Who needed the death of Vlad Leaf. Vlad Listyev "ordered" the owner. How the investigation was "pressed"
At various times, Boris Berezovsky, well-known media managers and even his own wife were suspected of organizing the murder.
Russian journalist and CEO of ORT Vladislav Listyev was killed in the entrance of his house in Moscow 23 years ago. But the crime is still unsolved. The other day, the former host of the Vzglyad program Dmitry Zakharov and called the probable customer of the crime that shocked the whole country, the oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
Portal website offers to recall all the versions regarding possible customers and motives for the murder that have been voiced over the years.
Boris Berezovsky - because of advertising on ORT
convicted of murder Galina Starovoitova Yuri Kolchin stated that after Listyev introduced a ban on advertising on ORT, Boris Berezovsky allegedly Konstantin Yakovlev. And that order was fulfilled with the help of Edward Kanimoto, Valery Sulikovsky and an unnamed third artist. When the organizers talked with the customer, according to Kolchin, he and Vladimir Kumarin.
Kumarin himself, in a conversation with the investigator, called this version fictitious, since he was treated in Germany for almost the entire 1995 year. Kolchin was later tested on a polygraph, and the results showed that he was lying.
TV presenter Sergey Dorenko in response to Zakharov's version, he stated that if Berezovsky were dissatisfied with Listyev's actions regarding the moratorium on advertising, then he could take advantage of his position as an employer and simply fire Vlad, removing him from the post of general director of ORT. Thus, there was simply no point in killing Listyev.
Boris Berezovsky is most often called the customer of the murder of Vlad Listyev. Image: Vladimir Gerdo/KP
Alexander Korzhakov - due to thefts on the TV channel
Boris Berezovsky himself, according to Dorenko, considered the head of the security service of the President of Russia to be the customer of Listyev's murder. Alexandra Korzhakova.
The former lieutenant colonel of the FSB wrote about this in his book “Lubyansk criminal group” Alexander Litvinenko. He indirectly accused Alexander Korzhakov of organizing the murder of Listyev. Korzhakov and another top KGB/FSB officer Alexander Komelkov according to this version, they organized the murder at the hands of the Solntsevskaya lads, and the motive was to conceal the theft of advertising revenue and direct these funds to the campaign of a candidate for the presidency of Russia Oleg Soskovets. The same Korzhakov allegedly organized an attempt on Berezovsky, but it turned out to be unsuccessful, after which they tried to “hang” the murder of Listyev on Berezovsky.
Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Litvinenko hinted at Korzhakov. Image: Vladimir Velengurin/KP Sergey Lisovsky - because of money
After the privatization of ORT, Vladislav Listyev, who was appointed CEO, decided to focus on selling advertising time. On February 20, 1995, he temporarily banned all types of advertising on ORT until the channel developed new "ethical standards". Negotiations were conducted with the head of "Reklama-Holding" Sergei Lisovsky and his colleague Boris Zosimov. For them and for Berezovsky, the abolition of advertising on ORT would have meant the loss of millions in profits.
Based on materials collected by the journalist Paul Khlebnikov(who was himself killed in Moscow in 2004), Lisovsky demanded that Listyev pay him $100 million in damages, threatening to kill him. Listyev allegedly turned to Boris Berezovsky, the chief financier of ORT, with a request to conduct an operation to pay 100 million to Lisovsky. The money was eventually transferred to the account of one of Berezovsky's companies, and he promised to transfer the funds to Lisovsky in three months.
Sergei Dorenko considers this version untenable, since Lisovsky was a fairly intelligent and high-ranking person and would not get dirty with such dirt. The businessman, of course, was not happy with the termination of cooperation with ORT, but this decision was made by Berezovsky, not Listyev.
Meanwhile, employees of the Russian media had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the materials of the investigation, which were not submitted to the court. They say that Lisovsky allegedly met with Berezovsky, and then had a conversation with one of the representatives of the "Solntsevo" group Igor Dashdamirov nicknamed Dushman. After these meetings, professional killers allegedly began to follow Listyev - brothers Alexander And Andrey Ageykiny. It was they who became the perpetrators of this high-profile murder. Having dealt with Listyev, the brothers flew to Sochi, and from there to Israel. Both of them later died under mysterious circumstances.
