December 10, 2025 • 28 mins
Multimillionaire businessman Igor Kotelnikov is used to the high life: fancy cars, big houses, fine dining. He’s lived a life of luxury, which is why it’s hit him so hard to be sent to a pre-trial detention centre in Moscow. These are some of the worst jails in the whole country. Will Kotelnikov survive? What do you think…
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the
Russian elite has been found dead. Reports suggests that he
fell out of a window poisoned with mushrooms. He died
of heart failure, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. How comesy
are they?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Dozens of Russian oligarchs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. This is sad
Oligach season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently stead of.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Russian power brokers.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Sad Oligach is created by me jake Hanrahan and my
Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. This is a H eleven Studio
and Coolso Media production. Before we get into this episode,
(01:00):
tale of Death and Goulags, we have a bit of
an update from episode seven Hanged with hands bound. If
you remember, this was the case where businessmen and local
Putin politician Batally Kapustin was found hanged high up in
a tree and I witnessed said that his hands were
(01:21):
tied behind his back. Still, the police deemed it a suicide.
For that case, I went down the rabbit hole of
police corruption in the area where Kapustin was hanged, a
place called at Kresnador Cry. To be frank, it seems
to be one of the most corrupt regions in the
(01:42):
whole of Russia, and that saying something. I've kept looking
into the case, and there seems to be a big
issue with strange murders, organized crime and state embezzlement all
in this one area. So I reached out through a
source in Russia who's involved in documenting the Krasnodar Kry underworld.
(02:09):
He was going to come on to sad Oligak to
speak about it, but it was perhaps a little bit
too risky for him, even under anonymity. It's understandable. He did, though,
send us a sort of statement or overview of how
he understands the corruption in Kresnal door Kry. We translated
(02:29):
this all from Russian and I'm going to read it
out here in full, as I think it adds some
great context to the mysterious death of Vitally Kapustin. The
following is from our anonymous source in Russia.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Since Soviet times, Krasnal door Kry has held a special
place within Russia's law enforcement system.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
The reason is simple.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The country's main results are here, and that's where the
entire political and security elite go on holiday with their families.
Their holidays are arranged and facilitated by local officials, police, businessmen, fixers,
and so on. If you organize a good stay for
an important guest from Moscow, you're immediately welcomed into the
(03:17):
inner circle. From that point on, you don't really answer
to local leadership, but to whichever Moscow official took a
liking to you. Depending on the guests rank, a local
bureaucrat or security official can essentially become untouchable with guaranteed
career advancement. Complaining about them at the local level is
(03:40):
pointless and often useless. Even at the federal level, this
dynamic produces chosen ones who feel free to do whatever
they want. There was even a period when many law
enforcement personnel from Cresnal door Cry were relocated to Moscow.
For example, Vladimir Yakovenko, a prosecutor from Sochi, jumped from
(04:05):
Krasnodor Krei into the presidential administration, then went on to
head the main investigative directorate of the Investigative Committee in
Moscow and is now head of Rossi Mushestvo. When he
was running Moscow's Investigative Directorate, his deputy was another Krasnada native,
(04:25):
Sergei Senagovski, the son of former Nova Rossiisk mayor Vladimir
senor Goovsky. Senorgovski ended up involved in a major corruption
scandal involving bribing Investigative Committee officials to free the crime
boss Andrei Kotchukov, known as the Italian All its colleagues
(04:48):
were jailed, but Senyorgovsky got away with just being fired.
You can also recall the Sapok gang, which terrorized Kuzhnyajovskaya
for many years and eventually murdered twelve people, including small children.
During the investigation, it was proven that all law enforcement
(05:10):
officials in the prisonage of Skaya district were receiving money
from the gang, yet none of them went to prison.
Many actually built successful careers. Another example from Krasnodor Krii
is the well known fixer Andre Mattis, who handles problems
between law enforcement and business. He reached the federal level
(05:34):
after organizing holidays in Sochi for FSB officers. Two men
who controlled the entire judicial system of Krasnodor Krii for
many years became billionaires. Former head of the Krasnodar Regional
Court Alexander Shnov and Supreme Court Judge Victor Momotov their
(05:57):
assets worth tens of billions and now being seized. But
this isn't an anti corruption drive. It's simply a change
of ruling clans in Moscow, where one group of corrupt
officials is being replaced by another. An ordinary person has
a very little chance of getting justice in the Krasnodor
(06:17):
Krei region because police, prosecutors and judges often work together.
