Yushenkov Sergei Nikolaevich is a fairly well-known domestic politician who defended his PhD in the field of philosophical sciences. From his pen came out several famous scientific works. Belonged to the leaders of "Liberal Russia". He gained fame both due to his scientific and political activities, and (in many respects) also because of his tragic death. In 2003, he became the victim of a contract killing. An investigation organized “in hot pursuit” made it possible to determine who exactly organized the shooting at the politician. However, first things first.
How did it all start?
Yushenkov Sergey Nikolaevich was born in 1950, on June 27th. The date of his death is April 17, 2003. The native land of the future illustrious politician is the village of Medvedkovo relatively close to Tver. The young man was educated first at a technical school in the Kalinin region. The educational institution specialized in the field of agriculture. Having finished it, the young man entered the NVVPU,where he successfully completed his studies in the 74th. Six years later, he chose to continue his studies at the Moscow VPA, in Tbilisi he taught at VAKKU. Since 1984, he has been enrolled in the VPA as an postgraduate student. He received the status of colonel, in the field of philosophy he became a candidate of science. His death left a widow with two children, a boy and a girl.
In the future, one of the leaders of the Liberal Russia party, Sergey began his career in the distant 89th. At first he was a candidate for deputies, in the spring of the following year he successfully passed into the number of people's deputies. He represented the Moscow Kyiv district. In September of this year and until the beginning of 1993, he had the opportunity to chair the committee of the VSR, which de alt with the media, mass civil movements. His area of responsibility was the study of public opinion. At that moment, the man was the leader of the Radical Democrats.
New time and new opportunities
As you can see from the biographies of Sergei Yushenkov, in the spring of 1991 he happened to become a member of the commission organized under the chairman of the Supreme Court. The organization was engaged in military builders, military personnel, specialized in the study of the characteristics of death and injury to this category of persons. The main task of the commission was to ensure the protection of the rights of people guaranteed by laws, as well as to support their interests, especially in times of peace.
From the first month of September of the 91st, a new milestone has been added to the political career. The man joined the temporary commission of deputies involved in the study of the coup. The task of the organization was to determine the causes andclarification of the circumstances of the incident. At the beginning of 1993, he replaced Poltoranin, who at that time was in charge of the State-level Federal Research Center. The man will retain this position for almost a year, leaving it on the fourth day of the 94th. In the period 92-94, he presides over the foundation that supported the democratic transformation within the patronymic.
Dates and Opportunities
Having received a good education by this time, Sergei Yushenkov does not miss the opportunity to get into the State Duma, from December 12, 1993, he becomes an official deputy of the body. From the beginning of 1994 until the last month of the next year, he presides over the committee responsible for the country's defense. Since the last day of January 1996, Sergei has been a member of the State Duma Committee responsible for defense. Since the end of January of the millennium, he has received membership in a committee dealing with communications, transport issues, and energy. From February of the same year, he becomes an official, deputy chairman of this committee.
The second month of the millennium is marked by new career successes: a man who previously received the status of an employee of the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense, now replaces the chief official in the committee responsible for security.
On February 25 of the same year, the promising politician is included in the deputation of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to the MAG, which united the CIS. Then he had a chance to work as a representative of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. The politician was included in the permanent commission dealing with defense and security issues. In addition, it is known that the future leader of the LiberalRussia”was successful in the field of journalism, from the last spring month of 1996 he held the position of editor-in-chief. The publication under his control was called Democratic Choice.
Careers and directions
Since the millennium, Sergei Yushenkov has been one of the chairmen of the Liberal Russia political movement that glorified him, but turned out to be fatal for him. This party existed on deductions from Berezovsky. In January 2002, several State Duma deputies, including a promising politician who had already built a good career, decided to leave the Union of Right Forces, where they had been actively working until that moment. It is they who will become the leaders of the new "Liberal Russia". Together with Yushenkov, Rybakov, Pokhmelkin, Golovlev allowed themselves a demonstrative act.
As Sergei Yushenkov would later say, leaving the SPS was fully justified. According to his point of view, the party supported the leaders of the state in everything, which means that all its members worked for the benefit of creating a powerful bureaucratic and police regime. Yushenkov himself was an ardent opponent of this turn of events.
Money and Justice
The media will talk long and hard about why Sergei Yushenkov was killed. Probably, in many respects the reason for this was a demonstration performance in the fall of 2002, when a popular politician publicly said: from now on, the party he leads will no longer accept funding from Berezovsky. Moreover, the issue of refusing the oligarch as co-chairman was put on the agenda. It's only beena few days, and Berezovsky was expelled from the party. The official reason for what was happening was an interview taken by Prokhanov from the Zavtra publication, in which the entrepreneur spoke of the need to unite with the opposition with patriotic, nationalist sentiments. This behavior was perceived by the liberals as a political betrayal, and retaliatory measures were not long in coming.