Now Sergei Lisovsky is a member of the Federation Council. Image: Ivan Prokhorov/KP
Andrey Razbash - because of love
Razbash is a close friend of Listyev, one of the founders of the VID television company. It was rumored that during Vlad's lifetime Andrei had an affair with his wife Albina. This could be the motive. Three years after the tragedy, Razbash and Albina got married. Andrew himself, making Albina twice a widow. There was no real evidence for this version, and it can be considered just speculation.
Andrei Razbash (center) was a prominent figure in the Russian media business. Image: Boris Kudryavov Vladimir Gusinsky - it is not very clear why
The version voiced by Berezovsky and the producer of ORT Lesnevskaya, girlfriend Naina Yeltsina. After Listyev's funeral, the two came to Korzhakov's reception room in the Kremlin and asked for the opportunity to record a direct video message to the president, which at that moment was not in Moscow.
Lesnevskaya in a video message named the names of the people who allegedly dealt with Vlad:, the mayor of Moscow Luzhkov and the old guard of the KGB. The woman asked Yeltsin to do everything to ensure that Korzhakov and the Federal Grid Company conduct the investigation personally, but not the police, because the law enforcement officers have one version: the killer is either Berezovsky or his first deputy Patarkatsishvili.
December 11, 1996 President of Most Bank Vladimir Gusinsky during the opening of a synagogue in Kazan. Medvedev Mikhail/TASS Newsreel
Some of the small bandits - also because of advertising
According to the version of Sergei Dorenko Listyev, not one of the influential figures in the media business could have ordered it, but petty criminal authorities.
“If you ask my version of who killed him, then the deuce beats the ace. It is always more profitable in Russia to quarrel with the president than with a shopkeeper. There were some barters on Channel One, there were some kickbacks. I don't know, but I guess. And some criminal guys just said: we closed this topic, some Leaves, let's poke, and that's it. This is some kind of deuce, criminal riffraff. Why hasn't been revealed yet? That's exactly why it hasn't been revealed. Because it was played by someone very small, ”said Dorenko, speaking on the radio.
Wife - due to inheritance
This version exists, but it has never been popular. According to her, the aforementioned wife of Vlad could have ordered the murder. Albina Nazimova. The death of her husband could be beneficial to her. Firstly, because she allegedly wanted to go to Andrei Razbash, and secondly, because of the inheritance. By a strange coincidence, Listyev's mother was hit by a car shortly after his murder, and he gave up his share of the television company's shares due to threats. Albina, which, according to some sources, amounted to 16 million dollars.
Three years later, Albina married Razbash, and after he died, to Spain.
Vladislav Listyev and his wife Albina. Leaves from a simple journalist quickly turned into a real star of domestic TV. Despite his great fame, Vladislav was quite modest in everyday life.
Possible versions and hypotheses
According to the recollections of his girlfriend Albina, for a long time the couple huddled in her workshop, so there is no question of financial motives for the murder. Why was Listyev killed in this case? Among modern versions, personal motives and the theory of the uncleanliness of business partners are especially popular.
"Vladislav Listyev is killed!" Photos and reports from the scene in the newspapers caused a resonance in post-Soviet society - the target of the criminals was not a private entrepreneur or a deputy, but a journalist. It was then that versions of political overtones in a difficult matter fell down. Potential leaders and perpetrators of contract killings were looked for both at the top of power structures and in the crowd of influential businessmen.
Outset of events
The difficult situation in Ostankino in 1993 led to the need for change.
The constant lack of state capital greatly hindered the development of the TV channel. In 1994, out of the required 1.3 trillion, the company was able to get 320 billion.
To solve the problem, the editors were given the opportunity to earn money on their own, but this did not bring relief at all - even hardened journalists of that time categorically did not know how to work in the advertising field, including Listyev Vladislav Nikolaevich. Who killed him, how and why, is still unknown to this day, but many colleagues associate the event with the big money that was circulating in Ostankino.
Drama in Ostankino
Who benefits?
The information about the initiator of the proposal to corporatize Ostankino is somewhat contradictory.
According to the main version, the founder of the production center REN TV is responsible for this, the second version calls the name of Alexander Lyubimov.