For years, there's been a corruption slash criminal alliance involving
Amen Aretagnan, first deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department
of the Regional Interior Ministry and Vladimir Kishlak, former head
(06:41):
of the Civil Division of the Krasnodar Regional Court. Despite
his position, Atonian Wield's enormous influence over the whole Interior
Ministry apparatus in the region, and Kishlak still maintains control
over the regional court. Duo controls key processes the opening
(07:03):
and closure of criminal cases in the investigative committee, obtaining
the right decisions in court, corporate raids, an extortion target
in business people and citizens across the Cuban area. With
such mutual protection, real miracles can occur, such as outright
(07:24):
murder being passed off as suicide. One example is the
case of Constantine Pliganoff, an FSB captain in Komisk Non
for fighting corruption. He'd been working on a case against
the head of the Comisk district, Surgey Less. In July
(07:47):
twenty twenty four, Pliganov's body was found in the reeds
of Lake Tuscan Skuoya, with his legs tied and a
bullet in the back of his head. It was declared
an unusual suicide. Recently, Les was arrested on corruption charges
after attempting to flee with gold bars cast in the
(08:08):
shape of railway nails and painted black end quote. I
think it's safe to say our initial suspicions about the
Capustin case were definitely not paranoia. The statement I just
read out is backed with a ton of investigative work
(08:29):
that our anonymous source has spent a long time on.
Needless to say, the Kresnal Door Crier corruption issues are
by no means new. What I find most interesting about that, though,
was the last bit about the death of Konstantine Pluganov
in the Kersnal door Kryt region. That's the FSB officer
(08:51):
who was apparently genuinely trying to fight corruption in the area,
a very hard task knowing what we know now. He
was found dead in shallow waters with a bullet in
the back of his head, both legs tied together with rope.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The police calling.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Pluganov's death and unusual suicide almost feels like a very
macab in joke. Now it seems he committed suicide the
same way a CIA whistleblower might commit suicide. Shot in
the back of the skull. The suicide thesis obviously does
(09:32):
not add up.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Both Kapustin and Pluganov were found dead in the same region.
The two areas are roughly three hours drive away from
each other, but the police in those areas answer to
the same boss, and both are accused of extreme corruption.
All this new information only reinforces for me the theory
(09:56):
that I put forward at the end of episode. Okay,
all right, now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right,
enough for that, Now back to the shore. I believe
(10:22):
Vitaly Kapusstin was murdered and it was shoddily covered up
by a police force that acts as an enforcement arm
for the district's corupt politicians and businessmen. And as I
was Sawce said, these bandits are swapped in and out
of Moscow and rewarded depending on how much money they
make this quasi deep state elite. Once again, all roads
(10:48):
lead to the Kremlin. Now let's get on with this
episode's case, the multi millionaire tycoon who found himself trapped
inside a Moscow gulak. July eighth, twenty twenty four, fifty
(11:13):
two year old oligarch Igor Katelnikov is in a bad
place mentally, physically, spiritually. Accused of fraud and embezzlement, He's
locked away in a dingy cell in a Moscow pre
trialed attention facility. These are considered some of the worst
(11:35):
prisoner apparatus in Russia. Conditions are absolutely horrendous. Overcrowding is
the main issue. Cells constructed for four people often hold
a dozen men at a time. They sleep in shifts
due to the lack of space that they can manage
to sleep at all. Humid, filthy, stinking in post trial
(12:04):
Russian prison colonies, inmates work outside, forced to do backbreaking labor.
Believe it or not, this is often preferred to the
nightmare of near twenty four hour lockup in pre trial detention.
Prisoners here get one hour outside the cell if they're lucky.
(12:25):
Even then, it's a monotonous walk in a small concrete
courtyard with a mesh fence roof above. It's claustrophobic, it's
stifling back inside the overcrowded cell. The open toilets are
often overflowing or blocked. The stench of shit and piss
(12:46):
and sweat and blood disgusting cockroaches scutted across the floor.
Rats are not uncommon either. Every crevice in the room
is a breeding ground for black mold and good luck.
If you get sick, there's no real doctor on site.
First aid is about as good as it gets. This
(13:10):
is the Sesspeit Katlnikov finds himself in. He is a
multi millionaire who's lived a very privileged life. He is
not built for this. He owns a fleet of expensive
foreign kaz As, serious upmarket real estate, first class flights,
expensive suits, find dining maids, drivers, the lot, the decay
(13:36):
and slow rot of overcrowded, sweaty jail cells is not
the five star treatment Katelnikov.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Is used to.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He's found himself in this predetention nightmare for messing around
with money that was meant to be sent to Russia's
war machine investment that will extend that Russia's massacre of
the people in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Where have we heard before?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Kotolnikov paces up and down in this small space he
has in the grotty shared cell. Despite the conditions, he
is actually in good health. Before he went in, he
was doing fine. The authorities who put him here in
this pre trial pit went him to testify it against
(14:24):
a man called Tima Ivanov. He's a former deputy minister
of the Russian Department of Defense.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We'll learn more about him later.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Prison guard opens up the heavy iron door to the
rancid cell and calls for Kotlnikov to come with him.
