lyceum group from Lisovsky), but achieved nothing. In the operational files of the Ministry of Internal Affairs there is intelligence information that the explosion at the Logovaz reception house, when Berezovsky’s driver died, and he himself received cuts to his face and a slight concussion, was organized by the ataman.

Filin and Burasov were kept under arrest for more than seven months. They denied their close connection with Lisovsky, and in the end, without a solid evidence base, investigators released them. As police surveillance recorded, a few days after his release, the ataman arrived at the “8th Wonder of the World” restaurant on Olimpiysky Prospekt, where he met with the head of the presidential security, Korzhakov and Lisovsky. What they talked about remained a mystery to the investigation.

Subsequently, Filin joined United Russia (*aggressor country), participated in the work of several patriotic foundations, and then joined the leadership of the People Against Corruption party, which he briefly headed in 2020 Putin (*international criminal)’s nephew.

About a month before the annexation of Crimea, the Cossack general was seen in Sevastopol, where he took part in the creation of pro-Russian self-defense units. Filin died in April 2022 from complications after Covid, and Z-resources dedicated large obituaries to the “real Russian warrior”.

Leaks, “zindan” and incompetence

Investigators in the Listyev case have repeatedly complained about the constant leaks and betrayal of their colleagues: “You give a command to develop a suspect, and a day later they report to me that the operative received some kind of package from the defendant and is drinking with him and the prostitutes in the bathhouse. And there were many such episodes. Another of ours was unable to properly interrogate Listyev’s widow Albina Nazimova, and she was the bearer of the most valuable information. Instead of establishing a normal dialogue, our investigator immediately began with an attack: “As I see, the death of your husband brought you good dividends in the form of shares and an elite apartment in Sivtsev Vrazhek.” Well, who works like that? – complained the investigator of the prosecutor’s office Stanislav K. in a conversation with a correspondent of The Insider. Now Mrs. Nazimova lives in Spain with her fourth husband and has no intention of returning to Russia (*aggressor country).

Another operative said that the authorities secretly allowed not to pay much attention to the legality: some of those being tested in Listyev’s murder were brought to a basement not far from Petrovka, 38, where confessions were extorted from them. One night, a criminal authority and the driver of a black Volga who gave him a lift were brought to the “zindan,” as the operatives called the basement.

By the morning, both admitted to Listyev’s murder, but then it turned out that the driver was carrying the chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev, and at night he worked as a private driver. The beaten driver was sent home, and soon a call from Lebedev was heard in the investigator’s office: “I’ll put you all in prison!” Instead of investigating Vlad’s murder, the operatives began collecting incriminating evidence on Lebedev and a month later they placed a plump folder on his desk. He glanced through it and declared: “Everyone is free!” (Lebedev died of cancer on February 23, 2024.)

A source close to the investigation of The Insider complains: “Listyev’s friends and colleagues were most amazed. They gave interviews everywhere and cried about his death, and when they were invited for interrogation, they immediately played the fool or led the investigation down the wrong path.”

Listyev’s murder has not yet been officially solved. Meanwhile, Sergei Lisovsky became a State Duma deputy from the United Russia (*aggressor country) party and regularly makes statements in the press. For example, about how to curb the rise in egg prices or how to treat veterans of the invasion of Ukraine.

*Operational materials and agency reports cannot be evidence of the involvement of any person in a crime