October 29, 2025 • 35 mins
The dead body of Alexey Sinitsyn is laid out under a bridge in Russia’s European exclave, Kaliningrad. It is missing one very vital component—the head. This local CEO has somehow ended up decapitated. A nylon tow rope is laid out near the corpse. The head is further away. When the police arrive, their initial cause of death is “suicide”… How?
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the
Russian elite has been found dead.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Reports suggests that he fell out of a window, poisoned
with mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Died of heart failure, died of carbonnoxide poisoning. How comes
they are they?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Many have hidden links to the Kremlin.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This is sad Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into
these recently dead Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created
by me Jake Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov.
This is a H eleven studio and Coolso Media production.
(00:56):
September eighth, twenty twenty five. A bridge in Kaliningrad. The
Kaliningrad region is an unusual place. It's Russian territory, but
it's completely encircled by European countries. It's like an island,
(01:17):
only instead of being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by
Poland and Lithuania, countries that both have serious hostilities with
Russia NATO countries. This six thousand square mile exclave is
over four hundred miles from the Russian border. Still, Kaliningrad
(01:40):
answers directly to the Kremlin. It's Russia, just not mainland Russia.
It's been like this for a while. Originally, though Kaliningrad
was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, thought of proto
Germany that began in the seventeen hundreds. Back then it
(02:01):
was called Koenigsburg. Was eventually seized in nineteen forty five
by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.
The Communists kicked most of the Germans out and gave
the region the new name Kaliningrad. The namesake is a
nod to the Soviet politician Mikhail Kalinin.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Kalinin, who rose from peasant by to be President of
the Supreme Council.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
When the USSA collapsed in nineteen ninety one, Kaliningrad became
part of the new Russia. It's remained that way ever since.
Of course, a strategically important area for the Kremlin, a
highly militarized fly in Europe's ointment. It's here in Kaliningrad's
(02:52):
Gurievsky area, where a body of forty three year old
entrepreneur Alexi. Sinitsin is laid out under a bridge. His
limbs are stiff, is positioned on the bank of a
small river. He's dead, very dead. His body is missing
(03:12):
one vital component.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It's head. Snitsin has been decapitated.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
The nailed up spine sticks out from a gaping wound
at the neck. Strangely, the head is not near the body,
it's some distance away. Next to this gruesome scene is
a carefully coiled towing cable high strength nylon rope made
for pulling vehicles. Polisa called after this nightmare is discovered
(03:48):
by passers by crops arrive not the scene, and then
their rapport.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
They write that.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Its quote could be a suicide. How Sennitskin managed to
cut off his own head, I don't know. The toe
rope is thick, woven, dull. It's not like a piano
or razor wire, which in theory, could maybe decapitator man
if he used it as a noose. But then how
(04:19):
would the body end up on the riverbank with its
head in another location? It could be a suicide, but
that is very unlikely, it seems. The police are also
not so sure. They open a criminal investigation into the case,
mostly citing the tow cable suspicious evidence. Such a grizzly
(04:55):
scene creates a lot of questions. First and foremost for us,
who the hell was Sinnitsin? A death as brutal as
this does not happen on a whim. We've been working
on this case tirelessly, and the simple answer is so
Knitsin is a bit of a ghost. Very little information
(05:19):
is out there about him, no real social media presence,
no record of his childhood, no real effort made to
follow up on the report of his death. Even by
the standards of the Kremlins Russia, it's very unusual. I
reached out to people associated with him and I got nothing.
(05:40):
Every single time brick Wall, You'd think someone would at
least want to make sure the correct impression was given
about this man after he was left headless under a bridge.
This is not a normal death. Researcher Victi Mihiel, who's
working on this with us, managed to dig out some information,
(06:01):
but honestly, there is not a lot out there.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
We have no clue and no information about this guy.
If you look him up, you cannot find any information
other than his birthplace and some very vague stuff such
as that he appeared in Russia two times on records,
once when he was born in Vorkuta in nineteen eighty two,
if I'm not mistaken, and the second one when he
(06:27):
self proclaimed as an entrepreneur in twenty fourteen in Saint Petersburg. Well,
there is a bit of a distance between Saint Petersburg
and Kaliningrad, right in twenty sixteen he moved randomly in
Kaliniingrad twenty eighteen started to work for this K potash company,
and in twenty twenty two, just four years later, somehow
(06:48):
he became the general director the company.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Victor mentions here K potash is something I'll get to
in a bit related to soap mines and fertilizer. Keep
it in the back of your mind, though, as it
may hold some answers as to why Senitzin died the
way he did.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
There is no information about his studies, parents, whatever, what
makes him eligible to work as a director. When you
need studies, when you need a diploma in economics, you
need to be even an engineer. I'm saying because an engineer,
because this guy was literally making projects, as in engineering
projects of the minds which did these extractions and whatnot.
(07:31):
But what I was saying, at some point in the
Colini Grad collective unconsciousness, people thought, wow, I wonder if
we have a director for this company, because for some
reason nobody knew the director was from twenty to twenty two,
twenty twenty five where this person was to beheaded.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
This is another interesting point Victors brought up here. Not
only is Senitsan's past highly elusive, so are the records
of some of the places he worked at. It says
if he floated in as a specter and took with
him everyone's memories as he left. Maybe it's just bad
(08:15):
record keeping in Kaliningrad. Maybe Russia, in all of its
iterations throughout history, has been a place of meticulous record keeping.
They're literally known for it. From Imperial Russia and the
Soviet Union to post USSR collapse and now Planet Putin,
(08:38):
bureaucracy has always been a big part of the Russian experience.
They're great record keepers, but they're also selective record keepers.
