Who is Roman Tsepov. Tsepov Roman: biography
, "An influential security guard became a victim of an irreversible process"
Grigory Maximov, Saint Petersburg
On Monday, one of the city’s most respected entrepreneurs will be buried in St. Petersburg, general director security company "Baltic Escort" 42-year-old Roman Tsepov. He was poisoned with a lethal dose of a leukemia drug. He ended up in the hospital. Sverdlov was killed on September 11, but doctors could not save him - he died last Friday. Note that Roman Tsepov was called " eminence grise"St. Petersburg and one of the most influential people in the north-west, with connections at the very top of the power vertical.
Roman Tsepov died from spinal cord damage, accompanied by symptoms of pronounced radiation sickness. Experts were able to establish that Tsepov was poisoned with a large dose medicinal product, which is used in the treatment of leukemia. A large number of The red cells secreted by the drug are fatal to the body of a healthy person. The drug, in the form of a solution or crushed tablets, was presumably administered with food. According to forensic experts, signs of poisoning can occur 4-10 hours after taking the drug.
A criminal case was initiated under Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (premeditated murder). The investigation is being conducted by the city prosecutor's office, and the operational investigative group includes employees of the criminal investigation department and the department for combating organized crime. The investigation has already mapped out Tsepov’s day leading up to the poisoning, minute by minute, trying to establish who and when mixed the deadly medicine into the entrepreneur’s food. On Friday, searches and seizures took place at the place of residence and work of Roman Tsepov.
Tsepov felt slightly unwell on September 11, but doctors could not establish a diagnosis. At first, the doctors didn’t think there was anything wrong, but a few hours later the businessman was taken to one of the hospitals in St. Petersburg in serious condition, and two days before his death he was admitted to the Sverdlov Hospital. On September 24, Tsepov was going to be transported to one of the clinics in Germany, but the disease affected the bone marrow and the processes became irreversible.
Roman Tsepov, whom no one has ever directly named crime boss, nevertheless, he was quite closely acquainted with virtually all the shadow leaders of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and with many of them he also had business relationship.
After graduation high school Tsepov was unable to enter college and worked as a mechanic at the Izhora plant. Conscript service He served in the Military Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, from where he went to school. According to some reports, he graduated from the Higher military command school Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. After graduating from college, he served in the internal troops. Since the early 90s, he has been involved in security activities. In 1992, he registered the security company "Baltic Escort" - it was one of the first to receive a license to carry weapons.
However, this is not what the company is famous for. In the early 90s, it was “Baltic Escort” that became a close company of Smolny. Its employees guarded the apartment of the first mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak, his wife Lyudmila Narusova and their daughter Ksenia. It was then that Tsepov, according to some sources, met the future Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Viktor Zolotov, the head of the presidential security service, at that time Sobchak’s bodyguard. They say that Tsepov’s employees were trained by specialists from the FSO, which explains their highly qualified.
In addition, Tsepov’s company was famous for its ability to “solve problems,” in particular in the field of accompanying imported and re-exported cars from St. Petersburg, as well as to collect debts without obvious criminality. Quite quickly, Roman Tsepov acquired connections in the power structures of St. Petersburg, which in these times is the most valuable factor - many of Tsepov’s acquaintances now occupy the highest positions.
In 1994 he was arrested for illegal possession weapons, although it was believed that this was a purely formal reason - in fact, the police tried to connect him with a number of extortions. However, nothing could be proven. Subsequently, Tsepov only expanded his business. Thanks to meeting Alexander Nevzorov, many employees from the former Riga riot police came and still work at Baltic Escort. Tsepov, in turn, allegedly helped Nevzorov in his campaign for elections to the State Duma. In particular, with Tsepov’s funds in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region, in which Nevzorov was registered as a candidate, computers were installed in several schools. According to one former employee RUBOP, Tsepov is also known for the fact that he actually paid for business trips of the St. Petersburg SOBR to Chechnya from his own pocket - he purchased food, medicine, and ammunition.
In addition to members of the Sobchak family, Tsepov’s firm’s clients also included regional governor Vadim Gustov, Pierre Cardin, Alla Pugacheva, Valery Leontyev, other political and show business stars, and even representatives of the region’s largest Tambov, Kazan, and Malyshevskaya criminal gangs. Tsepov’s words are well known: “I am ready to protect even the devil if he proves to me that he is an honest devil.”
Several attempts were made on Roman Tsepov’s life, and until recently all of them were unsuccessful.
According to one of the former high-ranking police officials, who is now also involved in the security business, “A lot of people in St. Petersburg and beyond could have wanted to order Tsepov, but still more it was unprofitable for people. A lot of things in St. Petersburg rested on him. Now, firstly, some kind of redistribution will begin, and secondly, the authorities will be very active in digging into this case.”
Yulia Latynina
[...] I remember when they first told me the name of Roman Tsepov. This was due to the division of Yukos. At this moment, when absolutely all the people around Putin everyone wanted a piece of YUKOS, naturally all the oligarchs too, a certain Roman Tsepov appeared, he walked around YUKOS, saying that he represented the interests of Igor Sechin. He said that he has all the powers to resolve the conflict with Yukos, if he and Mr. Timchenko are appointed to the Board of Directors. I remember that there was also a rather comical story when newspapers were promised a lot of money so that simply no one would mention the name of Roman Tsepov or mention this plan. Moreover, the people who promised this money represented Deripaska’s PR service. That is, the impression was created that Tsepov could be an intermediary between Sechin and Deripaska. It’s funny, on the one hand he’s from St. Petersburg, on the other hand he’s an old oligarch. But what’s interesting is that when these stories were told to me, and a lot of people told this, I had the complete impression that Mr. Tsepov wanted to grab a piece out of his own. That is, they are involved in the matter serious people, and he came from some, well, yes, he stood near Putin and near St. Petersburg, but he does not understand that this is already for others. And that, in fact, these people do not need a representative in the form of Mr. Tsepov. And apparently, this was explained to him, and apparently in such a harsh way. And what’s interesting here is, of course, I feel sorry for the person. But pay attention, none of the opponents of the regime have died yet, pah-pah, so they are not starting with political opponents, but purely from commercial competitors. [...]