He's taken to speak with someone more senior, not a
prison officer, but a lawmaker attached to the case. There's
pressure to snitch on Ivanov. They want him to get
(15:01):
up into that perspex witness box in the Russian court.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And tell all.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
But for whatever reason, Katelnikov will not do it. He refuses,
point blank, He's not going to inform. He will not
stand up in that court and speak against Ivanov some
kind of punishment for this refusal. After the meeting, Katelnikov
(15:28):
is put into solitary confinement, small cell, no windows, no communication,
and then Katelnikov dies. This is literally all we know
about his death. There are no other details anywhere. Nobody
(15:54):
is speaking. Did he die from the awful conditions some
and of health complication, or was he killed after being
put into solitary confinement. Katelnikov's role within what we'll discover
is a complicated web of military corruption leading all the
(16:15):
way to the Kremlin could quite likely be what got
his card punched. Avamurkachiva, a member of Russia's Presidential Council
for Human Rights, called the death suspicious and mentioned that
Katelnikov seemed to be in good health prior.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
To his death.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Either way, July eighth was an especially unlucky day, as
another man involved in the Katelnikov case died on that
same date. What a coincidence. There's actually a bit of
an underlying pattern that I've not really mentioned on sad Oligarch.
(16:57):
But if you put all the dates and locations of
these strange deaths into a mapping program, there are notable
clusters here and debth. That's not to say someone is
planning the deaths on certain dates or anything, but I
think it does show there are potential links to these
dead oligarchs and their cronies that we've not quite worked
out yet. The elite network of the oligarch deep state
(17:21):
is quite a small world anyway. We'll get into the
Kotelnikov web of corruption in a bit, but first let's
establish who he really was. Let's talk to our friend Sergey.
So we know almost nothing at all about Kotelnikov's death
(17:42):
other than he was ushered away into solitary confinement after
refusing to give evidence against this Ivan offeler, and then
he died randomly dead.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Don't know anything else.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I think that's what's kind of interesting, Like it doesn't
seem like he has any kind of not background, Like
he's not, you know, a relative of anyone who's not
like some rich person's son. It kind of seems like
he he was the middleman for the military and like
different businesses, essentially running a fraud scheme. Like it almost
seems like he was an important till this thing happened, right,
and nobody kind of cared. And even in this story
(18:18):
he's kind of more so a witness for like the
higher military guys. Right, His main kind of prominence is
like he did he did a lot, right. He went
to the Bugalkov so ex deputy Minister of Defense. He
went to him, got him to give him different contracts.
It seems like mostly in the food kind of like
logistics area, right, So not not particularly like weapons or
(18:40):
anything like that, but food rations for the military.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
So this is where the fraud and embezzlement began, at
least for the case that landed Kotelnikov in jail. Who
knows what else he got away with before this. Now
he was already rich and up to no goods, but
he was kind of a nobody as far as go
until this. It doesn't seem he was on anyone's radar
(19:05):
still through his state contacts, from working on government projects
through his various businesses. Kotelnikov got a contract to supply
rations to Russian soldiers invading Ukraine. These rations are meant
to sustain soldiers for a day or two between supply
line runs whilst fighting in the trenches.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
A typical ration pack.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
For them includes canned meat, dry crackers, a bit of chocolate,
a bit fruit, a drink, and sometimes matches to get
field supply stoves going. At least that's what's meant to
be in their rations. There are multiple reports of Russian
soldiers tearing open their packs to find nowhere near the
right items, or not even having enough to go around.
(19:50):
This was happening even at the very start of the war. Okay,
all right, now it is time for a quick tagbreak.
All right, enough for that, Now back to the shop.
This from a twenty twenty two Reuter's article explains the issues.
(20:15):
Quote all soldiers on the front mentioned an acute shortage
of supplies. The sources described little or no safe drinking water,
field rations for one man being shared among several and
units having to scavenge for food. We drank water with
dead frogs in it, said a student conscript. Supplies for
(20:36):
the soldiers right now are a disaster. So the source
close to the don Yatsk separatist leadership, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. Neither the Kremlin nor the separatist authorities
replied to Reuter's questions about supplies and equipment for the
draftees from Dombas end quote. No surprise there. Honestly, I
(20:57):
don't get why they didn't get rid of the frogs
in the water before they drank it, But anyway, that's
a d n R four yea. As we can see,
issues with rations have been a serious problem throughout the invasion,
from the start to the present. Even so, what was
the full scam that Ktelnikov and several collaborators got caught
(21:19):
red handed in the middle of surgery explains.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Pretty typical scheme. They do this in a lot of
industries with different products, but this one specifically seems like
they were responsible for getting rations for the Russian military.
