11-08-2012, 04:58 PM
Chichvarkin's version
According to the theory proposed by Chichvarkin in a Novaya Gazeta article, Yevsyukov got a mysterious phone call during the birthday party that left him catatonic.
With officers at his precinct under investigation for fabricating theft charges against a disgraced mobile phone salesman who wound up kidnapped and chained to a radiator by his own employers, the gist of the call apparently was, "You're next." According to Chichvarkin, that's what sent Yevsyukov over the edge.
"Investigators tried to annul the fact that Andrei Vlaskin was a thief and a bandit," Chichvarkin wrote in the article. "The weakest link was the Southern Police District," in particular Denis Yevsyukov, who had once instigated a search against Vlaskin on Evroset's complaint.
"The idea was to force everyone involved in the instigation of the criminal case against Vlaskin to admit that Evroset employees bribed the whole department, that they fabricated all the evidence, intimidated witnesses with only one aim: to kidnap [Vlaskin]."
Chichvarkin suspects that the call to Yevsyukov was connected to pressure from investigators trying to discredit Yevsyukov and other officers in the Southern Police District to corroborate their evidence against Chichvarkin.
"Why would a normal person like Yevsyukov suddenly go on a shooting rampage?" Yuri Gervis, Chichvarkin's lawyer, told The Moscow News. "The investigation hasn't answered these questions and doesn't want to answer them, and Yevsyukov is silent about what made him do this."
Earlier that year, prosecutors investigating the Vlaskin case found documents dumped in the garbage outside, causing a scandal in the Southern Police District. Police announced that the department would be checked, and on April 22, just four days before Yevsyukov's shooting spree, reports appeared about the resignation of two district officials.
"In March, two FSB agents were attached to investigators conducting a probe of the Southern Police District department" in connection with the instigation of the Vlaskin case, Gervis said, citing his own sources which he would not disclose. "There was pressure, there were demands to hand [over] their superiors," and Yevsyukov may have been facing this pressure as well.
Meanwhile, Yevsyukov was reportedly questioned about the alleged cover-up in July, long after his arrest on murder charges, but he did not testify.
Bushuyeva, who became Yevsyukov's lawyer later on in the investigation, revealed another interesting detail: Yevsyukov shared a cell with the director of Evroset's security service, Boris Levin - the same person who was arrested in Sept. 2008 on charges of kidnapping Vlaskin.
"I haven't talked to Denis about [the Chichvarkin connection]. But I do know for a fact that one of his cellmates was the former head of Evroset's security department," Bushuyeva said. "But I don't know his last name. Denis told me this. He said that even when he was transferred to another cell, it was still with the head of Evroset's security department. This was in December, right before the trial began."
Gervis said he did not know they were in the same cell.
But Mikhail Vokin, the lawyer who was representing Yevsyukov at the time when reports about his being questioned appeared, denied any link, or that Yevsyukov was in any way connected to the Vlaskin case.
"He was not questioned about the Chichvarkin affair. He did not initiate a search against Vlaskin. That has been established by the investigation." Asked if this meant that there had been an investigation into this issue, Vokin said, "Apparently, yes." But when pressed to elaborate, Vokin said he was under oath not to disclose aspects of the investigation.
Others were also sceptical about Chichvarkin's allegations.
"With all the respect I have for Chichvarkin, it sounds contrived," said Trunov. Considering that Chichvarkin is in London under investigation, there is no evidence of these allegations to present in court, he said, adding: "So I'm not even bothering my head with it."
Law enforcement experts say that a bigger question is how Yevsyukov got involved in the first place.
"Knowing how the system works, it's hard to imagine that Yevsyukov just picked up the case for his own benefit," said Kirill Kabanov, a former security officer and the head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, suggesting that normally money is involved in launching such cases. "If the case was in the Southern Police District's jurisdiction, then why did they have to throw out the documents? Since Evroset is all over Moscow, it all depends on [what police district] you strike a deal with."
Chichvarkin, who had joined Pravoye Delo, a liberal party seen to be loyal to the Kremlin, has been a vocal advocate for the rights of entrepreneurs. He has claimed that a planned take-over of his business is the real reason he is being prosecuted, and accused Interior Ministry officials of trying to extort millions of dollars for letting him import mobile phones. Chichvarkin wrote in his Livejournal blog on March 2 that he no longer wants to be associated with Pravoye Delo because he has little chance to participate from London.
In 2008, Chichvarkin was in talks with the MTS provider to sell his burgeoning retail business, and some media, notably Newsweek Russia, linked the investigation against Chichvarkin to MTS's attempts to take control of Evroset. But MTS has denied any connection.
Evroset was eventually sold in late 2008 to MTS's rival, Vimpelcom.
One expert, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Chichvarkin may have brought up the Yevsyukov connection to improve his reputation as he awaits an extradition hearing, scheduled for August.
But whatever its effect on Yevsyukov, the link, a mere footnote to the Chichvarkin case, is revealing just how corrupt the daily grind of the rank-and-file within the police force really is.
Bushuyeva did not deny the Chichvarkin connection. "This is all very interesting," she said. "If he really was connected to Chichvarkin's case, this raises a lot of questions that we don't have answers to."
