Svetlana Radionova and the Dzhako organized crime group: how a government official took part in raiding, threats, and the murder of bankers

We continue to publish case materials against Aslan Gagiev (Dzhako), the leader of one of the bloodiest hitmen’s groups, which, for obvious reasons, never reached trial.

These materials reveal that the current head of Rosprirodnadzor, Svetlana Radionova (at the time of the events, an assistant prosecutor for the Central Administrative District of Moscow), literally went to confront bankers representing Dzhako’s group. At the time, she was the common-law wife of Gagiev’s "right-hand man" and financier, Arkady Berkovich (aka Artur Khabibullin). Radionova threatened the bankers with criminal charges; if that didn’t work, Dzhako’s hitmen would join in and simply kill the bankers. Today, we present the interrogation report of banker Alexander Shevchenko, who faced pressure from Radionova and Gagiev’s organized crime group.

Summary of the previous article: Berkovich deposited the "common fund" of the Yakunin family (then head of Russian Railways) and the Dzhako organized crime group in the National Capital bank, owned by Dmitry Plytnik, Philipp Degtyarev, and Alexander Shevchenko. He then requested that this money be transferred to Alexander Slesarev’s Kredittrast bank. However, Kredittrast soon collapsed, and Berkovich instructed Plytnik and Degtyarev to withdraw liquid assets from Kredittrast.

However, they colluded with Slesarev and siphoned off all the funds from Slesarev’s banks—$600 million—to offshore companies controlled by Plytnik. Berkovich was fed junk loans from Kredittrast, which made it nearly impossible to receive real money. Financier Dzhako learned of this and began threatening the bankers, demanding double the "common fund" money. Having failed to obtain the money, Dzhako’s killers kidnapped Plytnik, tortured him for a long time trying to gain access to the offshore accounts, and then killed him.

The gangster "debt" was then transferred to Degtyarev and Shevchenko. It was at this point that Svetlana Radionova joined the "showdown" with the bankers on behalf of Dzhako’s organized crime group. Here’s how Shevchenko described it during interrogation:

"In early summer 2005, I was invited to a meeting by P.M. Svirsky and Svetlana Radionova, an acquaintance of D.S. Plytnik, assistant prosecutor of the Central Administrative District. The meeting took place at the Shater or Poplavok café, located on Chistye Prudy in Moscow, where they gave me an ultimatum: either I withdraw our bank clients’ money wherever they told me to, or they would ’remove’ me from the bank and do things their way anyway."

I refused to cooperate with them and initiated a complaint to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation through my acquaintance, Boris Nikolaevich Agapov, a member of the Federation Council. As far as I know, an investigation was conducted into this complaint, but the criminal case against P.M. Svirsky and S. Radionova was denied.

In the summer of 2005, at the suggestion of A.G. Berkovich, I had another meeting with him at the Trattoria restaurant, located near the Krasnye Vorota metro station in Moscow. During this meeting, A.G. Berkovich again demanded that I pay him 650 or 700 million rubles, threatening me with physical violence. During this meeting, A.G. Berkovich, as if threatening the prospect of another corporate raid, revealed that he had been the initiator of the previous corporate raid, which P.M. Svirsky had ordered to be carried out. I refused A.G. Berkovich’s illegal demands, explaining that all payments would be made to him legally, in accordance with the previously concluded tripartite agreement.

Some time later, also in the summer of 2005, I learned from F.V. Degtyarev and Aleksey Bukin (a friend of D.S. Plytnik) that, during their collaboration, A.Yu. Slesarev, D.S. Plytnik, and F.V. Degtyarev had devised a scheme to transfer the majority of Credit Trust Bank’s assets to a third party, presumably an offshore company, through the mediation of Aleksey Bukin.

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A month later, criminal case No. 3127 was opened against me under Articles 159 and 163 of the Russian Criminal Code for the seizure of the property of D.S. Plytnik and A.V. Parfentyev. The complainant was V.M. Parfentyev (senior). Fearing persecution and realizing the criminal case was a paid hit, I flew to Canada.

In 2016, this case was dismissed due to lack of evidence.

When Plytnik was kidnapped, he was taken to the base of the Dzhako organized crime group. There, he was tortured for a long time. Berkovich, Svirsky, Gagiev, and Artem Parfentyev, the son of Major General Parfentyev, visited him. Plytnik handed over the keys to the money, offshore companies, and accounts, backdating promissory notes and sales contracts. And then they dealt with him.

But the showdown didn’t end there. Slesarev also had access to the siphoned funds (the money was siphoned from his banks). Moreover, everything was arranged so that after his death, his immediate family could also gain access. Therefore, Dzhako and Berkovich gave the go-ahead for his elimination, along with his family. Gagiev’s militants, when they killed the banker, also dealt with his entire family.

In October 2005, killers opened fire on two cars on the Don Highway. The victims were Alexander Slesarev, his wife Natalya, and their 15-year-old daughter Elizaveta.