Usually it would be like canned food, dry dry food
that can kind of last long, you know, typical military rations.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
They were supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Delivering, from my understanding, canned beef and you know, kind
of process it and it kind of looks like a
very processed slop of meat. It's I mean, like, I'm
sure it's better than nothing, but it's not great to
begin with. And what they were doing is, first they
were using cheaper materials. The biggest d of standout is
they were ordering beef, they were getting chicken instead, or
(22:04):
they were mixing other meats together to kind of reduce
the price that they had to pay right much cheaper
to get chicken than beef, especially this time. I'm sure
then some deliveries were just not making it. They were
basically doing everything they could to lower the price while
delivering the minimum, and they get to keep the difference.
The damages are one point three billion rubles. Let's say
(22:25):
they had contracts, and this was various contracts from the military,
not one giant contract. If they got all these contracts,
they can cut a little here, cut a little there,
and you know, keep half the money if they if
they're good enough while making it seem like they're delivering
what they need to, they're fulfilling their orders and the
military is getting what it needs. You know, they're getting
(22:45):
these contracts from the military, so I'm sure whoever is
in charge can also kind of say like, yeah, yeah,
we're good, we're getting what we need.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Now this bit is why, this is how the scam
became a full on conspiracy. Now, I know it's all
a bit confus using, so let me break it down
simply to make the chain work and to steal a
lot more money. Several people in the circle needed to
be involved in the same way as the people outside
(23:13):
of the circle. The circle in this case being the military.
Katolnikov needed people on the inside that were okay with
fucking over their own soldiers to make a buck. Turns
out there were plenty, So think of it this way.
Katnikov and his link into the military contract to supply
(23:35):
food for rations A, person A and B. They need
someone within the military to get the dodgy rations into
rotation and sign it all off without a hitch. This
is persons C. To keep the fraud going and pocket
bigger profits, they need all the i's dotted and all
the t's crossed.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
For this.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
They need a few people close to accounting and supply
to essentially forge documents, lie about money, keep everything moving.
This is person D, E, F and so on. A
chain is built up. The more people involved usually means
the less money to go around. But these people all
(24:21):
became a cog in the operation. Person DEE and F
wouldn't make money without person A, B and C.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Everyone started making money by facilitating the supply of dodgy
food to soldiers who are sent out to fight a
war for Putin's megalamania and frantic paranoia. Honestly, I cannot
think of a more perfect situation to demonstrate the characteristics
of Putin's Russia in twenty twenty five. It's almost two
(24:52):
on the nose. I think something else was going on though,
as well, because, like you said, okay, his companies were
making like, you know, a collective maybe seven eight million
dollars in US money, which is is good money, obviously,
(25:13):
Like fuck me, it's it's incredible. I wish I was
making money like that, but that doesn't really put you
at the oligarch states he was at. He had from
what I see, he had like a fleet of cars,
all this real estate, and I think the fact he's
involved in this case as well as we see he's
doing some kind of corruption, stealing from the government, stealing
from the military in the middle of you know, Russia's invasion,
(25:35):
which is a huge no no, as we've learned during
this series. That itself makes me think, well, this is
not his first rodeo. You know, his money has been
coming from somewhere else as well as these businesses, perhaps
their front for something else. I don't know, it's just speculation,
but I don't think it's unreasonable.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
If he's already kind of involved in this, right, he
clearly knows what he's doing. He knows people's kind of
what's interesting. I think a lot of these cases we
see politicians or somebody who's in some way has some
kind of power, whether they were on a committee of
like a regional office, or they were like some kind
of parliamentarian. Again, he kind of seems like the middleman,
and he kind of seems like maybe the domino that started,
(26:17):
kind of like a domino effect, because we see that
a lot of multiple officers or like some kind of
military ranking guys start getting arrested or removed from their
offices following his arrest. So I don't know if there
was an investigation on going and then they kind of,
you know, started taking people out if he got arrested
and then he maybe sold somebody out or something, But
(26:39):
it definitely seems like he was doing a lot of
the connecting, and I think he knew a lot of
the I guess you could say operation maybe from there
that's where like the investigation is going on.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
This case gets even more complicated and even more strange.
So I'm going to break it down into two parts.
This is part of Next Week, Part two. You've been
(27:20):
listening to sad Oliga season two, produced by H eleven
Studios for.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Writing, editing, producing, concept and recording by myself, Jake Hanrahan.
Research and reporting by Sergei Slipchenko, Me and Victim Mihail.
