"Thief in law number one" detained - criminal authority of Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Oleg Shishkanov, who is considered by the media to be one of the largest crime bosses in Russia, was arrested in the Moscow region. A case was initiated against him on suspicion of occupying a high position in the criminal hierarchy. Experts believe that this new article of the Criminal Code has already shown its effectiveness, and it is time for the leaders of the underworld, accustomed to a free life at home, to start running.

Oleg Shishkanov, alleged crime boss named Shishkan, who was detained on Monday under a new article on thieves in law, has denied his guilt. “The investigator works with an accusatory bias, I do not agree and do not understand what I am accused of,” the suspect told TASS about the statement he made in the courtroom. The Basmanny Court decided to arrest Shishkanov for two months, until September 12.

Shishkanov (who some time ago changed his last name to Medvedev) was detained on Monday in Ramenskoye near Moscow. “According to the investigation, he was involved in the kidnapping and murder in 2012 of Tatyana Sidorova, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Ramensky District of the Moscow Region, and her family members,” RIA Novosti reported the words of the IC official representative Svetlana Petrenko.

The Investigative Committee suspects that Shishkanov controlled the activities of criminal groups in the Moscow region, participated in the division of spheres in the criminal hierarchy. In particular, the investigators suggest that he established control - in other words, he “covered” several companies, was a member of the founders of a number of companies, and controlled underground casinos. Of course, Shishkan is considered a figure significant for organized crime, investigators believe that he is one of the leaders of the shadow world, in fact, a key figure, Deputy Head of the State Duma Security Committee Alexander Khinshtein told VZGLYAD newspaper. According to Gazeta.ru, Shishkan is not “one of the leaders,” but the number one thief in law in Russia.

According to IA "Prime Crime", a native of Ramenskoye Shishkanov-Medvedev (he is also supposed to be a thief in law Shishkan) is considered one of the most famous and authoritative "Slavic" thieves in law and belongs to the "elite" of the Russian underworld. Shishkanov served his only sentence so far - 10 years for premeditated murder - back in the 1980s. Since his alleged "coronation" in 1992, Shishkanov has never been prosecuted. The last time the police detained him was 23 years ago.

It can be assumed that the detention of Shishkanov became part of a large police operation carried out in the Moscow region to combat organized crime. An Interfax source said on Friday that several other authorities were detained in Lyubertsy, including Irakli Usoyan, the grandson of the crime boss Aslan Usoyan, nicknamed Ded Khasan, who was killed in 2013. Later, the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Moscow region confirmed the information about the arrest of 32 men after the alleged "gathering" of crime bosses in one of the Lyubertsy restaurants. A video has appeared on the web, which allegedly captures this detention. According to a TASS source, the detainees were officially charged with minor hooliganism.

It is worth noting: a few weeks ago, a source from Znak.com reported that due to the harsh actions of law enforcement officers against the leaders of organized crime, the "coronation" of the leader of the Russian criminal world - "thief in law number one" - was postponed until at least 2024. With this power, while Putin is the president, there will be no coronations. Nobody wants to be substituted because of the law on thieves,”- said the source. The “Law on Thieves in Law” is a presidential amendment adopted this spring, which included article 210.1 in the Criminal Code (“Occupation of the highest position in the criminal hierarchy”). From now on, the authorities face a prison term of 8 to 15 years and a fine of up to 5 million rubles.

In early spring, before the new law came into force, there were reports in the press that about two dozen "godfathers" had left Russia. As Rosbalt noted, it was mainly the authorities of Georgian origin that left, while the authorities with Slavic roots risked staying.

“The article was introduced, and all law enforcement agencies understand that once they have introduced it, they will soon ask about the work done. By the way, the top officials were interested in why there was no work, and warned that there was no blank shot,”lawyer, retired MVD colonel Yevgeny Chernousov told the VZGLYAD newspaper. In his opinion, "it is necessary to show that the law has started working, the struggle has begun, and then the thieves will run like rats from a ship."

Chernousov believes that now the thieves in law who were on the territory of Russia will start hiding. At the same time, as the veteran of the Ministry of Internal Affairs notes, the most inveterate thieves fled from Russia - according to the principle "God protects the one who is careful, and not the protected convoy".

Recall that in May, another crime boss was arrested - a 43-year-old resident of Tomsk Nikolai Kuzmichev. Investigators suspect that he is a thief in law named Kolya Tomsky. In open sources, it was noted that an authority with such a nickname was crowned at a meeting of thieves in law in Turkey. The fact that this “awarding of the title” took place precisely abroad is significant. “As far as I know, a large number of crime bosses have moved to Turkey. They are trying to command from there,”Yevgeny Chernousov noted earlier.

The detention of Shishkanov is a response to skeptics who believed that even before the adoption of the law there were enough tools to fight crime and that the new norm would work in an unclear way, MP Khinshtein emphasized. "If this rule is applied as it is applied now, the calculation that was laid during its preparation will be fully justified," said the deputy chairman of the Duma security committee.

The presidential amendments to the Criminal Code have earned, and have earned "much tougher than many could have guessed when it was adopted," the deputy added.

At the same time, according to experts on crime, the arrest of the alleged "thief in law number one" will not leave the thieves' hierarchy decapitated. “There will definitely be such a person, otherwise it is impossible, no one has canceled the thieves' law, not to mention the traditions:“The Law was not established by us, it is not for us to change,”notes Chernousov. A retired Interior Ministry colonel suggested that Zakhary Kalashov, aka Shakro Molodoy, who is supposed to be released in 2026, could take Shishkan's place. "Why not? If such a command arrives, they will wait for him, warm up the place, "Chernousov noted. The expert even suggested that the issues could be resolved through the latest technology. “Now thieves' gangways are becoming a thing of the past, the Internet is to help everyone, everything is solved quickly and efficiently,” the interlocutor emphasized.

Campaigns to hunt thieves in law have been announced before, Chernousov recalled. "Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, even when taking office, was indignant at the fact that there are thieves in law in Russia," but the criminal authorities managed to get out over and over again, the expert emphasized. Chernousov complains that there was no law on the fight against authorities before, in those days when he himself worked for 30 years in the criminal investigation department. “Previously, only operatives were allowed to communicate with thieves in law in order to obtain operational information. For example, the authorities forbade ordinary investigators to communicate with them,”says the lawyer. That is, the authorities were treated with some respect in the police environment.

“Apparently, Shishkan and others like him hoped that this time too they would be able to get rid of. Therefore, they did not take the new article seriously and did not leave the country. But the article about thieves in law turned out to be effective,”the expert notes.

Paradoxically, now it will be even more difficult for crime fighters at the first stage to work. After all, the presence of a "boss of bosses" and, in general, the hierarchy of the criminal world makes its structure clearer. Secondly, internal rules - "concepts" - do not allow small and medium-sized bandits to completely go into "chaos". So after the arrest of the leaders, the detectives need to force the defeat of the organized criminal community at lower levels, experts say.