When it helps state, red take and minute details are
all very important, but when it doesn't help the state,
everything suddenly vanish. It many such cases when the Soviet
(09:04):
Union went belly up. For example, Russia eventually ended up
restricting access to the Soviet era archives. Courts would unlawfully
limit the records so researchers couldn't uncover the true horrors
of the USSR. They'd reclassified documents, hide them, destroy them,
(09:24):
or simply say they got lost along the way. Another
example is the twenty sixteen drug scandal, when a state
run doping program for Russian Olympic athletes was exposed. It
was found that the Russian government was guaranteeing that the
tests that came back positive for performance enhancing drugs were hidden.
(09:49):
There was an institutional effort that made any incriminating documents disappear. Okay,
now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right, enough
(10:11):
of that, now back to the shore. You get my point.
Records have regularly vanished into the ether in Russia when
they might expose stay wrongdoing.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Don't get me wrong, though, This is not just a
Russian problem.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It is a political problem all across the world, left
right up, down center. Everybody is at it. Just take
the so called Epstein files for example. The US government
on all sides has or is actively hiding important evidence
(10:57):
that exposes the involvement of the rich and power full
in the world's worst known pedophile human trafficking ring. Try
to get your head around that these are people who
talk about the morals of their government and excoriate their foes,
and yet they are knowingly taking part in an open
(11:20):
cover up to help some of the worst people on earth.
It's absolutely diabolical, It's corrupt, and sadly, I don't think
it will ever change.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I digress.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Still, the fact that this all takes place in Cliningrad
might be why things are a little difficult to decipher.
It's not exactly an area that has the spotlight. In fact,
it's not a place many people in euro have been
too atall. A holiday destination, is not. I actually tried
to go to Kaliningrad myself in twenty seventeen. At the time,
(12:11):
there were rumors that the state had been fortifying the
borders and bringing more heavy weapons into the area. I
wanted to go and see what I could verify and
write a story on it. As a journalist, I had
to apply for a visa. I was denied. Later I
was told that the reason for this was my recent
report in the so called Denetsk People's Republic or the DNR.
(12:35):
This is one of the most contentious separatist held areas
in East Ukraine. The Russian back militias controlling the area
framed it as some kind of post Soviet utopia. They
even brought in hardline communist extremists from across Europe to
(12:55):
live there and help spread international propaganda.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
It was very weird. Now I had an inklin.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It wasn't quite the war torn red paradise they made out,
so I traveled over to see for myself. As soon
as I arrived, I was assigned a group of minders
who took me on a three day press tour of
the region.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
We've been allowed permission here on condition.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That we have a minder, so basically they take us
to the people they want us to speak to. It's
very controlled, but we've come here anyway because these guys
no longer see themselves. I couldn't go freely myself anywhere.
It was essentially a North Korea style propaganda campaign.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
In real time.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
They put on a show to make it seem as
if everything was running great and that the only issue
was the Ukrainians attacking them.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
But every staged event they took me to fell apart.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Something would go wrong, and the minders would just hope
that I didn't notice.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Okay, can we go in.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
For example, when they took me to an old lady's
house that had been bombed, they prompted her to tell
me how much she loved the then separatist leader of
the DNA, Zakachenko. Only problem was when they presented her
with a newspaper with a full page image of Zakachenko.
She didn't know who he was.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Then.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
This sweet Bubushka also accidentally let on that the house
they were showing us around that wasn't actually hers. She
lived in a different house in the same compound. She
was being used for propaganda and forced to lie for
the camera. In the evenings, the one hotel I was
allowed to stay at became a human trafficking hub. Big
(14:48):
men with flattheads entered the restaurant bar area with a
dozen or so young women. They would offer these women
up like cattle to anyone willing to pay.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Surprise, surprise, the.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Local comrades had no qualms about this at all. If
that wasn't bad enough, my DNR minders also faked a
gun battle at a front line position whilst there They
literally told me the shooting will begin soon.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Movement for soldiers.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And that is that incoming, And sure enough bullets flew
past our heads as we ducked into a trench. I
covered many wars by this point, and I knew that's
just not how it works. Front Lines are, of course,
by nature, very unpredictable. At this scene, the DNA commanders
(15:46):
explained how the Ukrainians were constantly violating the ceasefire. Only
the gunfire was coming from an opposite burm across the way,
which I knew was the DNR position. I even checked
it when I got back, angulated it on the maps,
got analysts to check it out. It was DNR position.
No Ukrainians there. The whole thing was staged to influence
(16:09):
my reporting. Luckily I twigged early on, and we've been
filming every fuck up on the slide. Long story short,
I made a documentary showing that the DNR is an
authoritarian shitthle ran by Russian commanders and local organized criminals. Now,
even though Russia was then pretending they were actually nothing
(16:32):
to do with the DNR, I was subsequently not granted
permission to enter Kiliningrad or any other Russian territory at
that time. All of this is relevant to understanding the
psyche of the Kremlin. In practical terms, when it comes
to on the ground manipulation, they have no qualms. I mean,
(16:55):
just quickly take the DNR for example. Again, all of
the leaders who run place when I was there in
twenty seventeen have since died in targeted assassinations right there
in the DNA. The Russians of course blame Ukraine, but
trust me, there is a stack of evidence which suggests
it was the Kremlin who took out their own useful
(17:16):
idiots when they were no longer needed.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
So with all this in mind, I'm.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sat here thinking to myself, is it possible that this
kind of behavior is also happening in Kaliningrad. Honestly I
don't know, but I do want to speak to someone
who's actually been there.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
As I said, I didn't make it there.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
So I reached out to journalist Sam Farley, who went
to Kaliningrad in twenty eighteen. I guess, firstly, just if
you can't explain why you went to Cliningrad.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The World Cup that Russia held in twenty eighteen, England
played there against Belgium. This is weird atmosphere that, like,
the place is quite weird itself.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
We went drove into the.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Country and drove out again from Poland, and that border
took hours to get over. And I think whenever I
think about it now and think how difficult it must be. Now,
every place I've ever been to has like some positives.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It's not the It's not the nicest place.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I understand, Like people keep saying, it's this kind of
brutallest place. Is it as bad as it sounds? Like
gray concrete and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Gray concrete is just the perfect scrypted words for it.