Executive producing by Sophie Lichtmin. Music by Sam Black at
(27:47):
work by George Zutful. Sound mixed by Splicing Block. See
my other projects at Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on
social media at Jake the School Hanrahan.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's h A N r A h A N
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Mhm
Media. Something strange is going on. Another member of the
Russian elite has been found dead. Reports suggests that he
fell out of a window poisoned with mushrooms. He died
of heart failure, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. How comesy
are they?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Dozens of Russian oligarchs, politically motivated millionaires have died in
the space for three years, most of them in suspicious circumstances.
Many have hidden links to the Kremlin. This is sad
Oligach season two, an ongoing investigation into these recently stead of.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Russian power brokers.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Sad Oligach is created by me jake Hanrahan and my
Ukrainian colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. This is a H eleven Studio
and Coolso Media production. Before we get into this episode,
(01:00):
tale of Death and Goulags, we have a bit of
an update from episode seven Hanged with hands bound. If
you remember, this was the case where businessmen and local
Putin politician Batally Kapustin was found hanged high up in
a tree and I witnessed said that his hands were
(01:21):
tied behind his back. Still, the police deemed it a suicide.
For that case, I went down the rabbit hole of
police corruption in the area where Kapustin was hanged, a
place called at Kresnador Cry. To be frank, it seems
to be one of the most corrupt regions in the
(01:42):
whole of Russia, and that saying something. I've kept looking
into the case, and there seems to be a big
issue with strange murders, organized crime and state embezzlement all
in this one area. So I reached out through a
source in Russia who's involved in documenting the Krasnodar Kry underworld.
(02:09):
He was going to come on to sad Oligak to
speak about it, but it was perhaps a little bit
too risky for him, even under anonymity. It's understandable. He did, though,
send us a sort of statement or overview of how
he understands the corruption in Kresnal door Kry. We translated
(02:29):
this all from Russian and I'm going to read it
out here in full, as I think it adds some
great context to the mysterious death of Vitally Kapustin. The
following is from our anonymous source in Russia.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Since Soviet times, Krasnal door Kry has held a special
place within Russia's law enforcement system.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
The reason is simple.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
The country's main results are here, and that's where the
entire political and security elite go on holiday with their families.
Their holidays are arranged and facilitated by local officials, police, businessmen, fixers,
and so on. If you organize a good stay for
an important guest from Moscow, you're immediately welcomed into the
(03:17):
inner circle. From that point on, you don't really answer
to local leadership, but to whichever Moscow official took a
liking to you. Depending on the guests rank, a local
bureaucrat or security official can essentially become untouchable with guaranteed
career advancement. Complaining about them at the local level is
(03:40):
pointless and often useless. Even at the federal level, this
dynamic produces chosen ones who feel free to do whatever
they want. There was even a period when many law
enforcement personnel from Cresnal door Cry were relocated to Moscow.
For example, Vladimir Yakovenko, a prosecutor from Sochi, jumped from
(04:05):
Krasnodor Krei into the presidential administration, then went on to
head the main investigative directorate of the Investigative Committee in
Moscow and is now head of Rossi Mushestvo. When he
was running Moscow's Investigative Directorate, his deputy was another Krasnada native,
(04:25):
Sergei Senagovski, the son of former Nova Rossiisk mayor Vladimir
senor Goovsky. Senorgovski ended up involved in a major corruption
scandal involving bribing Investigative Committee officials to free the crime
boss Andrei Kotchukov, known as the Italian All its colleagues
(04:48):
were jailed, but Senyorgovsky got away with just being fired.
You can also recall the Sapok gang, which terrorized Kuzhnyajovskaya
for many years and eventually murdered twelve people, including small children.
During the investigation, it was proven that all law enforcement
(05:10):
officials in the prisonage of Skaya district were receiving money
from the gang, yet none of them went to prison.
Many actually built successful careers. Another example from Krasnodor Krii
is the well known fixer Andre Mattis, who handles problems
between law enforcement and business. He reached the federal level
(05:34):
after organizing holidays in Sochi for FSB officers. Two men
who controlled the entire judicial system of Krasnodor Krii for
many years became billionaires. Former head of the Krasnodar Regional
Court Alexander Shnov and Supreme Court Judge Victor Momotov their
(05:57):
assets worth tens of billions and now being seized. But
this isn't an anti corruption drive. It's simply a change
of ruling clans in Moscow, where one group of corrupt
officials is being replaced by another. An ordinary person has
a very little chance of getting justice in the Krasnodor
(06:17):
Krei region because police, prosecutors and judges often work together.