A fragment of a chapter dedicated to Roman Tsepov from Andrei Konstantinov’s book “Gangster Petersburg”
[...] In recent years, the brand of many security companies in the city, let’s say, has somewhat faded (including due to the decreasing relevance of the previously cornerstone “roof” issue), while the brand of Baltic Escort, on the contrary, in this sense has sharply jumped up. This happened largely due to the charismatic personality of his leader. And the most surprising thing is that this state of affairs has developed despite the fact that both the Baltic Escort enterprise itself and its head for many years have invariably existed in the niche of “Gangster Petersburg”, which is the object of our study. In this case, we are not talking about a documentary work of the same name, but about a kind of get-together in which not only bandits, but also security guards, cops, and other security officials hang out. So, it is precisely in this crowd that Tsepov’s name has long been repeated with the most respectful aspiration, elevating Roman Igorevich almost to the rank of an oligarch who can do everything and “solves” those very “issues”. At the same time, the names of both the President and the heads of various security agencies are constantly mentioned, with whom Tsepov allegedly has the most wonderful relationships, thanks to which he can now do everything (well, or let’s say, almost everything). The most different people with a claim to unprecedented knowledge, they seriously whisper that Roman Igorevich actually occupies some official secret positions and at the age of 35 was already a colonel “somewhere out there.” Let's say, for example, when in Lately In the city there was a wave of murders of mid-level entrepreneurs and former bandits; some individuals began to attribute this circumstance to Tsepov’s influence. That is, if earlier everyone tried to blame it on the “white arrow”, now they whisper in the corners “well, it couldn’t have happened without Tsepov” (and this is all again reverent and breathy). It is clear that here reality is already balancing on the brink of some kind of absolute mythology, however, it is curious that Tsepov himself is in no hurry to dispel these myths: “Well, let such rumors circulate. At least, I personally don’t spread them around me.”
At the same time, it is reliably known that all law enforcement agencies, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the FSO, have been “rotting” his office since 1993. In particular, according to our calculations, over the past ten years, almost three dozen (!) searches have been carried out at Baltic Escort. Criminal cases were initiated against the enterprise four times, but the number of arrests of Tsepov himself (for some explanations, giving evidence, etc.), according to him, simply “beyond any calculation.” If we add here the fact that since 1993, five assassination attempts have been made against Tsepov, it becomes, frankly, creepy. And even though all the conflicts that Tsepov had with the law enforcement system never resulted in criminal cases being brought to their logical conclusion, even though most attempts to assassinate him were prevented at the level of preparation (with detentions, arrests.), this does not make The situation is clearer: what actually caused such a gigantic credit of trust given to Roman Igorevich and his structures? Including from those in power?
In recent years, in terms of making a profit, the security business is far from the main one for Roman Igorevich. Although he claims that when he sits down at the same table with the oligarchs of real business, he still remains for them the director of a security company. (True, a respected security company). But in general its spectrum commercial activities quite wide: from tourism and gambling, to construction, real estate, insurance and transportation. At the same time, despite the fact that most of this business has already been moved to Moscow, Tsepov himself considers himself to be from St. Petersburg and says that he will never move to the capital.
He prefers not to talk about former and current business colleagues. Just as he does not like to talk about his relationships with representatives of the criminal world. From what I personally heard, I know that Tsepov for a long time I had a very bad relationship with Ruslan Kolyak. I even remember how at one time Kolyak boasted that he burned Tsepov’s cars, that he would soon “lower him” and other such “blah blah”. This was in 1997-98, but in 2003, shortly before his death, the same Ruslan Artemyevich, whom I somehow met by chance, was interested in whether I could arrange a meeting for him with Tsepov on some particularly important matter. for Kolyak question. (Ruslan asked this question rather angrily and not without a bit of mockery; it was clear from him that the very situation when he was forced to break himself and bow to Tsepov was extremely unpleasant for him). Speaking of Kolyak’s murder, I think in our city Tsepov was one of the first to know. I had previously had the opportunity to make sure that he learned this kind of information extremely quickly. In the case of Kolyak, Tsepov called me at the Agency and told me about the murder a maximum of an hour and a half after the murder itself occurred. It is interesting that with all the negativity that came towards him from Kolyak, Tsepov never spoke badly about the deceased. At one time, he came up with the nickname “Terminator-Zero” for Ruslan and associated him with a certain agent or confidential source, who, feeling that he had outgrown this quality, unsuccessfully tried to get out of control...
Tsepov is convinced that he actually has no specific enemies (not including ill-wishers) with whom he would have to reckon with among the inhabitants of the current “Gangster Petersburg”. There are only those who would like to harm him (according to him, there are a sufficient number of them), but they various reasons today we are simply not able to do this. Moreover, “Gangster Petersburg” of the 1998 model, according to Roman Igorevich, simply does not exist today - they say, former bandits now have completely different problems. “They want to be considered businessmen,” says Tsepov, “but at the same time they are trying to do business not criminally, but in a gangster-like manner, so no one will ever seat them at the same table.”