Lyubimov's plan provided excellent prerequisites for the formation of a nationwide TV, which Lyubimov saw as a joint stock community. Actually, this theory existed because of an interview with Boris Berezovsky given in the summer of 1994. In a television interview with the Vlast newspaper in April 2005, he said that the news agency was conceived as “the most powerful mechanism for socio-political struggle”, “an independent television channel for the whole country” . Why Listyev was killed, for money or for politics, after frank interviews with the magnate, it was impossible to understand more.
Role of Berezovsky
This mechanism, according to Berezovsky's speeches, was needed for the purpose of a future war with the communists, who, after the failure in the Duma in 1993, would definitely want retribution and revenge in the media space. In November 1994, Yeltsin signed the Order on the formation of the "Public Domestic Television". In the ranks of the company's shareholders were Berezovsky's LogoVAZ and United Bank, Khodorkovsky's MENATEP correspondent bank, Smolensky's Stolichny correspondent bank, Fridman and Aven's Alfa-Bank, Efanov's Mikrodin enterprise. The notes “Vladislav Listyev has been killed!”, close-up photos and versions of the investigation have since and forever acquired an unpleasant aftertaste of big politics and big money.
Listyev's plans
51% of the shares of the new Ostankino were owned by the state, and 49% were listed in the assets of personal funds. since September 1994 he was appointed vice-president of the National TV Academy. Colleagues and friends of the journalist mentioned that he literally dreamed of a different television. He was curious to imagine a different way of development of his offspring, and not to observe the complete degradation of the ethers.
Although his circle of interests extended only to the production and production of new projects, to the question “Why was Listyev killed?” there is a standard answer - for money, a lot of money.
Undoubtedly, he was interested in working as a film producer, but such an attitude to the position imposed responsibility for the affairs of the TV channel on other employees. Vlad did not delve into debits-credits and similar accounting trifles, his talent was elsewhere.
Memories of colleagues
The journalist Razbash recalled: “A few days after the terrible event with Listyev, our number was called. After a short pause, a cold, completely emotionless voice said something along the lines of: "If you start to twitch, you'll go after him...". Most colleagues received phone calls asking them not to cover the incident in any way in the press and not to stir up a public scandal. Why they killed Vlad Listyev - we do not know and did not know, but we began to dig in all possible directions precisely after a series of calls from unknown numbers.
During the investigation period, about 2 thousand eyewitnesses, witnesses and possible participants in the events were interrogated. 10 different people confessed to committing the offense, but these versions were not subsequently confirmed in any way. To the question “Why was Listyev killed?” most of them did not even have a clear answer, and even more so, motives and opportunities.
FSB version
Hypotheses were repeatedly expressed that Boris Berezovsky and his henchmen were the real customer, then a "Solntsevo trail" was formed, leading to the criminal group of the same name.
It is considered information about the systematic ejection from the media space by Listyev of the company Global Media Systems, whose interests were defended by the "man of Solntsevo" Kartsev. The "family" hypothesis was also worked out.
FSB Lieutenant Colonel Litvinenko indirectly accused Korzhakov in his book of planning and directing the assassination of the journalist.
On April 21, 2009, according to the current investigation procedure, the process was temporarily suspended "due to the impossibility of identifying the person responsible for the crime." However, the search was soon resumed, since information appeared about the participation in the case of a member of the Tambov group, Yuri Kolchin, who is serving a sentence for the murder of Galina Starovoitova.
It was he, Vladislav Nikolaevich Listyev, who was the harbinger of the new era of TV. Who killed the journalist and why he left the body will remain a mystery for the coming decades. Contrary to existing hypotheses, the aforementioned Kolchin threw a completely new and somewhat unexpected version, and also brought investigations to major crime bosses. However, according to the perpetrator, Berezovsky still ordered the murder. After the deed was done, the oligarch paid the Tambovites for silence for a long time.
served as Attorney General during the scandalous case, wrote a book that tells in detail about the people, versions and motives of the crime.
The novel "Who killed Vlad?" did not answer these questions. Who killed Listyev remained unknown. Although the main chapters repeated the investigative materials, the individual personalities of the work were called by other names. The story lines were also slightly different from what actually took place. Despite the skepticism of the general public and the cries of paid articles, Skuratov mentioned that there were no people named Kolchin among the real killers of Listyev. Why Listyev was killed and how the authorities are connected with this is a mystery.
Interview with the investigator
After the publication of the novel, controversy unfolded around the events in the book and in reality, supporters and opponents of the author argued different versions and called more and more new names.
