Vladimir Urusov, Artur Vlasov and Dmitry Kazantsev . Photo: RIA Novosti
Last Monday, January 24, the judge of the Moscow Garrison Military Court Alexei Drapenko announced the verdict in a high-profile criminal case of a daring robbery committed in the south-west of Moscow on June 10, 2019.
It was also Monday. At about one in the afternoon, black Mercedes V250 Bluetec and Mercedes GLK 220 CDI minivans drove up to house No. 16a on Ivan Babushkin Street, where businessman Boris Karamatov rented an office, from which raiders jumped out in camouflage clothing, armed with Grand Power T12 smooth-bore self-loading traumatic pistols similar to combat -F and MP-353.
The criminals quickly divided into two groups, one of which ran up to a parked armored Volkswagen Transporter and shouted “Everyone stay in your seats! The FSB is working!” in front of the security guard and the driver, snatched bags of money from the car. The second group of raiders ran to the second floor of the building and, again loudly announcing the «FSB operation», stole several more bags from Karamatov's office. In total, these bags contained 136.5 million rubles.
The robbers assumed that this money was of criminal origin and the victims of the crime would not apply to law enforcement agencies. But they miscalculated. Already on the same day, the unemployed Alexander Yumaranov, who just arrived at Karamatov's office on the same armored Volkswagen Transporter, turned to the police with a statement about the robbery.
The crime was solved in hot pursuit.
The raiders turned out to be officers of the «K» department of the FSB of Russia, fighters from the special forces of the FSB «Alpha» and «Vympel» and a tax police officer and assistant who joined them Investigator of the ICR.
The investigation and the trial dragged on for 2.5 years.
It was established that Alexander Yumaranov, who officially does not work anywhere, contracted to exchange rubles accumulated by entrepreneurs working in the Moskva shopping center for dollars at a very favorable exchange rate. Businessman Boris Karamatov undertook to organize the shadow conversion service. This was not the first «business contact» between Yumaranov and Karamatov. Three weeks earlier, on May 19, Yumaranov had already exchanged market traders' rubles for one million dollars through Karamatov. But on June 10, Karamatov did not plan to exchange dollars for rubles. The flywheel of Yumaranov's robberies has already been launched.
A few days before this robbery, Karamatov told his friend Khetag Margiev, a member of the FSB special forces unit Alfa, that on Monday several bags of “criminal” money would be brought to his office. And that under the guise of a «operational measure» it is possible to «expropriate the expropriators», taking the money without the slightest risk. Karamatov set the condition that he would get half of the amount that would be in the bags.
The Alpha fighter became interested in the “topic” proposed by Karamatov, accepted his condition on the “loot” section and gathered a group of raiders from his acquaintances officers and ensigns.
Everything went like clockwork. Having driven a few kilometers from the crime scene, the robbers divided the loot and dispersed. Karamatov, as agreed, took half of the money — 68 million rubles — and soon left Russia. He is still on the wanted list. But his accomplices were detained three weeks later.
On July 5, 2019, the FSB issued an official announcement about the detention of its staff members suspected of robbery.
On January 24, 2022, the Moscow Garrison Court deprived the FSB officers and warrant officers of their military ranks and found them guilty of robbery «by an organized group on an especially large scale with the threat of violence against the victim» (paragraphs «a», «b » part 4 of article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
- Artur Vlasov, ex-employee of department «K» of the Economic Security Service of the FSB, was sentenced to 10 years in a strict regime colony.
- Former employee of the «K» department Alexander Karelin — by the age of 8.
- Roman Obolensky, ex-fighter of the Alfa department of the FSB Special Purpose Center — by the age of 9.
- Former Alpha fighter Khetag Margiev — by the age of 8.5.
- Ex-fighter of the Alpha department Vladimir Urusov — by the age of 8.
- Former fighter of the Vympel department of the Central Security Service of the FSB Dmitry Kapyshkin — by the age of 9.
- Former employee of the Federal Tax Service Dmitry Chivkin — by the age of 8.
- Former assistant to the investigator of the transport IC Dmitry Kazantsev — by 9.5 years.
It must be said that paragraphs «a» and «b» of part 4 of article 162 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation («Robbery») provide for punishment from 8 to 15 years in a colony. And the sentence handed down to the participants in the robbery looks fair, but not overly harsh.
Why did the court show humanity to the “robbers from the FSB”, limiting itself to terms close to the lower limit of sanctions under part 4 of article 162 of the Criminal Code? Let's try to figure it out.
On July 11, shortly after the operation to detain the raiders, TASS announced the names of the defendants in the criminal case, emphasizing that there was only one episode in the case. At the same time, information was leaked, citing “sources in the investigation”, that the stolen money allegedly belonged to Chinese entrepreneurs working in the Moskva shopping center.
In July 2019, this version seemed implausible to me. And that's why.
Chinese entrepreneurs working both in «Moscow» and in other markets of the capital live very closed and practically do not leave their place of work. They do not need to convert revenue. Back in March 2019, Novaya Gazeta talked about a Chinese “settlement center” with a daily turnover of several tens of millions of dollars, which worked in the Druzhba Hotel at the Moscow market and converted the ruble proceeds of Chinese entrepreneurs into cryptocurrency.
Almost every evening, a minibus and several security jeeps drove up to the «settlement center» in Druzhba. Money was loaded into the minibus, and the cortege was heading to Moscow City, where cryptocurrency sellers settled in one of the skyscrapers (for details, see Novaya No. 27 of March 13, 2019).
In the summer of 2019, it seemed to me that in this well-established system of accumulating rubles, “collecting” money in Moscow City, and then buying cryptocurrency, there was simply no place for other “players”. But I must admit I was wrong.
On March 11, 2019, employees of the Russian Guard cordoned off the Moscow and Sadovod markets in the capital. Then operatives from the FSB and the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs went inside for «operational and preventive measures.» Later, the Ministry of Internal Affairs issued an official press release stating that a “set of measures aimed at suppressing offenses in the field of migration legislation” was carried out in Moscow markets, during which several dozen people were detained, 19 protocols were drawn up on violation of the migration law, and among the detainees was a foreigner who, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, evaded military service in his country and was wanted.
However, it was clear that the main goal of “preventive measures” was not at all to check compliance with the requirements of migration legislation. The inspectors, rather, wanted to tickle the nerves of the «settlement center».
Literally a few weeks later, the markets «Moscow» and «Sadovod» restored their usual way of life, the Chinese settlement centers continued to work as before. But changes did happen. And this was expressed in the fact that the «collectors» who took money from the markets to «Moscow City» increased the prices for their work. Immediately twice. «Settlement centers» shifted the increased overhead costs to entrepreneurs working in the market. And it is quite natural that they began to look for alternative, less costly options for converting revenue. It was then, as I now understand, that the “finest hour” of intermediaries struck, one of which could well have been Alexander Yumaranov, who was robbed by the “robbers from the FSB”.