The only nice splash of color I can remember was
like there there was like a McDonald's that was really
lit up well, and it's just red and yellow, and like,
genuinely that's the only color in the whole place, Like
it's it's incredibly depressing. It almost felt the other kind
(18:54):
of moment I kind of remember really well in terms
of colors. We were staying at the top of a
sort of tower block and at the bottom was a
shisha bar and kind of walking back to the place,
walking to and from the place every day.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
The place was gray. It was the weather wasn't particularly
good either, which didn't help.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The sky was gray, the buildings are gray, and there
was just this sort of like luminous green kind of
light emanating from the shisha bar, and that's all you
really saw was was lights from shop fronts.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's very depressing, and it's not in a.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It's not kind of Russian or Soviet in like a
kind of fun interesting way like Transnistria.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's so weird but.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Really fun kind of kitchen like it's that's really interesting place.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Whereas this just felt depressing.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Okay, now it's time for a quick outbreak, all right.
Not for that, now back to the short.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It felt like every bad part of Russia combined, and
it lacked the vibrancy of any of the other Russian
cities I've visited at that tournament or I've been too
for that, and.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Even the people just they just well kind of very.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Wire not particularly friendly, like keeping themselves themselves.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Did you feel at all that there was this kind
of Russian military presence?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
To be honest, I didn't feel that on the street
at all. Anytime I would say I did think like shit,
this is this is a bit unusually. It's kind of
when we did go through that border. Crossing it was
stacked with soldiers and all sorts of sort of military
now or security or whatever, and I did kind of
(21:02):
think this is obviously. I know they had invaded playing
like four years prior to that.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
He didn't feel like Europe was on like a war
setting at that point. Going through that border, I was
genuinely quite surprised.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Every other kind of route I'd gone into Russia, I'd
done it through air and then it just felt like
every every airport was the same as any other airport
in the world. Yeah, crossing did feel very, very kind
of defined, and a lot are if I'm honest.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
So that's the backdrop for where this horrific death took place,
decapitated amongst the concrete and brutalism. Before his untimely death,
Alexi Sanitsin was the CEO of k Potash, the company
that dealt with different types of natural minerals in the region.
It's a bit confusing what Sannitzin was in charge of where,
(22:00):
so let's speak to surgery to clarify. He's most definitely
smart than I am. One thing that is confusing me, right,
So some media, and this is both Russian media or
at least like Russian focused. One says that he was
the CEO of a salt mine, and another says he
(22:21):
was the CEO of a fertilizer company. Have you worked
out what's what there is that like the same company
with different parts and people are getting the wrong end
of the stick. I can't work it out.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
It's like a company and then has a subsidiary. From
my understanding, he's kind of in charge of both, and
the both things are kind of true because so potash
is what he's like the project that's supposed to mine potash,
which is essentially salt. I mean it's more complex than that,
but basically just minerals on the ground and they're used
for fertilizer. So essentially potash is extremely vital to agriculture.
(22:55):
Back in I think it was twenty twenty three to
twenty four, the war in Ukraine kind of affected a
lot of export of potash and attackted a lot of countries.
I believe it was in Africa and some other southern countries.
They were near like famine just because they couldn't get
this fertilizer and the basically messed up all the crop.
So it's a big deal. It's it's a big industry
and Russia was actually, i believe the biggest or the
(23:16):
second biggest exporter in the world before the war started,
and they had a major kind of collapse because you know,
they a lot of their customers were the West, and
they all got sent they all started sentioning Russia, So
that industry had took a big hit.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So let's work out what could have got Sinitsin into
hot water. The first lea there is what Sergey just mentioned.
Russia's potash industry nose dive in after it was hit
with war related sanctions. That is obviously going to affect
a man who's the CEO of the biggest potash company
in Kaliningrad. But even by Krimlin standards, they could hardly
(23:52):
blame sinits In for this. They're the ones that decided
to invade Ukraine. Either way, the issue resolved itself. After
the initial dip, the potash trade stabilized. Actually in some
regions it became even more profitable due to scarcity. Russia
worked around the sanctions and for them everything was fine.
(24:13):
For some reason, though the profits of k potash did
not reflect this. Sinitsin's company was losing money hand over fist.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
K Potash, who.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Sinitsen worked for, was the head of with both companies
since October twenty twenty two. He was not exactly helping
the company's financial situation, right, Like from the nodes we
have here, like he was in a very dire financial situation.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Yeah, so what kind of happened is it sounds like
there's basically a plan to.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Create a factory.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
From my understanding, it's not fully operational yet and he's
basically going around from the city, so from Kalingrad to
the locals and kind of trying to make this thing work.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Now, this is interesting. Sanitsen was getting pushed back locally.
He needed to rapidly expand the operations of K Potash,
but the people did not want the new factories on
their land. K Potash went on a pr offensive to
try and win over the residents, to let everyone know
how many new jobs that would provide, how lucrative it
(25:24):
would be for the town, and even paid for a
big mural to be painted. They paid homage to a
Soviet era fighter pilot. None of it worked. The people
weren't having it. They could not be swayed this easy.
This wasn't just some town hall meeting either. Locals actually
took to the streets to protest k potash.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
They were very angry.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
There was an incident where the residents basically, the residents
don't want any like construction, mining, et cetera kind of
going on around them. It can be pretty destructive you
have to like dig up, you know, like one of
those giant like mining holes. It would be like a
pretty large effect.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
In the community.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
And they actually stood up against it. They kind of
the local said we don't want this year putin ended
up stepping in. Well, you know, the government stepped in.