For years, there's been a corruption slash criminal alliance involving
Amen Aretagnan, first deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Department
of the Regional Interior Ministry and Vladimir Kishlak, former head
(06:41):
of the Civil Division of the Krasnodar Regional Court. Despite
his position, Atonian Wield's enormous influence over the whole Interior
Ministry apparatus in the region, and Kishlak still maintains control
over the regional court. Duo controls key processes the opening
(07:03):
and closure of criminal cases in the investigative committee, obtaining
the right decisions in court, corporate raids, an extortion target
in business people and citizens across the Cuban area. With
such mutual protection, real miracles can occur, such as outright
(07:24):
murder being passed off as suicide. One example is the
case of Constantine Pliganoff, an FSB captain in Komisk Non
for fighting corruption. He'd been working on a case against
the head of the Comisk district, Surgey Less. In July
(07:47):
twenty twenty four, Pliganov's body was found in the reeds
of Lake Tuscan Skuoya, with his legs tied and a
bullet in the back of his head. It was declared
an unusual suicide. Recently, Les was arrested on corruption charges
after attempting to flee with gold bars cast in the
(08:08):
shape of railway nails and painted black end quote. I
think it's safe to say our initial suspicions about the
Capustin case were definitely not paranoia. The statement I just
read out is backed with a ton of investigative work
(08:29):
that our anonymous source has spent a long time on.
Needless to say, the Kresnal Door Crier corruption issues are
by no means new. What I find most interesting about that, though,
was the last bit about the death of Konstantine Pluganov
in the Kersnal door Kryt region. That's the FSB officer
(08:51):
who was apparently genuinely trying to fight corruption in the area,
a very hard task knowing what we know now. He
was found dead in shallow waters with a bullet in
the back of his head, both legs tied together with rope.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
The police calling.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Pluganov's death and unusual suicide almost feels like a very
macab in joke. Now it seems he committed suicide the
same way a CIA whistleblower might commit suicide. Shot in
the back of the skull. The suicide thesis obviously does
(09:32):
not add up.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Both Kapustin and Pluganov were found dead in the same region.
The two areas are roughly three hours drive away from
each other, but the police in those areas answer to
the same boss, and both are accused of extreme corruption.
All this new information only reinforces for me the theory
(09:56):
that I put forward at the end of episode. Okay,
all right, now it's time for a quick outbreak. All right,
enough for that, Now back to the shore. I believe
(10:22):
Vitaly Kapusstin was murdered and it was shoddily covered up
by a police force that acts as an enforcement arm
for the district's corupt politicians and businessmen. And as I
was Sawce said, these bandits are swapped in and out
of Moscow and rewarded depending on how much money they
make this quasi deep state elite. Once again, all roads
(10:48):
lead to the Kremlin. Now let's get on with this
episode's case, the multi millionaire tycoon who found himself trapped
inside a Moscow gulak. July eighth, twenty twenty four, fifty
(11:13):
two year old oligarch Igor Katelnikov is in a bad
place mentally, physically, spiritually. Accused of fraud and embezzlement, He's
locked away in a dingy cell in a Moscow pre
trialed attention facility. These are considered some of the worst
(11:35):
prisoner apparatus in Russia. Conditions are absolutely horrendous. Overcrowding is
the main issue. Cells constructed for four people often hold
a dozen men at a time. They sleep in shifts
due to the lack of space that they can manage
to sleep at all. Humid, filthy, stinking in post trial
(12:04):
Russian prison colonies, inmates work outside, forced to do backbreaking labor.
Believe it or not, this is often preferred to the
nightmare of near twenty four hour lockup in pre trial detention.
Prisoners here get one hour outside the cell if they're lucky.
(12:25):
Even then, it's a monotonous walk in a small concrete
courtyard with a mesh fence roof above. It's claustrophobic, it's
stifling back inside the overcrowded cell. The open toilets are
often overflowing or blocked. The stench of shit and piss
(12:46):
and sweat and blood disgusting cockroaches scutted across the floor.
Rats are not uncommon either. Every crevice in the room
is a breeding ground for black mold and good luck.
If you get sick, there's no real doctor on site.
First aid is about as good as it gets. This
(13:10):
is the Sesspeit Katlnikov finds himself in. He is a
multi millionaire who's lived a very privileged life. He is
not built for this. He owns a fleet of expensive
foreign kaz As, serious upmarket real estate, first class flights,
expensive suits, find dining maids, drivers, the lot, the decay
(13:36):
and slow rot of overcrowded, sweaty jail cells is not
the five star treatment Katelnikov.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Is used to.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
He's found himself in this predetention nightmare for messing around
with money that was meant to be sent to Russia's
war machine investment that will extend that Russia's massacre of
the people in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Where have we heard before?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Kotolnikov paces up and down in this small space he
has in the grotty shared cell. Despite the conditions, he
is actually in good health. Before he went in, he
was doing fine. The authorities who put him here in
this pre trial pit went him to testify it against
(14:24):
a man called Tima Ivanov. He's a former deputy minister
of the Russian Department of Defense.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We'll learn more about him later.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Prison guard opens up the heavy iron door to the
rancid cell and calls for Kotlnikov to come with him.