In the so-called “certain circles,” everyone knows Roman Tsepov, despite the fact that he is absolutely not a public person. It’s almost impossible to catch him where it’s crowded. Presentations, social events, salons and so on - this is not for him, this is not the “Tsepov” style, so to speak. The hackneyed cliche “gray eminence” suits him much better. Therefore, if someone was interested in this person to such an extent that they wanted to see him live, then I can only refer him to the series “Gangster Petersburg”. There, there is a scene in which the Lawyer (Pevtsov) kills Misha Rezany in front of the “authorities” sitting at the table. So one of these “ghoul” characters, Tsepov, is. By the way, later, when director Bortko began filming Dostoevsky, Tsepov provided him with invaluable help (if you look closely, you can read Tsepov’s gratitude in the credits of the film “The Idiot”). Roman Igorevich is currently collaborating with Bortko, acting as a co-producer of the film “The Sixth Company,” which tells about the death of Pskov paratroopers. I know for sure that without Tsepov’s help, resolving various issues, especially at the Moscow level, and even the launch of this film itself, would have been impossible. As Bortko told me, Roman Igorevich impressed him as a real wizard who could solve a problem of incredible complexity with one phone call. Neither I nor Bortko know how he does it - but he does it. At the same time, Tsepov absolutely does not treat the film process as a business - for him it is simply such a good, if you want, God-pleasing, business.
Here it must be said that Tsepov treats God, as he himself once told me, “without fanaticism, but normally.” That is, without such an ostentatious attitude, like the same Kolyak, who was baptized while driving past any church. How God, in turn, treats Tsepov, I cannot say (the question is clearly inappropriate). On the other hand, I haven’t met many people in my life who would claim that all their dreams have practically come true. As Tsepov assures, if he had a magic wand, the only thing he would like to ask is not to get up early in the morning and not wake up from the sound of the alarm clock...
It must be said that in this case, with the image of Tsepov emerging in a picture close to demonization, this man is somehow completely uncontemporary - human. I admit that perhaps he is not at all like that with subordinates, partners, and finally with business competitors, but personally, it was almost always very easy (and cozy, or what?) for me to communicate with him. Maybe because, in part, he and I are very similar in some ways. I am, of course, impressed by his manner of communication, his sense of humor (in some cases balancing on the verge of “black”), and besides, the very fact that elements of direct, somewhere completely naive, childishness are still preserved in the character of this strong and influential person . He can be harsh, he is impossibly hot-tempered and, like many of us, he cannot stand admitting that he is wrong. But at the same time, in all those cases when he realizes that he made a mistake or was wrong in something, he will find the strength to make amends. Moreover, he will do it extremely correctly, in some completely non-traditional and insanely elegant way.
In a word, if we talk about the legends and myths of “Gangster Petersburg”, we must admit that Roman Tsepov is, perhaps, one of the most mythogenic personalities, about whom little can be said specifically and about which there are a colossal number of different half-truths and “ semi-based" stories. This is a person about whom one cannot speak unambiguously and who cannot be assessed unambiguously. And this circumstance, apparently, absolutely suits Roman Igorevich himself. For this manner is inherent in him: “yes” and “no” - do not say, “black” and “white” - do not call.
Six months ago, Roman Tsepov, Putin’s former security guard, the gray eminence of the Northern capital, died N and the other day it was exactly six months since the death of Roman Tsepov, whose name will mean nothing to 99 percent of Russians and 95 percent of the residents of his native St. Petersburg. But for the remaining few, it speaks volumes. Among these few, we will not meet a single one who would believe that Tsepov died by accident. His personal story turned out to be bizarrely factually, and sometimes “metaphysically” intertwined with the fate of modern Russian power, its very phenomenon.
“He knew how to solve problems”
In recent years, Roman Tsepov (before his death) was mentioned only twice in the federal media (excluding newspapers in St. Petersburg). The last time this name appeared on one of the websites and in the newspaper “Russian Courier” was dated September 21, 2004, that is, ten days after Tsepov’s poisoning on September 11 and three days before his death on September 24. According to these reports, Tsepov distributed a kind of price list among possible candidates for appointment (as was said after Beslan) as governors. From 1 to 5 million dollars were offered to pay for inclusion of a candidate in the “presidential list”, “oral praise in the presence of the president”, “positive certificates” or for a “turnkey” appointment. Tsepov allegedly opened this shop together with one of the leaders of the presidential security service.
And it’s not that such a thing is in principle impossible to imagine. But, judging by the time these messages appeared, this was someone’s purposeful “leak”, disinformation, which was intended, quite possibly, to justify in someone’s eyes the already completed poisoning of Tsepov.
And for the first time, only rare attentive readers could remember Tsepov’s name from two messages that appeared in June and July 2004 on one of the Internet sites, and then in Moscow News. The context there was this: Roman Tsepov, a “silovik from St. Petersburg,” was appointed as the Kremlin’s negotiator to “resolve” the situation around YUKOS.
These summer messages had a basis in reality. Tsepov came to NK Yukos. His appearance was preceded by contact from a high-ranking official from Federal service guard, who named Tsepov. At a meeting at YUKOS, Tsepov allegedly justified his powers with references to Viktor Zolotov, head of the presidential security service. Unlike other “initiative” intermediaries, he did not demand millions in advance, promising to “deliver” them to someone, but proposed a very real program. But, having appeared one day, Tsepov disappeared.
Later, in various narrow circles, there would even be an oral version that Tsepov came to “resolve issues” with Khodorkovsky himself at Matrosskaya Tishina. This is already one of the apocrypha about the “almighty Roma”. During his lifetime, he did not refute these myths very persistently. After death, they multiplied, and the image of the “almighty Roma,” who knew how to “solve problems,” acquired a sacred character.
But there are myths, and there is reality, accessible to hundreds of eyewitnesses. At Tsepov’s funeral in the Prince Vladimir Cathedral surrounded by riot police in St. Petersburg, the following were present: the head of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate Vanichkin; businessman Barsukov, previously better known under the name Kumarin; Alexander Sabadash, member of the Federation Council from the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, whose name is given to one of the vodka brands; State Duma deputy Nevzorov; commander of the Riga riot police of the 1991 model, Cheslav Mlynnik; lawyer Dmitry Yakubovsky; Chairman of the Union of Journalists of St. Petersburg Andrey Konstantinov; and finally, the head of the president’s personal security, FSO General Viktor Zolotov.