Who killed Listyev is a question without a clear answer even today, since people interested in the death of a journalist are quite alive and well. Several details of the case were clarified by numerous interviews given by Piotr Triboi, the investigator:
Why was Listyev killed? Who did it?
The situation is transparent.
Where are the accusations and the trial for the criminals? Did someone dare to interfere with the investigation?
Not really. There were threats when I found interesting facts in the process; no one interfered openly. Justice is a matter of evidence. If the lawyers dispute the prosecutor's version, the main defendants will run away, and we will never see them. Since they are all wealthy people, a fair trial in other states should not be expected.
Why was Vladislav Listyev killed? Is the political elite involved in this?
Some are still in power, some are long gone. There are many motives, it is impossible to identify one specific one, since journalistic activity forced Listyev to take part in various financial and social life of the state.
To the question: “In what year was Listyev killed?” the current younger generation is not able to answer, and for his contemporaries the journalist was a real harbinger of the new TV, the main propagandist and pioneer of high broadcasting standards.
After the death of its ideologue, ORT became an ordinary politically biased channel, participating in various PR campaigns of various figures. Since then, the political activities of the media giant have been criticized more than once, but the project has no more new inspirers.
This year, Vlad Listyev would have turned 61 years old. As with all people who have passed away not at the very old age, it is difficult now to imagine Vlad Listyev as elderly. Well, we will talk about the TV presenter from an unexpected angle. And we also note again and again: the killers, organizers and customers of the murder of Vlad Listyev have not yet been found.
You can’t say outwardly that Listyev was budding in athletics, namely in running. And yet. Vladislav is the champion of the USSR in running among juniors at a distance of 1000 meters. And also, if you look at the life of the producer as a whole, it is immediately noticeable that there was some kind of rock over his family. See for yourself. Both Listyev's sons from different marriages died as children. The first wife, Elena Esina, was registered in a neuropsychiatric dispensary.
Finally, parents. Vlad's father, Nikolai Ivanovich, was the head of the district headquarters of the People's Control Committee. At the age of 42, he committed suicide by poisoning with dichloroethane after a criminal case was brought against him for taking a bribe. The mother was hit by a car and died, a large dose of alcohol was found in her blood. It is not surprising that, unlike the on-screen image, Listyev was not a very smiling person. And, by the way, according to the recollections of his employees, subordinates, very rude in the notorious context: "I'm the boss - you're a fool."
I remember what a shock for all Russians was the murder of Vladislav Listyev. Only about this and the conversations were between "dear Russians." ORT played his photo instead of airing for several hours. Even in the gangster series "Brigade" such a high-profile murder from the encyclopedia "" was noted. Sasha Bely, having heard the news about Listyev's death, remarks discouragedly: "Yes ... It's fun to live in Russia ...".
The most popular TV presenter was killed on March 1, 1995 at the entrance of a house on Novokuzneshchaya Street. It is clear that the investigation recognized the murder as ordered and began to delve into Listyev's professional activities. After all, not so long ago he became the director of the Public Russian Television and managed to quarrel with prominent advertisers, whom he wanted to excommunicate from the air. And just not because he did not like advertising. Quite the opposite.
Why was Vlad Listyev killed?
There have been many resonant contract killings in Russia. As a rule, performers were found, sometimes even organizers and sometimes customers. But someone's "ears" were always visible. Let them not prove their guilt (or did not want to prove it). The Listyev case stands apart - no one was found! Here at all. And in fact, not a single sensible version - who killed Listyev? And, accordingly, why was Vlad Listyev killed?
Almost immediately after the murder, the investigation claimed that non-professionals fired. First hit in the arm, the bullet went right through. Listyev tried to run away, they shot at him again. Got under the left ear. Vlad died only 15 minutes later. The killers fired from two pistols - a Czech "scorpion" and a Walther, they took the weapon with them. Non-professionals? But they can't catch them anyway. True, they are hardly alive.
What were the versions for which Vlad Listyev was killed? Let's just take the main ones.
His third wife was Albina Nazimova, who supported her husband in his career advancement. They say that Vladislav was often met in the company of a young companion, perhaps he was going to get a divorce. After Listyev's death, Albina received a huge share of the inheritance and married Andrey Razbash, president of the Vid television company.