He's taken to speak with someone more senior, not a
prison officer, but a lawmaker attached to the case. There's
pressure to snitch on Ivanov. They want him to get
(15:01):
up into that perspex witness box in the Russian court.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
And tell all.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
But for whatever reason, Katelnikov will not do it. He refuses,
point blank, He's not going to inform. He will not
stand up in that court and speak against Ivanov some
kind of punishment for this refusal. After the meeting, Katelnikov
(15:28):
is put into solitary confinement, small cell, no windows, no communication,
and then Katelnikov dies. This is literally all we know
about his death. There are no other details anywhere. Nobody
(15:54):
is speaking. Did he die from the awful conditions some
and of health complication, or was he killed after being
put into solitary confinement. Katelnikov's role within what we'll discover
is a complicated web of military corruption leading all the
(16:15):
way to the Kremlin could quite likely be what got
his card punched. Avamurkachiva, a member of Russia's Presidential Council
for Human Rights, called the death suspicious and mentioned that
Katelnikov seemed to be in good health prior.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
To his death.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Either way, July eighth was an especially unlucky day, as
another man involved in the Katelnikov case died on that
same date. What a coincidence. There's actually a bit of
an underlying pattern that I've not really mentioned on sad Oligarch.
(16:57):
But if you put all the dates and locations of
these strange deaths into a mapping program, there are notable
clusters here and debth. That's not to say someone is
planning the deaths on certain dates or anything, but I
think it does show there are potential links to these
dead oligarchs and their cronies that we've not quite worked
out yet. The elite network of the oligarch deep state
(17:21):
is quite a small world anyway. We'll get into the
Kotelnikov web of corruption in a bit, but first let's
establish who he really was. Let's talk to our friend Sergey.
So we know almost nothing at all about Kotelnikov's death
(17:42):
other than he was ushered away into solitary confinement after
refusing to give evidence against this Ivan offeler, and then
he died randomly dead.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Don't know anything else.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
I think that's what's kind of interesting, Like it doesn't
seem like he has any kind of not background, Like
he's not, you know, a relative of anyone who's not
like some rich person's son. It kind of seems like
he he was the middleman for the military and like
different businesses, essentially running a fraud scheme. Like it almost
seems like he was an important till this thing happened, right,
and nobody kind of cared. And even in this story
(18:18):
he's kind of more so a witness for like the
higher military guys. Right, His main kind of prominence is
like he did he did a lot, right. He went
to the Bugalkov so ex deputy Minister of Defense. He
went to him, got him to give him different contracts.
It seems like mostly in the food kind of like
logistics area, right, So not not particularly like weapons or
(18:40):
anything like that, but food rations for the military.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
So this is where the fraud and embezzlement began, at
least for the case that landed Kotelnikov in jail. Who
knows what else he got away with before this. Now
he was already rich and up to no goods, but
he was kind of a nobody as far as go
until this. It doesn't seem he was on anyone's radar
(19:05):
still through his state contacts, from working on government projects
through his various businesses. Kotelnikov got a contract to supply
rations to Russian soldiers invading Ukraine. These rations are meant
to sustain soldiers for a day or two between supply
line runs whilst fighting in the trenches.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
A typical ration pack.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
For them includes canned meat, dry crackers, a bit of chocolate,
a bit fruit, a drink, and sometimes matches to get
field supply stoves going. At least that's what's meant to
be in their rations. There are multiple reports of Russian
soldiers tearing open their packs to find nowhere near the
right items, or not even having enough to go around.
(19:50):
This was happening even at the very start of the war. Okay,
all right, now it is time for a quick tagbreak.
All right, enough for that, Now back to the shop.
This from a twenty twenty two Reuter's article explains the issues.
(20:15):
Quote all soldiers on the front mentioned an acute shortage
of supplies. The sources described little or no safe drinking water,
field rations for one man being shared among several and
units having to scavenge for food. We drank water with
dead frogs in it, said a student conscript. Supplies for
(20:36):
the soldiers right now are a disaster. So the source
close to the don Yatsk separatist leadership, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. Neither the Kremlin nor the separatist authorities
replied to Reuter's questions about supplies and equipment for the
draftees from Dombas end quote. No surprise there. Honestly, I
(20:57):
don't get why they didn't get rid of the frogs
in the water before they drank it, But anyway, that's
a d n R four yea. As we can see,
issues with rations have been a serious problem throughout the invasion,
from the start to the present. Even so, what was
the full scam that Ktelnikov and several collaborators got caught
(21:19):
red handed in the middle of surgery explains.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Pretty typical scheme. They do this in a lot of
industries with different products, but this one specifically seems like
they were responsible for getting rations for the Russian military.