The one who sobbed most bitterly at this funeral, attracting the bewildered attention of VIPs, was a wretched disabled person suffering from cerebral palsy, whom some recognized as the limousine valet at the Grand Hotel Europe.
And they even remember the fireworks...
Much earlier, “Roma” was greeted at the inauguration ceremony of President Putin, where he allegedly even performed some administrative functions. And who was he? Formally, he is just the owner of one of the many private security companies in St. Petersburg.
Childhood - adolescence - youth
It is clear that the legal biography of a person who had such (and not such other) friends can be “legendary”. But still there are some fixed or well-known things that allow us to build versions to clarify life path Roman Tsepov where he gets lost in the fog.
Roman Belinson was born in 1962 in the Leningrad suburb of Kolpino. They say that Roma’s mother was the chief dentist in the correctional system of Leningrad and the region. Thanks to this, a man with the surname Belinson entered the Higher Political School of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he changed his surname to “Tsepov” upon joining the ranks of the CPSU. He served in the internal troops and resigned (according to other sources, he was fired) in the early 90s with the rank of captain of the Army.
Around the same time, Tsepov became friends with Mlynnik, the commander of the famous Riga riot police, as well as with the host of the “600 seconds” program Nevzorov. In August 1991, Tsepov spoke in Leningrad in support of the State Emergency Committee; he wanted to go with Mlynnik to help the putschists in Moscow, but did not even have time to get ready. Former Riga riot police in one form or another collaborated with Tsepov’s security company “Baltic Escort”, so the information according to which he went with them to help the Supreme Council in September 1993 also looks logical. There is information that in 1994 Tsepov and Mlynnik were arrested for illegal possession of weapons, but only Mlynnik was convicted (and immediately amnestied) in this case. In the same case, there is supposedly amusing testimony from Mlynnik’s girlfriend (she is also Tsepov’s secretary) about how these two “divided portfolios” and agreed which of them would be the Minister of Defense and which would be the Minister of Internal Affairs.
But this is all “childhood” (not chronologically, but rather logically), and “adolescence” dates back to approximately 1992, when Tsepov opened one of the first (license No. 020004) private security companies “Baltic-Excort” in St. Petersburg. Prestigious objects in the city center, cruise ships, and touring pop stars immediately fall into the scope of his protection. According to one version, the idea of creating a private security company belonged to an officer of the former 9th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, Viktor Zolotov. According to another version, Zolotov, who was in the personnel reserve at that time, himself worked in Tsepov’s security structures. One way or another - it looks like they developed this business together.
The most important piece that Baltic Excort got was the protection of the family of the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak, that is, Lyudmila Narusova and Ksenia, who was already quite wayward in those years, as well as vice-mayor V.V. Putin. None of these persons state security was not relied upon, although the need for it really existed. In a carelessly given interview with the Versiya newspaper in 1999, Tsepov said: “... then I took “a few kopecks” from Putin, because the vice-mayor’s security raised the image of the agency. Putin paid only the salaries of two guys - 400-500 dollars. For him it was a lifting amount. It was a convenient client...”
It is very likely that Viktor Zolotov, who became Sobchak’s personal security guard, was transferred from the reserve of the former “nine” to the cadres of the new presidential security service, headed by Alexander Korzhakov. According to another version, the all-powerful Korzhakov under Yeltsin, on the contrary, did not like Zolotov and exiled him to St. Petersburg, and in 1996 (this coincides with Sobchak’s defeat in the mayoral elections) he fired him from the FSO, where Zolotov was reinstated only in 1999. One way or another, it was Zolotov, in tandem with Tsepov, who turned his face to the authorities and the mayor’s office. Tsepov fell to the most difficult part of the work: building balances and dividing spheres of influence between St. Petersburg representatives of the central government, law enforcement agencies, the mayor's office, business (which in those years was rarely transparent) and outright criminal structures. There is evidence that Baltic-Excort guarded the traffic of “black cash” necessary for the relevant operations.
In light of the complexity of these tasks, we will not break the taboo of speaking ill of the deceased if we point out that Tsepov’s contacts with leading criminal groups St. Petersburg were well known. Alexander Tkachenko, also known as Tkach, the leader of the Perm organized crime group, worked for Baltic Excort for some time. Tsepov had dealings with Alexander Malyshev (Malyshevskaya organized crime group), who was later killed, and had a short relationship with deputy Yuri Shutov, who was later accused of contract killings. He also had contacts with the Shevchenko brothers, one of whom was killed, and the second received seven years probation for extortion. Vladimir Barsukov (previously better known in the press as the leader of the Tambov Kumarins) would not have come to bury Tsepov if he did not respect him very much. Ruslan Kolyak, who was killed in Yalta a year earlier, began his “security” activities either in Baltic Excort itself, or in parallel, but their paths often crossed.
After Sobchak’s unexpected (maybe not for everyone) defeat in the mayoral elections in 1996, Tsepov’s position weakened somewhat. This moment can be considered the transition from romantic “adolescence” to “youth.” But even under Governor Yakovlev, Tsepov continued to go about his business, controlling (rarely formally heading) a number of legal commercial structures and shadow “businesses,” collecting some kind of security tribute here and there, redistributing this money among someone for some purpose. This period coincided with the most bloody showdowns and contract killings, with which she turned out to be so rich recent history city of Peter. Always in the thick of things, Tsepov was involved in many criminal cases in one way or another. More often this happened “tangentially” (which in operational jargon is denoted by the vague term “person of interest”), but there were also moments when Tsepov found himself in the role of the accused and (there is information) even ended up in the Kresty pre-trial detention center for more than one day.