They always kind of referred that like this issue got
risen to putin and he stepped in, and they basically
did like assessment. The residents wanted like canceled. They wanted
the project completely canceled. But what ended up happening is
(26:26):
they basically moved it a few I think it was
just like a few kilometers down from the initial location.
So they were like, Okay, this is still happening, but
I guess we'll just move it over a bit.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I believe it was the.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Mine itself and the processing plant. So it was supposed
to be kind of like the entire operation in one
place they got slightly moved down, which you know was
kind of like a victory for those residents, but it
also didn't really address like it's still happening just a
little further off.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So, Surge, you just mentioned, it's at this stage that
the Russian government on the mainland became made away of
the issue so much so that they got involved directly.
Could this potentially be the turning point that led to
Sinitsyn's death. We don't know, but there was a lot
(27:13):
more scandal to come. Remember that, mind, we were just
talking about. Well, it's still not being finished. Even with
the new construction location. It's actually still in the design stage.
K Potash didn't manage to fully sway the locals even
(27:34):
after the Kremlin got involved.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They're still angry.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
The estimated date for the project's completion is now over
a decade delayed from when it was originally meant to
be finished. It won't be done, they say until maybe
twenty thirty two.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
And how long it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Will take them to recoup the losses is anyone's guess.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
God knows.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Kay Potash needs the money right now. The company's bottom
line is in the toilet they're working at a negative
of three point four billion rubles that's around forty two
million dollars. Their assets are a loss of fifteen billion
rubles one hundred and eighty five million dollars. K Potash,
(28:21):
which Sinitsen was running until his untimely death, has more
debt than it has assets, and it is not making money.
If that wasn't bad enough, k Potash has investors at
the door.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
They want their money.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
There are at.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Least thirty three legal cases.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Against the company because of course they can't afford to pay.
If Sad the Oligarch has taught us anything is that
you probably don't want to owe money to anything involved
with Russian state agricultural projects. Trust me on this. Along
with all this, there will been several other strange issues
(29:03):
attached to k Potash. For example, a water supply company
tried to extort them out of around two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, claiming the company it was using more
water than what they did. Seems like everybody in that
region is on the take. Then there's the case of
a journalist K Potash actually got.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Sent to prison.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
He was writing negative articles about them because well, they
were doing a lot of negative stuff. In a strange
turn of events, k Potash claims the reporter blackmailed the company,
saying he'd stop the articles if they gave him one
million rubles around twelve grand. This journalist was sent to
(29:49):
prison for three years over this and his publication was
shut down. To this day, he says he's innocent and
was quote framed for his crime.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Very dodgy situation.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Now, none of this points in any one direction other
than total chaos. It seems as if Ka Potash is
an absolute disaster from the ground up.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
They even got.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Fined in twenty twenty one for filing documents to the
wrong government body. Alex Knitzin did not have his ship
in order whatsoever. With a company like Kay Potash in
a place like Kleningrads, I think it's safe to say
that it's no stretch to imagine there might have been
unsavory characters involved who are owed.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Money, a lot of money. Could this be wise?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
And Knitsin had his head cut off and was dumped
under a bridge, after all, he was the CEO. Not
saying he should ever come to harm, but if there's
anyone to blame for the catastrophic financial losses.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
It's obviously him.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Still, the police of the region are leaning publicly into
the claims of a suicide, but at the same time
they have opened up a potential murder case. Whilst confusing,
at least they are doing their jobs properly, or at
least it looks like that. It's all very closed off still.
(31:27):
But what we have found out though, is that they've
used this investigation to confiscate documents from the offices.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Of k Potash.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
We also know that examinations have been ordered and colleagues
and relatives of Sinitsin are being interviewed. Naturally, the police
no more than they're letting on. In another report talking
about Sinitsin, we found the following statement quote The enterprise
itself is quite closed, non public in nature, and its
(31:58):
general director was not present in any way in the
Killiningrad public space. He did not give any interviews. Most
heads of enterprises of this level are visible. I can't
say the same about Senitsin end quote. As I said
at the start, he was a very private man. Whilst
(32:22):
this case is puzzling, we still don't know one quite
crucial detail. Where was Sinitsin's head found In all of
the reports from the police and the media. They just
state that the head was found in another place. Was
that next to the body in the river or twenty
meters down the road?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
We just don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I think that detail would tell us a lot. There
are also still no real images of the crime scene,
no further reports from the press, and no quotes from eyewitnesses.
This to me shocking from such a brutal and unusual death.
Because opaik as all of this is, I've come to
(33:08):
think that whatever happened to Alexi Sinitsin is one of
two scenarios. There was a brutally violent murder. The victim's
head was cut from the body and then dumped in
a public place to send a message, likely connected to
some kind of organized crime, the state, or both. Or
(33:29):
it was the most unlikely suicide in Kliningrad's history.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
You decide.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
You've been listening to sad Oliga season two. Produced by
H eleven Studios for Cool Zone Media. Writing, editing, producing,
concept and recording by myself Jake Hanrahan, Research and reporting
by Sergei Slipchenko, me and victim Mihail. Executive producing by
(34:26):
Sophie Lichtman, Music by Sam Black, artwork by George Jutful
sound mixed by splicing Block. See my other projects at
Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on social media at jake
Underscore Hanrahan, that's h A N R A H A M.
(35:00):
Can't Castolic CATHOLICSIC Catholic
Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the
Russian elite has been found dead.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Reports suggests that he fell out of a window, poisoned
with mushrooms.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Died of heart failure, died of carbonnoxide poisoning. How comes
they are they?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Dozens of Russian oligachs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
Many have hidden links to the Kremlin.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
This is sad Oligach Season two, an ongoing investigation into
these recently dead Russian power brokers. Sad Oligach is created
by me Jake Hanrahan and my Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov.