Later, Berezovsky will write his confession, publish it through the channels available to him, in which he will suggest that the interview be regarded as nothing more than a pretext. As he says, Sergei Yushenkov and other leaders of the millionaire-funded party have long planned to expel Berezovsky. Such a decision by the oligarch himself was considered contrary to legal discipline. He was officially of the opinion that the exclusion and removal from office were illegal, no one could do this. Arguing his position, he mentioned that he received the position of co-chairman during the party congress, which means that the political council could not change this status.
Quarrels and disputes
Very little time passed, and the decision taken by Sergei Yushenkov and his associates was changed. In December of the same 2002, a new congress of the party, within which such discord began, will be held in St. Petersburg. The meeting will be called emergency, representatives of regional departments will be invited to participate. Those, in turn, did not support the Moscow leadership, believing that the future of the movement was with the oligarch. Berezovsky, according to the decision of this congress,reinstated, but the other co-chairs were deprived of their posts. For partnership in management matters, the entrepreneur received an official assistant, Mikhail Kodanev.
Of course, Yushenkov and other politicians, who were literally out of work as a result of the congress, considered the decision contrary to the law. They argued that Berezovsky had no right to such arbitrariness, and that his clique and the event organized by them had no prospects. Yushenkov regarded the event as requiring punishment under the Criminal Code under articles on forgery, bribery, and forgery of documentation. A little earlier, on December 5 of the same year, representatives of the Ministry of Justice considered the intention to hold the meeting illegal, so Yushenkov's words were fully justified.
Unique and strong
As many have said about Yushenkov (by the way, the author of the sensational fictional politician Yegor Shugaev), this man started out as a classic representative of the elite Soviet society. He was born in the village, received a military education and successfully completed his academic studies. Based on the first decades of his life, it was safe to say that this man easily compromises. However, it became noticeable when Yushenkov came to power that in fact he had a militant character, and principles were in the first place. As many of his colleagues noted, he sincerely believed: the state needs the values of liberalism, this is the future. Democratic ideals, entrepreneurial freedom and the ability to boldly say whatever you think - all this Yushenkov was ready to defend by any means andmeans.
During the 1990s, when Sergei Yushenkov got a position on the committee dealing with security and defense issues, he had his first serious opponents. These are the so-called "political technologists", who believed that a promising politician was preventing them from promoting their ideals and moving towards success.
Idealism and reality
Some even today say that the murder of Yushenkov deprived the power structures of our country of one of the last romantics in politics. They say that he was exceptionally in his time and in his place, only at the beginning of the nineties, editors, people who did not have systemic training, could come to power in order to promote real ideals, those that ordinary people expected from power.
Those who would later be called political romantics did not stay in power for long. Most will give up their posts, be removed or die by the 95th. At first, Yushenkov held his own, convincing those around him that politics was needed not only for the authorities, that it was necessary to monitor the means used. He paid for this more than once - he was betrayed, framed. Then - a black moment in Russian political history, the murder of Sergei Yushenkov, which looks especially ugly from the outside, used by his opponents to sort things out with each other. For some, the death of the last romantic has become a direct path to success.
Time: one's own and someone else's
They say that Yushenkov was a real gem in domestic politics - on a par with Starovoitova, Rybakov, Golovlev. It was Galina who became the first victim of contract killings. For herafter that, the dissatisfied got rid of Golovlev. Yushenkov was the last in the chain of these contract killings. As many said when he was killed, there were no more people left in politics worthy of unconditional trust. Yushenkov was killed near his own Moscow home. The killer fired three shots, used a Makarov pistol equipped with a silencer, which he soon threw away - law enforcement agencies will find him.
The contract killer was wearing gloves all the time, but made a mistake once, when he was just putting them on - his mark was preserved on a bag thrown out shortly after the crime. As the examination of the evidence showed, the perpetrator was Kulachinsky, a native of Syktyvkar, who had previously had problems with the law. Previously, he was sentenced to a four-year term as a drug dealer. A short time later, on June 25-26 of the same year, Kodanev and Alexander Vinnik were detained. Thus, the investigation had all the necessary persons at its disposal: alleged customers, organizers, assistants and implementers of the idea.
Right and guilty
While the investigation was still underway, there were people who believed that Olshansky, another politician from Liberal Russia, was involved in the crime. The man was invited to the broadcast, he joined Zhirinovsky, Savelyev, made every effort to shield himself and get rid of any suspicions.
Pokhmelkin spoke to the public on June 26. He said that from the very beginning the investigation assumed Kodanev's participation in the criminal act, the investigators believed that he couldto be a customer, because he has quite strong motives for this. At that time, Kodanev wanted to be a party leader, and he did not like the idea of giving up Berezovsky's money, on which he mainly subsisted. Yushenkov, the real party leader, was for him an obstacle and an obstacle in achieving what he wanted. Even then, on June 26, Pokhmelkin would openly say that Yushenkov was a victim of Kodanev's desire for power.