This is what Andrei Konstantinov, the author of the deservedly famous encyclopedia “Gangster Petersburg,” writes, who dedicated an entire chapter to Tsepov in the latest edition of the book, published in early 2004: “all law enforcement agencies, starting with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and ending with the FSO, have been “rotting” his office since 1993 . Over ten years, almost three dozen searches were carried out at Baltic Excort. Criminal cases were initiated four times, and the number of Tsepov’s detentions (for explanations, testimony, etc.), according to him, “cannot be calculated.” Five assassination attempts were made against Tsepov (most of them were stopped at the preparation stage. - L.N.).” That is, Tsepov’s relations with law enforcement agencies were often far from cloudless.
Along with this, Tsepov, starting from his “adolescence”, had some kind of cover in the FSB and the Central Internal Affairs Directorate. Even when Tsepov was detained at the time of the armed attack on the office of the Parallel-60 company (early 1994), police officers found two state security officers in his car. There is a lot of evidence that Tsepov presented “crusts” from a variety of security agencies. In addition to the special signals with which many Baltic Excort cars were equipped, Tsepov himself had an “unchecked” pass - a special pass that guaranteed the car from stops and inspections. It is important to emphasize that even at a time when the foundations of Roma’s power were just being laid, and its future patrons at the highest level were “nobody yet,” Tsepov, along with the informal one, also had a certain secret, but, apparently, quite official status. Without this, he simply would not have been able to escape responsibility for the numerous criminal cases that the prosecutor’s office initiated against him or had intentions and grounds to initiate.
One can only speculate about what this status of Tsepov was, who granted it to him, and extended it during changes in power or leadership of the relevant structures. Some believe that this was the status of an active reserve officer of the FSB, “assigned” to an object (for example, to the mayor’s office of St. Petersburg). But in the Ministry of Internal Affairs such status exists only for retired generals. Therefore, through the Ministry of Internal Affairs (GUBOP), he could rather be part of a small group of “full-time secret operational employees” and have the status of “agent” or “resident”.
But it's not the name that matters. The point is in the status itself, which is viewed as formal only in the most extreme case - as an indulgence for the right to commit any illegal actions, and more often it is not presented, but is only implied by those few who are “supposed to know.” For everyone else who is “not supposed to know,” but who nonetheless knows (guess), this secret safe-conduct, which ensures highest degree power and protection, appears, on the contrary, as a rather informal status.
To put an end to “youth,” it remains to add that in last time and, probably for the most serious reasons, Tsepov found himself under investigation in the fall of 1999. The case involved bodily harm in connection with extortion. Perhaps the fact of initiating this case should be looked at in the context of the struggle for power in the entourage of the outgoing Yeltsin. But by the end of the year, Tsepov’s longtime acquaintances from working with the mayor’s office of St. Petersburg won the victory in the Kremlin. The case was dropped.
Seconded "looker"
St. Petersburg interlocutors tell a lot of interesting things about Tsepov, but not in facts, which more often look like plausible but unconfirmed rumors, but “in pictures.” For example, when sitting down to talk, “Roma” laid out seven mobile phones in front of him, four of which never called at all. One day, Kumarin knocked on the door to the restaurant where Tsepov was celebrating his birthday. “Roma” came out to him, thanked him very much, but did not invite him inside, politely explaining that a decent company was sitting there. But after that, when a narrow circle went to finish the drink at his home, at night, specifically to give the watch that the birthday boy had collected, Deripaska arrived on his plane. “Roma” was also capable of feelings, loved showing off, loved to shoot or turn around in the first Hummer in St. Petersburg across Nevsky Prospekt. And so on.
These seemingly optional “pictures” are very important for understanding the phenomenon itself. There is something in them both from a cinematic “opera” and from a spoiled child, the “bull” genotype in training trousers emerges, who, although he has grown into “a person who knows how to solve problems,” has retained somewhat cartoonish methods of solving them. But even the poor and crooked disabled parking attendant cried at Tsepov’s funeral in the most sincere way: it was “Roma”, whose Mercedes was parked right at the entrance and without his intervention, unlike others who passed by without looking, who found an outcast for this and some money and some encouraging words. Without much boasting, he produced the film “I Have the Honor” - about the feat of the fallen Pskov paratroopers (though, they say, not with his own money). He “settled” issues not only for millionaires and bandits, but also helped the weak, which, incidentally, is part of the obligatory image of a “good thief.”
That is, the very special function of “Roma” did not mean at all that he was a monster as a person. However, the power of “Roma,” which set up a “purely childish” cozy shooting range in the country, was in many respects more real than the power of Governor Yakovlev or Governor Matvienko.
When the famous St. Petersburg train left for Moscow, Roma did one smart thing: it stayed (although it constantly shuttled between capitals). He's in Moscow more likely, would have been lost in the secondary roles. But in St. Petersburg, where some of those who left probably still had some business (and some dachas), Tsepov turned out to be one of the few who could be entrusted with matters of a delicate nature. As for dachas, Tsepov used to stay in the village of Solovyovka, Priozersky district, where, in particular, next to the dacha of Deputy Mayor Putin there was also the dacha of one of the founders of the Ozero Democratic Party, Vladimir Smirnov. He is also the former general director of the St. Petersburg project of the German company Spag. Through it, some Germans were interested in large real estate in St. Petersburg, but in the end, a representative of the company was accused by the Liechtenstein prosecutor's office of laundering money from the drug mafia (see more in Novaya No. 18 for this year). It is unlikely that this business was closed without a trace...
In thieves' jargon, an authoritative person responsible for a certain object - for cell number one hundred four or for the Far Eastern common fund - is called the “supervisor”. In the language of the FSB, this corresponds to the status of “seconded”. And now it all depends on which side you look at. If from the point of view of the common fund, Tsepov is the “looker”. And if from the position of the FSB - “seconded”.