This is a H eleven studio and Coolso Media production.
(00:56):
September eighth, twenty twenty five. A bridge in Kaliningrad. The
Kaliningrad region is an unusual place. It's Russian territory, but
it's completely encircled by European countries. It's like an island,
(01:17):
only instead of being surrounded by water, it's surrounded by
Poland and Lithuania, countries that both have serious hostilities with
Russia NATO countries. This six thousand square mile exclave is
over four hundred miles from the Russian border. Still, Kaliningrad
(01:40):
answers directly to the Kremlin. It's Russia, just not mainland Russia.
It's been like this for a while. Originally, though Kaliningrad
was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, thought of proto
Germany that began in the seventeen hundreds. Back then it
(02:01):
was called Koenigsburg. Was eventually seized in nineteen forty five
by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.
The Communists kicked most of the Germans out and gave
the region the new name Kaliningrad. The namesake is a
nod to the Soviet politician Mikhail Kalinin.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Kalinin, who rose from peasant by to be President of
the Supreme Council.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
When the USSA collapsed in nineteen ninety one, Kaliningrad became
part of the new Russia. It's remained that way ever since.
Of course, a strategically important area for the Kremlin, a
highly militarized fly in Europe's ointment. It's here in Kaliningrad's
(02:52):
Gurievsky area, where a body of forty three year old
entrepreneur Alexi. Sinitsin is laid out under a bridge. His
limbs are stiff, is positioned on the bank of a
small river. He's dead, very dead. His body is missing
(03:12):
one vital component.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
It's head. Snitsin has been decapitated.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
The nailed up spine sticks out from a gaping wound
at the neck. Strangely, the head is not near the body,
it's some distance away. Next to this gruesome scene is
a carefully coiled towing cable high strength nylon rope made
for pulling vehicles. Polisa called after this nightmare is discovered
(03:48):
by passers by crops arrive not the scene, and then
their rapport.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
They write that.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Its quote could be a suicide. How Sennitskin managed to
cut off his own head, I don't know. The toe
rope is thick, woven, dull. It's not like a piano
or razor wire, which in theory, could maybe decapitator man
if he used it as a noose. But then how
(04:19):
would the body end up on the riverbank with its
head in another location? It could be a suicide, but
that is very unlikely, it seems. The police are also
not so sure. They open a criminal investigation into the case,
mostly citing the tow cable suspicious evidence. Such a grizzly
(04:55):
scene creates a lot of questions. First and foremost for us,
who the hell was Sinnitsin? A death as brutal as
this does not happen on a whim. We've been working
on this case tirelessly, and the simple answer is so
Knitsin is a bit of a ghost. Very little information
(05:19):
is out there about him, no real social media presence,
no record of his childhood, no real effort made to
follow up on the report of his death. Even by
the standards of the Kremlins Russia, it's very unusual. I
reached out to people associated with him and I got nothing.
(05:40):
Every single time brick Wall, You'd think someone would at
least want to make sure the correct impression was given
about this man after he was left headless under a bridge.
This is not a normal death. Researcher Victi Mihiel, who's
working on this with us, managed to dig out some information,
(06:01):
but honestly, there is not a lot out there.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
We have no clue and no information about this guy.
If you look him up, you cannot find any information
other than his birthplace and some very vague stuff such
as that he appeared in Russia two times on records,
once when he was born in Vorkuta in nineteen eighty two,
if I'm not mistaken, and the second one when he
(06:27):
self proclaimed as an entrepreneur in twenty fourteen in Saint Petersburg. Well,
there is a bit of a distance between Saint Petersburg
and Kaliningrad, right in twenty sixteen he moved randomly in
Kaliniingrad twenty eighteen started to work for this K potash company,
and in twenty twenty two, just four years later, somehow
(06:48):
he became the general director the company.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Victor mentions here K potash is something I'll get to
in a bit related to soap mines and fertilizer. Keep
it in the back of your mind, though, as it
may hold some answers as to why Senitzin died the
way he did.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
There is no information about his studies, parents, whatever, what
makes him eligible to work as a director. When you
need studies, when you need a diploma in economics, you
need to be even an engineer. I'm saying because an engineer,
because this guy was literally making projects, as in engineering
projects of the minds which did these extractions and whatnot.
(07:31):
But what I was saying, at some point in the
Colini Grad collective unconsciousness, people thought, wow, I wonder if
we have a director for this company, because for some
reason nobody knew the director was from twenty to twenty two,
twenty twenty five where this person was to beheaded.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
This is another interesting point Victors brought up here. Not
only is Senitsan's past highly elusive, so are the records
of some of the places he worked at. It says
if he floated in as a specter and took with
him everyone's memories as he left. Maybe it's just bad
(08:15):
record keeping in Kaliningrad. Maybe Russia, in all of its
iterations throughout history, has been a place of meticulous record keeping.
They're literally known for it. From Imperial Russia and the
Soviet Union to post USSR collapse and now Planet Putin,
(08:38):
bureaucracy has always been a big part of the Russian experience.
They're great record keepers, but they're also selective record keepers.
When it helps state, red take and minute details are
all very important, but when it doesn't help the state,
everything suddenly vanish. It many such cases when the Soviet
(09:04):
Union went belly up. For example, Russia eventually ended up
restricting access to the Soviet era archives. Courts would unlawfully
limit the records so researchers couldn't uncover the true horrors
of the USSR. They'd reclassified documents, hide them, destroy them,
(09:24):
or simply say they got lost along the way. Another
example is the twenty sixteen drug scandal, when a state
run doping program for Russian Olympic athletes was exposed. It
was found that the Russian government was guaranteeing that the
tests that came back positive for performance enhancing drugs were hidden.