There were even suggestions that Vladislav's death was wished by his first wife. The newspapers wrote that Elena Esina filed for alimony only after Vlad had money. After Listyev's death, their daughter Valeria inherited 3/8 of the inheritance. Listyev's fortune at the time of his death was estimated at $16 million. Of course, when there were suspicions, Boris Berezovsky was involved. Literally a week before his death, Listyev announced a temporary moratorium on all types of advertising until the channel develops new "ethical standards".
Boris Berezovsky
Advertising revenues were large, about $80 million a year, but the bulk of the profits went to television producers and advertising wholesalers. It can be assumed what kind of profits were lost as a result of the advertising ban, the head of the Reklama-Holding company, Sergei Lisovsky, and the chairman of the board of directors of ORT, Boris Berezovsky.
In April 2013, an interview with Konstantin Ernst, taken in 2008 and not intended for publication, was published, in which he stated that he was sure that the well-known businessman and current member of the Federation Council Sergei Lisovsky ordered the murder of Listyev. Soon Konstantin Ernst denied the statement, calling it
provocative interview.
There is a prediction that this murder will never be solved. Just like in one song: not everything is done yet.
I will not talk here for a long time, I will put forward versions. I want to say once again about the utter irresponsibility of our Russian government. Presidents, prosecutors, investigators have changed. Everyone swore to find and punish the killers of Listyev. "taken under personal control." Look, Skuratov even wrote a book about it. And what? Who answered?
Last year, Interpol materials on the Listyev case "got into" Russia. The suspended investigation seems to have begun again.
I do not believe. I do not believe in our government. As one smart person said, in order to restore order in Russia, "The authorities must stop lying." does anyone believe in such a possibility?
About the investigation into the murder of Listyev:
www.rosbalt.ru/2009/10/15/680757.html
And under the cut, a reprint of an article on the topic nnm.ru 2010
In the early 1990s, a poll named Vlad Listyev among the most trusted people in the country, following Alexy II, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Alexander Lebed, General of the Airborne Forces. Leaves invariably appeared on the screen as a darling of fate. Only a few knew about the terrible circumstances of his life.
In a TV show about Listyev's death, his widow said that in the last month of his life he was very frightened by something. I was afraid to answer the home phone, I was afraid to open the door of my apartment when someone came, I was afraid to go outside. A week before his death, he confessed this to the host of the Silver Ball program, Vitaly Vulf. He asked why Leaves did not acquire security. “It won’t help,” Vlad replied contritely.
On March 1, 1995, he was killed at the entrance of his house in Moscow. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office now says that the investigation of this case is ongoing. More than 200 volumes of investigative materials have already been accumulated, but the case is not moving forward. Over the past years, 10 people have confessed to the murder of Listyev, but their confessions turned out to be false.
Mother at the coffin of her son. ... Vladislav's mother Zoya Listeva died a year and a half later just as ridiculously as her son. She was hit by a speeding car while she was crossing the road...
A series of misfortunes
The life of Vlad Listyev was very tragic. He seemed to be pursued by evil rock. He was born on May 10, 1956 in Moscow. Soon his father, Nikolai Ivanovich, committed suicide. For many years, Vlad did not know anything about the true cause of his father's death. Even relatives and friends of the family were not privy to the details of the tragedy - only much later, the father's sister said that he had been caught taking a bribe. "How will I look my son in the eye?" he asked her. Fearing that the story of the bribe could affect the family, Nikolai Ivanovich made a fatal decision. But trouble does not come alone - soon Vlad's mother got along with a man who was only ten years older than her son. Zoya Listyeva gave her entire small salary (she worked as a copyist and received 80 rubles) to her new husband, with whom she drank this money.
Vlad studied at a sports boarding school and, unlike his classmates, was in no hurry to go home on weekends, constantly disappearing at the stadium. He did not achieve great success in sports, but he fulfilled the standard of a candidate for master of sports in athletics. After serving in the army, Listyev married Elena Esina. For a year and a half, he lived with his wife in his mother-in-law's apartment. And for her salary - the money that Vlad received, moonlighting as a physical education instructor, was not enough to live on. By that time, he had already entered the international department of the journalism faculty of Moscow State University.