For example, the first thing Tsepov began with, having entered his heyday, was to influence the placement of personnel in key positions in the Main Internal Affairs Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. He was able to reduce some and promote others. Tsepov promoted the head of the regional police department, about whose qualifications there were disputes in the city, to an important post in the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, today he is already one of the deputy ministers. Roma was simply consulted as an expert and connoisseur of the personal qualities of the applicants. On the one hand, this is nationally important expert and personnel work. And on the other hand, the adaptation of the police to greater freedom for “informal groups.” It was from this angle that Tsepov’s activities were covered in a note sent to the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2002. The supposed author of the note soon seemed to shoot himself.
Tsepov’s ability to “resolve issues” in St. Petersburg has greatly expanded. And in this city, for example, lives Zakhar Smushkin, the head of the timber company Ilim Pulp, whose main assets are located in Siberia. Oleg Deripaska’s “Basic Element”, which took a liking to the Bratsk Pulp and Paper Mill, is also actively working there. The war over his shares could continue for a long time. But in St. Petersburg Tsepov met with Smushkin, and some kind of bad peace, which is better than a good quarrel, was established. Since Smushkin has no desire to comment on anything, the details of the meeting will remain unknown. But it becomes more or less clear why Deripaska flew to Tsepov at night only to give him a watch for his birthday.
One of the St. Petersburg interlocutors, a native of the special services, uttered a phrase that, in my opinion, gives the key to understanding Tsepov’s growing role - and not only in this region: “He used the informal capabilities of the state.” If there are such secret “informal capabilities of the state,” they must be personified and delegated to the most faithful people. And such people - sometimes better and sometimes worse - are always found. In this sense, the appearance of “General Dima” Yakubovsky during Tsepov’s funeral, although it is completely unclear what it is connected with, is deeply symbolic.
End of connection
He did not leave behind financial and industrial empires. The capitalization of Baltic Excort turned out to be equal to the name of Roma alone and, minus it, quickly tends to zero. Legal and common-law wives, relatives and adopted children of Tsepov received, in fact, nothing but a stupid collection of watches, “donated by such people that it cannot be sold to anyone.”
It is alleged that in the summer of 2004, Tsepov tried several times to meet with Putin in Moscow and Sochi, but was told that these meetings were undesirable. Journalist Yulia Latynina, in a program on Ekho Moskvy, said that shortly after Tsepov’s “entry” into YUKOS, the PR service “ Basic element“offered newspapers money only so that Tsepov’s name would not appear anywhere and under any circumstances. What did Deripaska insure himself and/or his friend “Roma” against?
Last days Tsepov’s life was restored minute by minute by the investigation. This information became available to the St. Petersburg press. On September 11, 2004, at 10 a.m., Tsepov had breakfast at his dacha, then drank tea at Liteiny at the FSB Directorate, then went to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, where he met with the head of one of the departments, and ate ice cream. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon he became ill, by the evening he was hospitalized in a private clinic, from there after 8 days he was transferred to the hospital named after. Sverdlov, 2 days later he died.
Data on the results of the autopsy and examination were also leaked to the press. Following them, Tsepov was poisoned, most likely, with a heavy dose of medicine for leukemia, which he never suffered from (According to another version, he self-medicated, took potent pills - ed.). When this medicine enters the body in such quantities, it causes bone marrow destruction. The method of killing is not only painful, but also quite exotic. Poisoning is not typical for criminal disputes, especially in St. Petersburg. On the other hand, if we assume that Tsepov’s murder belongs to a series of poisonings that have become fashionable, which are attributed to certain secret intelligence services and laboratories, then they could, theoretically, use some more sophisticated drugs. Unless the poisoners did not have enough time to prepare: no matter what, no one would change their mind.
In St. Petersburg, Tsepov had many ill-wishers, but he did not believe that any of them would decide to do anything against him. The purely criminal version of revenge also, of course, cannot be discarded, but still it looks less solid than the criminal-political version.
Most of those who knew Roma see the reasons for his death in the fact that Tsepov recently, in particular in the story with YUKOS, went too far, became a show-off and exceeded his informal authority. He trumped connections, names and everything in general. For this he was punished in an exemplary manner. However, many people act in this manner, but no one has ever killed anyone for it. In principle, it doesn’t seem to me that Tsepov made a mistake somewhere and made the wrong move. He did everything according to the established rules and “according to concepts,” and the move that led to his death was already made by others.
We will not accuse anyone of anything or build specific versions. Let us accept the murder of Tsepov as simply one more evidence, along with others, of the intensification of the internal struggle in the former dacha company from the village of Solovyovka. The stakes in this game, purely internal and “informal”, are large state monopolies and companies, such as Gazprom, Sibneft, or Ilim Pulp, or YUKOS, but not so much as property, but as resources influences that are comparable and combined with the main of these resources: proximity to the president. And not because these players are smarter or more far-sighted than Tsepov, but simply because they were so lucky and the older trump cards were played, they played “Roma” in the form of a lower card. This is how it turned out in this friendly “dacha preference”. Someone went under someone else “with a little”, and “Roma” left the game, that’s all.
Leonid NIKITINSKY, Novaya columnist
There is a persistent rumor in certain circles that the death of Roman Tsepov is revenge for the murder of Vyacheslav Shevchenko, in which, again according to rumors, the head of the Baltic Escort OP was involved.
On Friday night, Roman Tsepov, a well-known entrepreneur and general director of the security company Baltic-Escort, died.
Tsepov's death is mysterious. Until now, doctors cannot figure out why the famous entrepreneur, known behind his back as the “gray eminence,” died. He was brought to Sverdlovsk hospital
two weeks ago when he felt slightly unwell. An exact diagnosis could not be established. The patient was becoming increasingly ill and was about to be transported to Germany for treatment. The disease affected the bone marrow, and the processes became irreversible. Doctors do not rule out that the entrepreneur could have been poisoned
intentionally, they believe that the drug may not yet be known to them.