(09:49):
There was an institutional effort that made any incriminating documents disappear. Okay,
now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right, enough
(10:11):
of that, now back to the shore. You get my point.
Records have regularly vanished into the ether in Russia when
they might expose stay wrongdoing.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
Don't get me wrong, though, This is not just a
Russian problem.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It is a political problem all across the world, left
right up, down center. Everybody is at it. Just take
the so called Epstein files for example. The US government
on all sides has or is actively hiding important evidence
(10:57):
that exposes the involvement of the rich and power full
in the world's worst known pedophile human trafficking ring. Try
to get your head around that these are people who
talk about the morals of their government and excoriate their foes,
and yet they are knowingly taking part in an open
(11:20):
cover up to help some of the worst people on earth.
It's absolutely diabolical, It's corrupt, and sadly, I don't think
it will ever change.
Speaker 7 (11:34):
Anyway.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
I digress.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Still, the fact that this all takes place in Cliningrad
might be why things are a little difficult to decipher.
It's not exactly an area that has the spotlight. In fact,
it's not a place many people in euro have been
too atall. A holiday destination, is not. I actually tried
to go to Kaliningrad myself in twenty seventeen. At the time,
(12:11):
there were rumors that the state had been fortifying the
borders and bringing more heavy weapons into the area. I
wanted to go and see what I could verify and
write a story on it. As a journalist, I had
to apply for a visa. I was denied. Later I
was told that the reason for this was my recent
report in the so called Denetsk People's Republic or the DNR.
(12:35):
This is one of the most contentious separatist held areas
in East Ukraine. The Russian back militias controlling the area
framed it as some kind of post Soviet utopia. They
even brought in hardline communist extremists from across Europe to
(12:55):
live there and help spread international propaganda.
Speaker 4 (12:59):
It was very weird. Now I had an inklin.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
It wasn't quite the war torn red paradise they made out,
so I traveled over to see for myself. As soon
as I arrived, I was assigned a group of minders
who took me on a three day press tour of
the region.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
We've been allowed permission here on condition.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
That we have a minder, so basically they take us
to the people they want us to speak to. It's
very controlled, but we've come here anyway because these guys
no longer see themselves. I couldn't go freely myself anywhere.
It was essentially a North Korea style propaganda campaign.
Speaker 4 (13:36):
In real time.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
They put on a show to make it seem as
if everything was running great and that the only issue
was the Ukrainians attacking them.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
But every staged event they took me to fell apart.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Something would go wrong, and the minders would just hope
that I didn't notice.
Speaker 7 (13:56):
Okay, can we go in.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
For example, when they took me to an old lady's
house that had been bombed, they prompted her to tell
me how much she loved the then separatist leader of
the DNA, Zakachenko. Only problem was when they presented her
with a newspaper with a full page image of Zakachenko.
She didn't know who he was.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Then.
Speaker 3 (14:24):
This sweet Bubushka also accidentally let on that the house
they were showing us around that wasn't actually hers. She
lived in a different house in the same compound. She
was being used for propaganda and forced to lie for
the camera. In the evenings, the one hotel I was
allowed to stay at became a human trafficking hub. Big
(14:48):
men with flattheads entered the restaurant bar area with a
dozen or so young women. They would offer these women
up like cattle to anyone willing to pay.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
Surprise, surprise, the.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
Local comrades had no qualms about this at all. If
that wasn't bad enough, my DNR minders also faked a
gun battle at a front line position whilst there They
literally told me the shooting will begin soon.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Movement for soldiers.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
And that is that incoming, And sure enough bullets flew
past our heads as we ducked into a trench. I
covered many wars by this point, and I knew that's
just not how it works. Front Lines are, of course,
by nature, very unpredictable. At this scene, the DNA commanders
(15:46):
explained how the Ukrainians were constantly violating the ceasefire. Only
the gunfire was coming from an opposite burm across the way,
which I knew was the DNR position. I even checked
it when I got back, angulated it on the maps,
got analysts to check it out. It was DNR position.
No Ukrainians there. The whole thing was staged to influence
(16:09):
my reporting. Luckily I twigged early on, and we've been
filming every fuck up on the slide. Long story short,
I made a documentary showing that the DNR is an
authoritarian shitthle ran by Russian commanders and local organized criminals. Now,
even though Russia was then pretending they were actually nothing
(16:32):
to do with the DNR, I was subsequently not granted
permission to enter Kiliningrad or any other Russian territory at
that time. All of this is relevant to understanding the
psyche of the Kremlin. In practical terms, when it comes
to on the ground manipulation, they have no qualms. I mean,
(16:55):
just quickly take the DNR for example. Again, all of
the leaders who run place when I was there in
twenty seventeen have since died in targeted assassinations right there
in the DNA. The Russians of course blame Ukraine, but
trust me, there is a stack of evidence which suggests
it was the Kremlin who took out their own useful
(17:16):
idiots when they were no longer needed.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
So with all this in mind, I'm.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Sat here thinking to myself, is it possible that this
kind of behavior is also happening in Kaliningrad. Honestly I
don't know, but I do want to speak to someone
who's actually been there.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
As I said, I didn't make it there.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
So I reached out to journalist Sam Farley, who went
to Kaliningrad in twenty eighteen. I guess, firstly, just if
you can't explain why you went to Cliningrad.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
The World Cup that Russia held in twenty eighteen, England
played there against Belgium. This is weird atmosphere that, like,
the place is quite weird itself.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
We went drove into the.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
Country and drove out again from Poland, and that border
took hours to get over. And I think whenever I
think about it now and think how difficult it must be. Now,
every place I've ever been to has like some positives.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
It's not the It's not the nicest place.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
I understand, Like people keep saying, it's this kind of
brutallest place. Is it as bad as it sounds? Like
gray concrete and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Gray concrete is just the perfect scrypted words for it.