Aspirations and ambitions
Pokhmelkin, speaking to the public, will mention that for the first time he heard an assumption regarding Kodanev's guilt from a supporter of the millionaire Berezovsky. He will say that it was a man close to Kodanev, who was constantly at the headquarters under his leadership. Pokhmelkin also admits that the investigating authorities have already interrogated the man, which made it possible to concentrate suspicions on Kodanev and start a case against him. At the same time, Lebedev will report that even earlier, in 2002, Kodanev offered him to take the side of the oligarch. Lebedev was Yushenkov's main assistant, so such a supporter could be beneficial for an entrepreneur. However, the idea was not successful. According to his own statement, Lebedev immediately dotted the i's, saying that he did not betray his friends, after which the unproductive dialogue ended.
Of course, Berezovsky himself denied his involvement in the murder of his opponent. He saw the arrest as nothing more than part of a long, well-thought-out plan by the authorities to rule out any opposition. The investigation ended in August of the same year, when a contract killing was committed. Kodanev was the sourcemotions to summon jurors. The trial was organized in this format.
Mistakes and their cost
Schmidt, speaking to the jury, will say that Yushenkov made only one mistake in his life, but he paid for it: he believed Berezovsky. It is Schmidt who will call Yushenkov the last political romantic in our country. He will say that he was honest, naive. Was this a consolation for the family of Sergei Yushenkov? Hardly - the widow and two children were left in difficult living conditions.
In the spring of 2004 the Moscow City Court ruled on the case. The jury's verdict was as follows: Kodanev - the customer, Alexander Vinnik - the organizer. The court recognized that Kulachinsky was the executor, found out who was the intermediary between the customer and the direct killer - Kiselev. The verdict was read out on the penultimate day of March.
Decisions and formulations
Following the court order, you can find out that Kodanev was striving for leadership over Liberal Russia. His desire was to get his hands on all the finances that the party had at its disposal. It was then, in frosty February 2003, that he invited his closest assistant and subordinate to talk, instructing him to organize a contract killing. Vinnik, using his connections, agreed with Kiselev, who soon bought a gun and hired a killer.
According to the results of the investigation, the customer, the performer received two decades in prison, the organizer was given ten years, and the mediator - 11. Kodanev was the only one ofconvicts who refused to admit guilt for their deeds. The rest publicly asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the murdered. The court suspected Drozd and Palkov of complicity, but the jury's decision regarding these persons was acquitted.
Victims: potential and real
At the moment of sentencing Kodanev, the man himself was absent from the hall. The lawyer said that the politician, whose career, it would seem, is ruined, is ill. The representative of law enforcement agencies acknowledged that the defendant attempted to commit suicide. He was able to get several cans of condensed milk laced with poison and ate the entire contents. Kodanev was rescued, after the initial rehabilitation course, he was sent for treatment to Butyrka, to psychotherapists.
Valentina, the widow of the victim, said she was satisfied with the verdict. Pokhmelkin then admitted: a twenty-year term is a fair punishment for someone who killed a person.
However, Kodanev's lawyer believed to the last that his client did not give any orders. It would seem that he had a more than significant motive: there was a danger of a registration failure. Reznik claimed to the last that Vinnik slandered Kodanev. Schmidt, who acted as a defender of the interests of the victims, admitted that it was after the interrogation of Vinnik that no one had any more doubts about Kodanev's involvement. Then he noted that the position of Reznik during the investigation was very difficult. In June 2004, on behalf of Kodanev, human rights activists filed a cassation appeal, but the Supreme Court rejected it, and the earlier verdict was upheld.
Options and assumptions
Litvinenko,who previously served in the FSB as a lieutenant colonel, expressed his version of the causes of the incident. He considered that the root cause was the information received by Yushenkov from a representative of state security: he allegedly gave him information from which it followed that the Theater Center on Dubrovka became the object of a terrorist act at the suggestion and because of the involvement of the FSB. Litvinenko then said that Yushenkov had received information about Terkibaev from him. Both he and journalist Politkovskaya believed that Terkibaev worked with state security, was at the scene of the crime during the terrorist act, and left the premises only shortly before they began to storm the object.
Politkovskaya would later say that she had a meeting with Yushenkov shortly before his death. She will report that the conversation was devoted to the terrorist act in Nord-Ost, and also consider that by this moment the deputy already had quite valuable information about what had happened. Terkibayev will already die by the end of the investigation into the death of Yushenkov: he became a victim of a car accident shortly before the start of hearings in the sensational case.
People with whom Yushenkov worked would later say that they were not aware of the communication between the politician and Litvinenko. Sokolova believes that Yushenkov did not receive any official papers from him. Gokhman in his articles repeatedly calls for re-evaluating the testimony of Terkibaev, who allegedly successfully refuted almost everything that they “tried to hang” on him.
Ending the story
Many people know where Sergei Yushenkov is buried. To his graveat the Vagankovsky cemetery, even today, fresh flowers are sometimes brought. This does not happen very often, few remember and appreciate the former political romantic who put all his strength and even sacrificed his life for a just cause.
After the death of a man, his widow raises two children, a girl and a son. Yushenkov's children are Lesha and Lena. They can be proud of their father, who, as you know, in the notorious 91st was not afraid to stand in front of the tank, thereby stopping the column.