“I know that Tsepov died, but I think the question of whether it was a murder is incorrect,” the deputy director of the Baltic Escort security company told us. - Too little time has passed. I believe, however, that the version of his murder
This is not excluded. Anything could happen to him. He had never had ailments of this kind before.
In the 1992s, Baltic Escort had monopoly rights to provide security services to those on tour in Northern capital show business stars. Tsepov was friends with Nevzorov, guarded him
and the film crew of the “600 Seconds” program.
There is a persistent rumor in certain circles that the death of Roman Tsepov is revenge for the murder of Vyacheslav Shevchenko, in which, again according to rumors, the head of the Baltic Escort OP was involved. Let us recall that St. Petersburg businessmen Vyacheslav Shevchenko and Yuri
Alexander Nevzorov:
– Roman Tsepov has been my friend for ten years. He helped me during my work at State Duma. I don’t really believe in his natural, non-criminal death. I know that all his life he was surrounded not only by friends, but also
enemies. Tsepov was a recognized shadow king, but he was not a criminal authority, he was a legal authority.
As for his death, I am not a professional poisoner and I don’t know how exactly he could have been killed. I think that if you have the desire and a little money, all this is not difficult.
Reference
Roman Tsepov was born in Kolpino on July 22, 1962. Graduated from the Higher Military Command School of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. After graduating from college he served in Internal troops. In the early 90s, he organized and headed the private security company Baltic-Escort.
Was familiar with Vladimir Putin
Their acquaintance occurred in 1994, when the current president was still working as vice mayor. According to his status, the vice-mayor was not entitled to state security, but in Smolny they assumed that an assassination attempt was being prepared on Putin. The mayor's office entered into an official agreement with Baltic Escort, according to which the security protection
The company provided services for “protecting public order in the places where V.V. Putin was staying.” In addition, Baltic Escort protected Sobchak, Bryntsalov, Berezovsky and members of their families; employees of the security company managed to prevent more than a dozen contract killings.
Peters was a film producer
which director Vladimir Bortko, including the released film “I Have the Honor!” about the 6th regiment of the Pskov Airborne Division, which died in Chechnya in February 2000.
Many attempts were made on Roman Tsepov’s life, but the death of the general director of the security company has so far been prevented.
The founders of the media group AJUR, which together with the Swedish media concern Bonnier Business Press owns the largest St. Petersburg online newspaper Fontanka.ru, have resolved differences with the heirs of the St. Petersburg businessman, one of the pioneers of the security business Roman Tsepov, who was killed in 2004 at mysterious circumstances. Tsepov was the owner of a 51% stake in Tayny Adviser LLC, one of the key legal entities of the AZHUR media group.
The transaction amount, according to ZhurDom, was $500,000. It was this amount that Roman Tsepov’s heirs (his son and daughter Igor and Daria Tsepov, as well as parents Tamara Makarovna and Igor Abramovich Beilenson) valued the late entrepreneur’s controlling stake in the Tayny Councilor company. OOO Tainy Adviser, in turn, owns a 24% stake in CJSC AZHUR-MEDIA, which publishes the St. Petersburg online newspaper Fontanka.ru and other investigative journalistic media outlets. Thus, before the completion of the transaction with the founders of AZHUR, the heirs of Roman Tsepov could theoretically lay claim to a blocking stake in AZHUR-MEDIA.
In turn, the controlling stake of ZAO AZHUR-MEDIA (51%) was recently purchased by the Swedish media concern Bonnier Business Press, as reported by Fontanka.ru on April 2, 2013. The remaining minority stake is still controlled by the founders of the AZHUR media group, Andrei Konstantinov, Alexander Gorshkov, Evgeniy Vyshenkov and Andrei Potapenko, but the issue with the heirs of Roman Tsepov remained unresolved. In fact, they retained the rights to the share of their deceased son, which was not properly taken into account at the time of the transaction with the Swedes.
According to ZhurDom, the price of the contract with the Swedish media holding was 8 million euros. Moreover, under the terms of the agreement, the founders of AZHUR received only an advance of 3.5 million euros for the sale of a controlling stake in real money. The remaining 4.5 million euros will be received by Konstantinov, Vyshenkov, Gorshkov and Potapenko from Bonnier Business Press only if the annual revenue of ZAO AZHUR-MEDIA from advertising at the end of 2013 exceeds 135 million rubles. Let us remind you that in 2012, AZHUR was able to earn only about 90 million rubles from advertising, and an increase in advertising revenue by 50% per year is unlikely. Most likely, by the end of the year it will become a fact that a controlling stake in a large media structure in St. Petersburg will be sold for 3.5 million euros.
Publications about this major deal on the St. Petersburg media market attracted the attention of the heirs of Roman Tsepov and Kirill Metelev, who represented their interests by proxy, general director of the Information Department “Operational Cover” LLC (publishes the newspaper “Our Version on the Neva” in St. Petersburg). According to Kirill Metelev, it was he who at one time introduced the head of AZHUR Andrei Konstantinov to the wealthy and extremely influential businessman Roman Tsepov, and therefore had the moral right to speak at the negotiations as a representative of his heirs. The AZHUR side in the negotiations was represented by Evgeniy Vyshenkov, whose position Metelev rated extremely highly in an interview with ZhurDom.
“I would like to note that Evgeny Vyshenkov conducted these difficult negotiations with dignity and constructively, proved himself to be a man of his word, and that is why our communication did not go into a conflict plane. As a result of negotiations with the participation of lawyers of the SMS company, a general meeting of participants of Tayny Councilor LLC was held, and the heirs of Roman Igorevich Tsepov approved all the actions of the general director of the company, Alexander Gorshkov, over many years of his management of the company, and also sold their shares to Andrey Potapenko. I would not like to name the amount of the transaction,” Kirill Metelev told a ZhurDom correspondent.