According to the theory proposed by Chichvarkin in a Novaya Gazeta article, Yevsyukov got a mysterious phone call during the birthday party that left him catatonic.
With officers at his precinct under investigation for fabricating theft charges against a disgraced mobile phone salesman who wound up kidnapped and chained to a radiator by his own employers, the gist of the call apparently was, "You're next." According to Chichvarkin, that's what sent Yevsyukov over the edge.
"Investigators tried to annul the fact that Andrei Vlaskin was a thief and a bandit," Chichvarkin wrote in the article. "The weakest link was the Southern Police District," in particular Denis Yevsyukov, who had once instigated a search against Vlaskin on Evroset's complaint.
"The idea was to force everyone involved in the instigation of the criminal case against Vlaskin to admit that Evroset employees bribed the whole department, that they fabricated all the evidence, intimidated witnesses with only one aim: to kidnap [Vlaskin]."
Chichvarkin suspects that the call to Yevsyukov was connected to pressure from investigators trying to discredit Yevsyukov and other officers in the Southern Police District to corroborate their evidence against Chichvarkin.
"Why would a normal person like Yevsyukov suddenly go on a shooting rampage?" Yuri Gervis, Chichvarkin's lawyer, told The Moscow News. "The investigation hasn't answered these questions and doesn't want to answer them, and Yevsyukov is silent about what made him do this."
Earlier that year, prosecutors investigating the Vlaskin case found documents dumped in the garbage outside, causing a scandal in the Southern Police District. Police announced that the department would be checked, and on April 22, just four days before Yevsyukov's shooting spree, reports appeared about the resignation of two district officials.
"In March, two FSB agents were attached to investigators conducting a probe of the Southern Police District department" in connection with the instigation of the Vlaskin case, Gervis said, citing his own sources which he would not disclose. "There was pressure, there were demands to hand [over] their superiors," and Yevsyukov may have been facing this pressure as well.
Meanwhile, Yevsyukov was reportedly questioned about the alleged cover-up in July, long after his arrest on murder charges, but he did not testify.
Bushuyeva, who became Yevsyukov's lawyer later on in the investigation, revealed another interesting detail: Yevsyukov shared a cell with the director of Evroset's security service, Boris Levin - the same person who was arrested in Sept. 2008 on charges of kidnapping Vlaskin.
"I haven't talked to Denis about [the Chichvarkin connection]. But I do know for a fact that one of his cellmates was the former head of Evroset's security department," Bushuyeva said. "But I don't know his last name. Denis told me this. He said that even when he was transferred to another cell, it was still with the head of Evroset's security department. This was in December, right before the trial began."
Gervis said he did not know they were in the same cell.
But Mikhail Vokin, the lawyer who was representing Yevsyukov at the time when reports about his being questioned appeared, denied any link, or that Yevsyukov was in any way connected to the Vlaskin case.
"He was not questioned about the Chichvarkin affair. He did not initiate a search against Vlaskin. That has been established by the investigation." Asked if this meant that there had been an investigation into this issue, Vokin said, "Apparently, yes." But when pressed to elaborate, Vokin said he was under oath not to disclose aspects of the investigation.
Others were also sceptical about Chichvarkin's allegations.
"With all the respect I have for Chichvarkin, it sounds contrived," said Trunov. Considering that Chichvarkin is in London under investigation, there is no evidence of these allegations to present in court, he said, adding: "So I'm not even bothering my head with it."
Law enforcement experts say that a bigger question is how Yevsyukov got involved in the first place.
"Knowing how the system works, it's hard to imagine that Yevsyukov just picked up the case for his own benefit," said Kirill Kabanov, a former security officer and the head of the National Anti-Corruption Committee, suggesting that normally money is involved in launching such cases. "If the case was in the Southern Police District's jurisdiction, then why did they have to throw out the documents? Since Evroset is all over Moscow, it all depends on [what police district] you strike a deal with."
Chichvarkin, who had joined Pravoye Delo, a liberal party seen to be loyal to the Kremlin, has been a vocal advocate for the rights of entrepreneurs. He has claimed that a planned take-over of his business is the real reason he is being prosecuted, and accused Interior Ministry officials of trying to extort millions of dollars for letting him import mobile phones. Chichvarkin wrote in his Livejournal blog on March 2 that he no longer wants to be associated with Pravoye Delo because he has little chance to participate from London.
In 2008, Chichvarkin was in talks with the MTS provider to sell his burgeoning retail business, and some media, notably Newsweek Russia, linked the investigation against Chichvarkin to MTS's attempts to take control of Evroset. But MTS has denied any connection.
Evroset was eventually sold in late 2008 to MTS's rival, Vimpelcom.
One expert, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Chichvarkin may have brought up the Yevsyukov connection to improve his reputation as he awaits an extradition hearing, scheduled for August.
But whatever its effect on Yevsyukov, the link, a mere footnote to the Chichvarkin case, is revealing just how corrupt the daily grind of the rank-and-file within the police force really is.
Bushuyeva did not deny the Chichvarkin connection. "This is all very interesting," she said. "If he really was connected to Chichvarkin's case, this raises a lot of questions that we don't have answers to."