The only nice splash of color I can remember was
like there there was like a McDonald's that was really
lit up well, and it's just red and yellow, and like,
genuinely that's the only color in the whole place, Like
it's it's incredibly depressing. It almost felt the other kind
(18:54):
of moment I kind of remember really well in terms
of colors. We were staying at the top of a
sort of tower block and at the bottom was a
shisha bar and kind of walking back to the place,
walking to and from the place every day.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
The place was gray. It was the weather wasn't particularly
good either, which didn't help.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The sky was gray, the buildings are gray, and there
was just this sort of like luminous green kind of
light emanating from the shisha bar, and that's all you
really saw was was lights from shop fronts.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
It's very depressing, and it's not in a.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
It's not kind of Russian or Soviet in like a
kind of fun interesting way like Transnistria.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
It's so weird but.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Really fun kind of kitchen like it's that's really interesting place.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Whereas this just felt depressing.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Okay, now it's time for a quick outbreak, all right.
Not for that, now back to the short.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
It felt like every bad part of Russia combined, and
it lacked the vibrancy of any of the other Russian
cities I've visited at that tournament or I've been too
for that, and.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Even the people just they just well kind of very.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Wire not particularly friendly, like keeping themselves themselves.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
Did you feel at all that there was this kind
of Russian military presence?
Speaker 2 (20:40):
To be honest, I didn't feel that on the street
at all. Anytime I would say I did think like shit,
this is this is a bit unusually. It's kind of
when we did go through that border. Crossing it was
stacked with soldiers and all sorts of sort of military
now or security or whatever, and I did kind of
(21:02):
think this is obviously. I know they had invaded playing
like four years prior to that.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
He didn't feel like Europe was on like a war
setting at that point. Going through that border, I was
genuinely quite surprised.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Every other kind of route I'd gone into Russia, I'd
done it through air and then it just felt like
every every airport was the same as any other airport
in the world. Yeah, crossing did feel very, very kind
of defined, and a lot are if I'm honest.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
So that's the backdrop for where this horrific death took place,
decapitated amongst the concrete and brutalism. Before his untimely death,
Alexi Sanitsin was the CEO of k Potash, the company
that dealt with different types of natural minerals in the region.
It's a bit confusing what Sannitzin was in charge of where,
(22:00):
so let's speak to surgery to clarify. He's most definitely
smart than I am. One thing that is confusing me, right,
So some media, and this is both Russian media or
at least like Russian focused. One says that he was
the CEO of a salt mine, and another says he
(22:21):
was the CEO of a fertilizer company. Have you worked
out what's what there is that like the same company
with different parts and people are getting the wrong end
of the stick. I can't work it out.
Speaker 5 (22:32):
It's like a company and then has a subsidiary. From
my understanding, he's kind of in charge of both, and
the both things are kind of true because so potash
is what he's like the project that's supposed to mine potash,
which is essentially salt. I mean it's more complex than that,
but basically just minerals on the ground and they're used
for fertilizer. So essentially potash is extremely vital to agriculture.
(22:55):
Back in I think it was twenty twenty three to
twenty four, the war in Ukraine kind of affected a
lot of export of potash and attackted a lot of countries.
I believe it was in Africa and some other southern countries.
They were near like famine just because they couldn't get
this fertilizer and the basically messed up all the crop.
So it's a big deal. It's it's a big industry
and Russia was actually, i believe the biggest or the
(23:16):
second biggest exporter in the world before the war started,
and they had a major kind of collapse because you know,
they a lot of their customers were the West, and
they all got sent they all started sentioning Russia, So
that industry had took a big hit.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
So let's work out what could have got Sinitsin into
hot water. The first lea there is what Sergey just mentioned.
Russia's potash industry nose dive in after it was hit
with war related sanctions. That is obviously going to affect
a man who's the CEO of the biggest potash company
in Kaliningrad. But even by Krimlin standards, they could hardly
(23:52):
blame sinits In for this. They're the ones that decided
to invade Ukraine. Either way, the issue resolved itself. After
the initial dip, the potash trade stabilized. Actually in some
regions it became even more profitable due to scarcity. Russia
worked around the sanctions and for them everything was fine.
(24:13):
For some reason, though the profits of k potash did
not reflect this. Sinitsin's company was losing money hand over fist.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
K Potash, who.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Sinitsen worked for, was the head of with both companies
since October twenty twenty two. He was not exactly helping
the company's financial situation, right, Like from the nodes we
have here, like he was in a very dire financial situation.
Speaker 5 (24:46):
Yeah, so what kind of happened is it sounds like
there's basically a plan to.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Create a factory.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
From my understanding, it's not fully operational yet and he's
basically going around from the city, so from Kalingrad to
the locals and kind of trying to make this thing work.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
Now, this is interesting. Sanitsen was getting pushed back locally.
He needed to rapidly expand the operations of K Potash,
but the people did not want the new factories on
their land. K Potash went on a pr offensive to
try and win over the residents, to let everyone know
how many new jobs that would provide, how lucrative it
(25:24):
would be for the town, and even paid for a
big mural to be painted. They paid homage to a
Soviet era fighter pilot. None of it worked. The people
weren't having it. They could not be swayed this easy.
This wasn't just some town hall meeting either. Locals actually
took to the streets to protest k potash.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
They were very angry.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
There was an incident where the residents basically, the residents
don't want any like construction, mining, et cetera kind of
going on around them. It can be pretty destructive you
have to like dig up, you know, like one of
those giant like mining holes. It would be like a
pretty large effect.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
In the community.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
And they actually stood up against it. They kind of
the local said we don't want this year putin ended
up stepping in. Well, you know, the government stepped in.