The editor-in-chief of the online newspaper “Fontanka.ru” and the general director of LLC “Tayniy Sovetnik”, Alexander Gorshkov, said that there would be no comments from the media group “AZHUR” about this deal, and called ZhurDom’s information about the transactions of the investigative journalism agency and their conditions containing “lots of misinformation.”
At the dawn of the formation of AJUR (Agency for Investigative Journalism) in the late 1990s, it was Tsepov who was considered the key investor of this St. Petersburg journalistic enterprise. AZHUR received a serious impetus in its development, largely thanks to the financial investments of Roman Tsepov, his serious connections in law enforcement agencies and the Kremlin.
Let us remember that Roman Tsepov (Beilenson), a native of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, created the security company Baltic-Escort in 1992. Employees of this private security company guarded senior officials of St. Petersburg, including the mayor of the city Anatoly Sobchak and his family, as well as vice-mayor Vladimir Putin. After Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, Roman Tsepov became one of the most influential figures in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. He was credited with informal supervision and management personnel policy and the leadership of law enforcement agencies in St. Petersburg. On September 11, 2004, Tsepov felt unwell and two weeks later, on September 24, he died. The investigation established that the businessman was poisoned. The type of poison, the names of the perpetrators and those who ordered the murder have not yet been named. The materials of the criminal case are classified.
Maxim Fadeev
No similar news found.
In St. Petersburg, they again started talking about the murder of Roman Tsepov - “an influential lobbyist, former security guard of Sobchak, Narusova, and also a good friend of Vladimir Putin, who died on the night of September 24, 2004.” This time, the reason for once again fueling public interest in the mysterious death of Tsepov was the spread of an “information leak” allegedly directly from the department of the St. Petersburg Ministry of Internal Affairs. If you believe some representatives of the St. Petersburg media, high-ranking police officials promised in a private conversation with “especially close journalists” that Tsepov’s murder would be solved in the very near future.
Of course, the name of the alleged customer and perpetrator of the murder was not announced. There is only information that it is very famous in Russian society figure, and the publication of the results of the investigation will cause a real sensation.
In addition, representatives of the St. Petersburg media were hinted that the mastermind of the murder was a person who, almost from the first day, was considered as one of the suspects.
Let us recall that from the very beginning several versions of the murder of the St. Petersburg businessman were developed. There were several of them, due to the fact that Tsepov was very active and his interests could one way or another spread in the most unexpected directions.
Firstly, suspicion could quite logically fall on the highest representatives of the St. Petersburg political elite, with most of whom Tsepov was rumored to be in close business and simply friendly contacts. Tsepov's employees in different time provided physical security for members of the Sobchak family, vice-mayor Shcherbakov, regional governor Gustov, Pierre Cardin, Mr. Wrigley (owner of the factory of the same name chewing gum), and also ensured the safety of countless show business stars (Pugacheva, Leontyev, Titomir, Rasputina, etc.). The Baltic Escort enterprise, owned by Tsepov, also protected some of the leaders of organized crime - in particular, the “Perm” ones and members of the family of Alexander Malyshev. Roman Tsepov himself later admitted in an interview with the magazine “Personalities of St. Petersburg”: “I will help even the devil. If he shows a certificate that the devil is normal. Honest. Not a scumbag, not a banal scum.”
In 1993 and 1995 they shot at Tsepov, and in 1996 they tried to blow him up. The attempt to remove Tsepov from the arena almost proved effective real events in other ways: during the gubernatorial elections in 1996, a “disinformation” was launched that an assassination attempt was allegedly being prepared on the gubernatorial candidate Vladimir Yakovlev, one of the perpetrators of which was to be none other than Tsepov (apparently, other famous personalities There simply weren’t any people in the city who were good with weapons).
Secondly, the reason for Tsepov’s murder could well have been his increased self-esteem in recent years (objectively speaking, it did not increase out of nowhere). Conceit allegedly pushed Tsepov into a really big business at one time, and he allegedly even tried to take an active part in “dividing the YUKOS pie,” offering his intermediary services to interested parties. It is clear that with all due respect to the personality of the deceased, this was still not his level; in any case, Tsepov’s excessive activation in this “field” could cause serious discontent among many influential people.
Thirdly, Tsepov, according to some information, in Last year throughout his life, in principle, he positioned himself, first of all, as a political lobbyist and invited interested parties to “solve problems” in the most high level. And by “solving problems” we do not mean providing security or “having a heart-to-heart conversation” with an obstinate competitor. It's about about such issues as, for example, lobbying the interests of the “customer” in the Kremlin during gubernatorial elections, etc.
And finally, fourthly, it cannot be ruled out that Tsepov could have been “ordered” by the people whom he “crossed the road” in typical modern Russia business conflicts. It is known that Tsepov actively helped businessmen close to him to resolve, as they say, contradictions with their obstinate business partners. We are, of course, not talking about banal racketeering, it’s just that Tsepov’s authority was so high that few people dared to go against his opinion. At least out in the open.
Immediately after Tsepov’s murder, a number of media outlets wrote about certain mediation services that Tsepov provided to entrepreneurs Kuyundich and Khovanov in the conflict around the notorious “VILS” and SMK and their supposedly serious confrontation with businessmen close to the banker Veremeenko. In addition, shortly before his murder, Tsepov’s name “came up” in connection with entrepreneurs of various levels of fame and wealth. For example, there is information that Tsepov agreed to help the former director of Magnitogorsk who turned to him for assistance metallurgical plant Mr. Sharipov. As you know, Sharipov once owned (and according to some sources, still owns) about 29% of MMK shares. The history of these shares is quite vague; it is only known that now they seem to be under the control of the current director of the plant, Rashnikov, and Sharipov, being by no means delighted with this circumstance, cannot return them to himself. He allegedly asked for help solving problems with Rashnikov shortly before the mysterious death of the entrepreneur former director MMK.
