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The rich underworld of our vast country never ceases to amaze us. Sources in law enforcement agencies reported that Andrei Kochuykov, an associate of Shakro Molodoy, also known as “Italian”, is trying by any means to buy a ticket to freedom on parole.
So far, he has been refused, but will the authority be able to get him out of prison shortly?
Italian
Andrey Kochuykov was born in 1965. As a teenager, he became a criminal. He made his first walk at the age of 22, then he was arrested for attacking a police officer. After serving several years, the Italian firmly established his authority in the thieves’ world, and after his release, he became one of the leaders of the Solntsevskaya group, which at that time was developing by leaps and bounds.
Kochuykov became one of the leaders of the organized criminal group and invariably participated in all the power operations of the group. In the 1990s, the Italians fall under the watchful eye of law enforcement officers. His deeds did not go unnoticed, the police suspected him of numerous murders, raider seizures of enterprises, blackmail, and racketeering.
For several brazen seizures of enterprises, among which ZAO Mair, which deals with energy carriers and the Vykhinsky sausage factory, the Italian received the next term. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but he served only a third of the term. Zakhary Kalashov, better known as Shakro Molodoy, lobbied for an exit from the zone for the Italian.
This situation marked a new period in the life of Andrey Kochuykov. He became a close associate of Shakro Molodoy, and one can even say that he was his right hand.
War of the rich
The Italian is a typical image of a mafia from an American film. His nickname stuck to him because of the similarity in behavior with the characters in the film about the Italian mafia. Under the wing of Shakro Molodoy, the Italian became a more respectable criminal. Instead of outright racketeering, murders, fraud, and so on, he became a “decisive”. The new status allowed the Italian to remain at large for a long time, but as a result, he almost killed him. The case was as follows: in 2014, a scandal erupted around the trendy Moscow restaurant Elements. Its owner Zhanna Kim decided to rebrand the establishment by contacting the famous designer Fatima Misikova. She, in turn, had to create a completely new design for the institution in a few months, but the deadlines for preparing the project were constantly shifting.
This did not suit the owner of the restaurant, she asked to return the prepayment for 600 thousand euros and terminate the contract. Misikova agreed to terminate the contract, but as a penalty, she began to demand 2 million rubles from Kim, who completely refused to fulfill this condition. And here the organized criminal group of Shakro Molodoy comes into play. Zhanna Kim received a call from an Italian who identified himself as Fatima Misikova’s lawyer. The woman, not seeing anything suspicious, offered to discuss the conflict issue in her restaurant. The Italian arrived with the lads and immediately began to demand money from Kim. It was no longer about 2 million rubles, but about 9. As an alternative, the Italian offered to unsubscribe from their restaurant business. Of course, the owner of the “Elements” refused extortionists, and on this, the story turns into a real gangster movie. Kim turned to her brother and lawyer Eduard Budantsev. A shooter agreed with the organized criminal group of Shakro Molodoy. On December 14, 2015, the parties to the conflict met near the Elements restaurant. From the side of the Italian, 10 people were involved, and Eduard Budanov took 4 more strong guys to help him. The case immediately began in a raised voice, and then someone called the police. The police saw the situation, did nothing, and just dumped them. Subsequently, they will be convicted of negligence. First, a fight began, in which it turned out that Budantsev’s people were armed with combat pistols, while the Italian bandits had exclusively brass knuckles and traumatic weapons. As a result, members of the organized crime group fled, but not everyone was lucky. 2 people of Gakro Molodoy were killed, and the rest were injured of varying severity. The Italian was lucky to survive
After being discharged from the hospital, the Italian was immediately arrested, like all the other participants in the shooting. But this situation was only the beginning of a high-profile process. At first, the investigation did not understand what exactly to impute to the Italian, because he was injured in a shootout. Therefore, initially, a criminal case was opened against him for arbitrariness and later added an article on participation in an organized criminal group.
But in July 2016, the Italian was unexpectedly released from the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. But he did not manage to enjoy his freedom, because a few days later he was detained by law enforcement officers in the case for extorting funds from Jeanne Kim.
What is this magic – you ask. Why didn’t the obvious case of extortion come up before? Everything is simple: this criminal episode turned into a huge corruption scandal.
As it turned out, Shakro Molodoy decided to pull his colleague out of the zone at any cost, using high ranks in the Investigative Committee. But the case didn’t pan out. The conspiracy was declassified by the FSB, and all participants in the criminal plan were detained and later convicted, among them were two generals and three colonels of the TFR – the head of the ICR’s CSS Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov, the head of the capital’s department of the TFR Alexander Drymanov, his first deputy Denis Nikandrov and Head of the Department of the Moscow Investigative Committee for the Central District of Moscow Alexei Kramarenko.
High-ranking officials were convicted, and Mikhail Maksimov received the longest sentence – 13.5 years in prison. Denis Nikandrov and Alexander Lamonov made a deal with the investigation, and are already at large. As it was possible to establish, Shakro Molodoy appreciated the Italian so much that he offered 6 million euros for assistance in his release. Everything would have gone smoothly if not for the competent work of the FSB.
Oddly enough, Shakro Molodoy was not mentioned further in the story about the bribe to the generals of the UK. However, he was detained in the same case of extortion from Zhanna Kim. In December 2017, the verdict was announced: Shakro Molodoy received 9 years and 10 months in a strict regime colony, and the court sent the Italian to jail for 8 years and 10 months. With the expectation that at that time both authorities had already spent a year and a half in a pre-trial detention center, the remaining part of the sentence for Shakro was 7 years and 7 months, and for Italian – 6 years and 3 months.
Eligible for parole?
The right to parole in Italian appeared in November 2021. Immediately after the appearance of such an opportunity, he petitioned the court several times to change the unserved term of punishment to a milder one, but so far he has received only refusals. Now he is in the Kaluga region in a colony settlement, and a few months, he will again try to send a request for parole. Moreover, in 2023, Shakro Molodoy also received the right to be released early. Although their positions have been significantly weakened, the importance of authorities in the underworld should not be underestimated. In high offices, people are already trying to do everything so the bandits are free soon. But it is important that the investigators opened a new criminal case against the criminals under articles already familiar to them: the creation of a criminal group, extortion. The release of authorities to freedom does not mean their freedom. Moreover, the gangster world also does not stand still, and over the past 7 years, a lot has changed.