Usually it would be like canned food, dry dry food
that can kind of last long, you know, typical military rations.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
They were supposed to be.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Delivering, from my understanding, canned beef and you know, kind
of process it and it kind of looks like a
very processed slop of meat. It's I mean, like, I'm
sure it's better than nothing, but it's not great to
begin with. And what they were doing is, first they
were using cheaper materials. The biggest d of standout is
they were ordering beef, they were getting chicken instead, or
(22:04):
they were mixing other meats together to kind of reduce
the price that they had to pay right much cheaper
to get chicken than beef, especially this time. I'm sure
then some deliveries were just not making it. They were
basically doing everything they could to lower the price while
delivering the minimum, and they get to keep the difference.
The damages are one point three billion rubles. Let's say
(22:25):
they had contracts, and this was various contracts from the military,
not one giant contract. If they got all these contracts,
they can cut a little here, cut a little there,
and you know, keep half the money if they if
they're good enough while making it seem like they're delivering
what they need to, they're fulfilling their orders and the
military is getting what it needs. You know, they're getting
(22:45):
these contracts from the military, so I'm sure whoever is
in charge can also kind of say like, yeah, yeah,
we're good, we're getting what we need.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
Now this bit is why, this is how the scam
became a full on conspiracy. Now, I know it's all
a bit confus using, so let me break it down
simply to make the chain work and to steal a
lot more money. Several people in the circle needed to
be involved in the same way as the people outside
(23:13):
of the circle. The circle in this case being the military.
Katolnikov needed people on the inside that were okay with
fucking over their own soldiers to make a buck. Turns
out there were plenty, So think of it this way.
Katnikov and his link into the military contract to supply
(23:35):
food for rations A, person A and B. They need
someone within the military to get the dodgy rations into
rotation and sign it all off without a hitch. This
is persons C. To keep the fraud going and pocket
bigger profits, they need all the i's dotted and all
the t's crossed.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
For this.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
They need a few people close to accounting and supply
to essentially forge documents, lie about money, keep everything moving.
This is person D, E, F and so on. A
chain is built up. The more people involved usually means
the less money to go around. But these people all
(24:21):
became a cog in the operation. Person DEE and F
wouldn't make money without person A, B and C.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
You get it.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Everyone started making money by facilitating the supply of dodgy
food to soldiers who are sent out to fight a
war for Putin's megalamania and frantic paranoia. Honestly, I cannot
think of a more perfect situation to demonstrate the characteristics
of Putin's Russia in twenty twenty five. It's almost two
(24:52):
on the nose. I think something else was going on though,
as well, because, like you said, okay, his companies were
making like, you know, a collective maybe seven eight million
dollars in US money, which is is good money, obviously,
(25:13):
Like fuck me, it's it's incredible. I wish I was
making money like that, but that doesn't really put you
at the oligarch states he was at. He had from
what I see, he had like a fleet of cars,
all this real estate, and I think the fact he's
involved in this case as well as we see he's
doing some kind of corruption, stealing from the government, stealing
from the military in the middle of you know, Russia's invasion,
(25:35):
which is a huge no no, as we've learned during
this series. That itself makes me think, well, this is
not his first rodeo. You know, his money has been
coming from somewhere else as well as these businesses, perhaps
their front for something else. I don't know, it's just speculation,
but I don't think it's unreasonable.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
No, one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
If he's already kind of involved in this, right, he
clearly knows what he's doing. He knows people's kind of
what's interesting. I think a lot of these cases we
see politicians or somebody who's in some way has some
kind of power, whether they were on a committee of
like a regional office, or they were like some kind
of parliamentarian. Again, he kind of seems like the middleman,
and he kind of seems like maybe the domino that started,
(26:17):
kind of like a domino effect, because we see that
a lot of multiple officers or like some kind of
military ranking guys start getting arrested or removed from their
offices following his arrest. So I don't know if there
was an investigation on going and then they kind of,
you know, started taking people out if he got arrested
and then he maybe sold somebody out or something, But
(26:39):
it definitely seems like he was doing a lot of
the connecting, and I think he knew a lot of
the I guess you could say operation maybe from there
that's where like the investigation is going on.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
This case gets even more complicated and even more strange.
So I'm going to break it down into two parts.
This is part of Next Week, Part two. You've been
(27:20):
listening to sad Oliga season two, produced by H eleven
Studios for.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Cool Zone Media.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
Writing, editing, producing, concept and recording by myself, Jake Hanrahan.
Research and reporting by Sergei Slipchenko, Me and Victim Mihail.
Executive producing by Sophie Lichtmin. Music by Sam Black at
(27:47):
work by George Zutful. Sound mixed by Splicing Block. See
my other projects at Hanrahan dot tv. Get me on
social media at Jake the School Hanrahan.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
That's h A N r A h A N
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Mhm
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