But a new misfortune lay ahead of him. In 1978, a son was born to Listyev, but he died after living only a few hours. Vlad, who was looking forward to his first child, constantly felt guilty. Relatives recall that the young began to quarrel often. Driven to despair, Listyev even tried to commit suicide. Vlad left Lena when she was expecting a baby again. He confessed to his relatives his suspicions that his wife was not pregnant from him.
Listyev began his journalistic career in 1982 at the Voice of Russia radio station, better known as Foreign Broadcasting. The main task of the radio station was clear from the name - to promote the most progressive Soviet system among the peoples of the world. Therefore, the requirements for journalists were special. Interestingly, Listyev on the "Voice of Russia" was even for some time the secretary of the Komsomol organization. Soon he joined the party and was already preparing to go as a special correspondent to Latin America. But his wife found out about this and wrote a statement that Listyev left her with the child. Vlad was expelled from the party and fired from his job. For two years he lived by writing sports reports.
Haste of the Prosecutor General's Office
At the Moscow Olympics in 1980, Vlad met Tatyana, a student at Moscow State University, and soon proposed to her. Two years later they had a son, who was named Vladik in honor of his father. But three months old, the baby fell ill with the flu. The disease gave complications - the boy lost his sight and hearing. Vlad showed his son to the best doctors, even saved money for treatment abroad. But the verdict of doctors has always been the same - the chances of recovery are almost zero. The boy lived only six years and died quietly, in his sleep. The parents didn't even wake up.
After the death of his second son, Listyev was close to insanity. He even made a second suicide attempt - in a country house he opened his veins. But before that, Vlad said goodbye to his godmother. She called an ambulance, which barely managed to save him.
When Vlad left the hospital, he said to his godmother: “Why did you do this?! I don't know how to live on." To which she advised him: “Get drunk. I don't see any other way." And Vlad went on a drinking binge for several years. His unrestrained drunkenness finally destroyed the new family.
In 1987, Vlad Listyev became one of the hosts of the new TV show "Vzglyad". It was a real success - a young talented journalist finally found himself in the profession. But Vlad's passion for alcohol continued, and Listyev began to have problems at his new job. It happened that just an hour before the broadcast, Vlad had to be brought to life with the help of special preparations. Listyev began to disrupt programs, and one day he simply did not come to the live broadcast.
It is not known how the case would have ended if he had not met Albina Nazimova. When they met, Albina was 25 years old, she convinced Listyev to stop drinking. Albina left her work as an artist-restorer and plunged headlong into her husband's affairs: she was present at the shooting of television programs every day, until late at night she edited programs with Vlad, not leaving him unattended for a second. Thanks to her, Listyev's affairs went smoothly, and in 1990 he became the general producer of the ViD television company. Soon the television company released the famous TV show "Field of Miracles", the first host of which was Vlad. It was this program that made Listyev the number one TV star on Russian television. Since that time, Listyev's popularity has only grown, he opened more and more new television projects: "Theme", "Rush Hour", "Guess the Melody". On November 30, 1994, President Yeltsin signed a decree on the privatization of the first television channel, and the idea of privatization did not belong to Boris Berezovsky, but to Vlad Listyev. The new company became known as ORT (Public Russian Television).
In early 1995, Listyev became the general director of ORT. A month later, he was killed. Tens of thousands of people came to his funeral - so many people have not gathered since the funeral of Andrei Sakharov in 1989. People brought flowers and wept openly in the streets. But despite the fact that the murder of Listyev was in the center of attention of Russian society, the investigation into this tragedy turned into a farce. Five months later, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that they had found those who ordered the murder. The next day, she took her words back, saying that the investigation was ongoing.
All under suspicion
There are a great many versions about who killed Listyev. The first version of the investigation was advertising. On February 20, 1995, Listyev announced a temporary moratorium on all types of advertising until ORT developed new "ethical standards". He had good reasons for this. There was a massive embezzlement of public funds on the canal. The state paid the bills for Channel One. Operating costs, signal transmission, salaries, preparation of most programs - all this cost about $ 250 million annually. The TV company received advertising revenues - about $ 80 million a year, but only a part of this money remained in the company itself. The lion's share was taken either by television producers who broadcast on the channel, or by advertising wholesalers. The head of the presidential security service, Alexander Korzhakov, was sure: "The cancellation of advertising on ORT meant personally for Lisovsky (the owner of the Premier-SV company) and Berezovsky (chairman of the board of directors of ORT) the loss of millions in profits." Listyev allegedly even said about Lisovsky that "this person will not be on the channel at all."