They always kind of referred that like this issue got
risen to putin and he stepped in, and they basically
did like assessment. The residents wanted like canceled. They wanted
the project completely canceled. But what ended up happening is
(26:26):
they basically moved it a few I think it was
just like a few kilometers down from the initial location.
So they were like, Okay, this is still happening, but
I guess we'll just move it over a bit.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
I believe it was the.
Speaker 5 (26:36):
Mine itself and the processing plant. So it was supposed
to be kind of like the entire operation in one
place they got slightly moved down, which you know was
kind of like a victory for those residents, but it
also didn't really address like it's still happening just a
little further off.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
So, Surge, you just mentioned, it's at this stage that
the Russian government on the mainland became made away of
the issue so much so that they got involved directly.
Could this potentially be the turning point that led to
Sinitsyn's death. We don't know, but there was a lot
(27:13):
more scandal to come. Remember that, mind, we were just
talking about. Well, it's still not being finished. Even with
the new construction location. It's actually still in the design stage.
K Potash didn't manage to fully sway the locals even
(27:34):
after the Kremlin got involved.
Speaker 4 (27:36):
They're still angry.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
The estimated date for the project's completion is now over
a decade delayed from when it was originally meant to
be finished. It won't be done, they say until maybe
twenty thirty two.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
And how long it.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Will take them to recoup the losses is anyone's guess.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
God knows.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Kay Potash needs the money right now. The company's bottom
line is in the toilet they're working at a negative
of three point four billion rubles that's around forty two
million dollars. Their assets are a loss of fifteen billion
rubles one hundred and eighty five million dollars. K Potash,
(28:21):
which Sinitsen was running until his untimely death, has more
debt than it has assets, and it is not making money.
If that wasn't bad enough, k Potash has investors at
the door.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
They want their money.
Speaker 7 (28:39):
There are at.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Least thirty three legal cases.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Against the company because of course they can't afford to pay.
If Sad the Oligarch has taught us anything is that
you probably don't want to owe money to anything involved
with Russian state agricultural projects. Trust me on this. Along
with all this, there will been several other strange issues
(29:03):
attached to k Potash. For example, a water supply company
tried to extort them out of around two hundred and
fifty thousand dollars, claiming the company it was using more
water than what they did. Seems like everybody in that
region is on the take. Then there's the case of
a journalist K Potash actually got.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Sent to prison.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
He was writing negative articles about them because well, they
were doing a lot of negative stuff. In a strange
turn of events, k Potash claims the reporter blackmailed the company,
saying he'd stop the articles if they gave him one
million rubles around twelve grand. This journalist was sent to
(29:49):
prison for three years over this and his publication was
shut down. To this day, he says he's innocent and
was quote framed for his crime.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
Very dodgy situation.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Now, none of this points in any one direction other
than total chaos. It seems as if Ka Potash is
an absolute disaster from the ground up.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
They even got.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Fined in twenty twenty one for filing documents to the
wrong government body. Alex Knitzin did not have his ship
in order whatsoever. With a company like Kay Potash in
a place like Kleningrads, I think it's safe to say
that it's no stretch to imagine there might have been
unsavory characters involved who are owed.
Speaker 4 (30:41):
Money, a lot of money. Could this be wise?
Speaker 3 (30:47):
And Knitsin had his head cut off and was dumped
under a bridge, after all, he was the CEO. Not
saying he should ever come to harm, but if there's
anyone to blame for the catastrophic financial losses.
Speaker 7 (31:02):
It's obviously him.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Still, the police of the region are leaning publicly into
the claims of a suicide, but at the same time
they have opened up a potential murder case. Whilst confusing,
at least they are doing their jobs properly, or at
least it looks like that. It's all very closed off still.
(31:27):
But what we have found out though, is that they've
used this investigation to confiscate documents from the offices.
Speaker 7 (31:34):
Of k Potash.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
We also know that examinations have been ordered and colleagues
and relatives of Sinitsin are being interviewed. Naturally, the police
no more than they're letting on. In another report talking
about Sinitsin, we found the following statement quote The enterprise
itself is quite closed, non public in nature, and its
(31:58):
general director was not present in any way in the
Killiningrad public space. He did not give any interviews. Most
heads of enterprises of this level are visible. I can't
say the same about Senitsin end quote. As I said
at the start, he was a very private man. Whilst
(32:22):
this case is puzzling, we still don't know one quite
crucial detail. Where was Sinitsin's head found In all of
the reports from the police and the media. They just
state that the head was found in another place. Was
that next to the body in the river or twenty
meters down the road?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
We just don't know.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
I think that detail would tell us a lot. There
are also still no real images of the crime scene,
no further reports from the press, and no quotes from eyewitnesses.
This to me shocking from such a brutal and unusual death.
Because opaik as all of this is, I've come to
(33:08):
think that whatever happened to Alexi Sinitsin is one of
two scenarios. There was a brutally violent murder. The victim's
head was cut from the body and then dumped in
a public place to send a message, likely connected to
some kind of organized crime, the state, or both. Or
(33:29):
it was the most unlikely suicide in Kliningrad's history.
Speaker 7 (33:35):
You decide.
Speaker 3 (34:03):
You've been listening to sad Oliga season two. Produced by
H eleven Studios for Cool Zone Media. Writing, editing, producing,
concept and recording by myself Jake Hanrahan, Research and reporting
by Sergei Slipchenko, me and victim Mihail. Executive producing by
(34:26):
Sophie Lichtman, Music by Sam Black, artwork by George Jutful
sound mixed by splicing Block. See my other projects at
Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on social media at jake
Underscore Hanrahan, that's h A N R A H A M.
(35:00):
Can't Castolic CATHOLICSIC Catholic
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