The offices of Berezovsky and Lisovsky were searched, but the investigators, of course, found nothing. On March 1, 1998, CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovsky, in turn, accused Alexander Korzhakov and the former head of the Russian FSB Mikhail Barsukov of involvement in organizing the murder of Listyev.
The promotional version had options. In particular, the investigators worked out the “Solntsevo trace” for a long time. First, a certain Yuri Pichugin, one of the youngest thieves in law, "crowned" by the Solntsevo gang in 1992, was named as the initiator of the murder. It soon became clear that the testimony of prisoner Sapchuk, who had surrendered Pichugin, was completely false and was dictated by the simple desire of one gangster group to "burn" another. Then the customer began to call the leader of the Solntsevo group Mikhas (Sergey Mikhailov), and explain the motives as follows: Listyev expelled the company GMS (Global Media Systems) from the first channel, which brought the lads several million dollars a month. However, the involvement of Mikhas in the murder of Listyev was also not proven.
The investigators even worked out the version that the general director of ORT was ordered by his wife, with whom he intended to divorce, having found himself a young passion on the side. In the third family of Listyev, conflicts became frequent - once Albina even tried to commit suicide by swallowing pills. Vlad's widow inherited the largest share of the shares of one of the richest companies on television, and a year later, on top of that, she married the president of the ViD television company Andrei Razbash. The conclusions suggested themselves, but this version was also not confirmed.
"Try to prove our guilt"
It is possible that the investigators, who were looking not so much for the perpetrators as for those who ordered Listyev's murder, miscalculated. They could be understood: President Yeltsin took control of the investigation - here you can’t get rid of some random killers. Meanwhile, the materials of the investigation indicate that the murder was committed very unprofessionally. Listyev was first wounded through the arm, tried to escape from the killers, and only then received a second bullet, which entered him under his left ear. He died only 15 minutes later. Experts said that the killers used two pistols - a Czech-made Scorpion of 7.65 mm caliber and a Walther of the same caliber, and took them with them. Professional killers always leave weapons at the crime scene.
It seems that the TV journalist was not killed by professionals at all, but by amateurs. Moreover, he had no less enemies than admirers. Listyev's name was associated with the appearance of entertainment shows on Russian television, which, one to one, including the color of the host's suspenders, were copied from American ones. He was literally hated not only by the Russian national patriots who stormed Ostankino in October 1993, but also by the Trotskyists, who claim that "the hardest drugs are better than the lightest TV show." By the way, in the magazine Chernaya Zvezda, which was not registered anywhere, actively propagandizing left-wing terror from issue to issue, on the day of the murder of the general director of ORT, a manifesto “Vladislav Listyev is dead!” should have appeared. In this manifesto, unknown authors assumed indirect responsibility for the murder, arguing that the perpetrator was a person of their views, and it was not by chance that it happened on March 1 - it was on this day in 1881 that Emperor Alexander II was killed. However, the issue of the magazine, for unknown reasons, never saw the light of day, and the publication itself ceased to exist. And the next day after the murder of Listyev, the Reservation Here, a cult group among left-wing extremists, gave a concert at the Radio Street club - the musicians said from the stage that they supported the killers and hoped that this "action" would not be isolated. Many viewers greeted this statement with an enthusiastic roar.
Once, the head of the group investigating the murder of Listyev, Pyotr Triboi, let slip: “The perpetrators are already sitting. But for other crimes. By the way, a year ago, Igor Gubkin, who in 1997 created the radical group Revolutionary Military Council, was sentenced to 19 years in prison. The investigation proved his participation in the explosion of the monument to Nicholas II, which occurred on April 1, 1997, and in the mining of the monument to Peter I. The term of punishment was assigned to him taking into account the previous term - 14 years, to which Gubkin was sentenced for the murder in 1991 of a seaside businessman. In 1994 - 1996, Gubkin headed the Professional Boxing joint-stock company, creating, according to investigators, "an illegal armed formation with an extensive network of training centers, combat and support units that had firearms and cover documents at their disposal." At the court session, Gubkin proudly declared: "We revolutionaries commit both murders and robberies ... However, try to prove our guilt."
Last year, the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, the investigation of the case was suspended "due to the inability to identify the person subject to criminal liability."