Three Russian crime bosses recruited by Wagner Group are killed in Ukraine

Three Russian crime bosses recruited by the Wagner Group Private Military Company in the colonies were killed in the war in Ukraine. They are 59-year-old Sergei Maksimenko, 55-year-old Andrei Berezhnykh and 55-year-old Igor Kusk.

Source: Bellingcat investigative journalism group

Details: In 2013, the Supreme Court of Russia sentenced Andrei Berezhnykh up to 25 years in prison for murder and a number of other offences committed by his gang in Saratov Oblast (Russia) from 1994 to 2011. Earlier, Berezhnykh was also convicted by the Saratov court for the attempted murder of 10 people.

Berezhnykh organised his gang in the mid-90s in Balakovo. The gang had been active for almost 20 years. As Berezhnykh recalled, new members soon joined the group, and the organised crime group engaged in the arms trade.

On 6 October 1994, Berezhnykh and his colleague Andrei Kurpach, armed with semi-automatic rifles, attacked a group of young people who were leaving the gym, killing three. Berezhnykh and his group committed a number of other murders and assassinations over the years, including those of local business owners.

In 2003, the Berezhnykh criminal group confessed to attacking Saratov TV station STV with an RPG-26 grenade launcher.

A Telegram channel dedicated to Russia’s criminal underworld claims that Berezhnykh was killed during the fighting in Ukraine on December 8, 2022, having joined the Wagner PMC just a month earlier. Local news sites from his hometown of Balakovo confirm these events.

A month after his death, a funeral service was held in the Balakovo Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in his honour. There were not many people present at this memorial service.

Russians reacted to the news of Berezhnykh's death with mixed emotions. Local news media outlet SutyNews described a split among local residents over the "most famous prisoner of the city". Balakovo residents' comments on several VK pages reflect this split.

One woman wrote, "But how can there be atonement for a man who killed seven people, many of whom were innocent victims? And now he is being buried with honours in the church as a hero".

Others were somewhat more positive. For example, a local resident wrote, "He could have served his sentence further, but he deliberately went to a dangerous place, though with his own motives. Maybe he is not a direct hero in any conventional sense, but I think he deserves respect. At least for his choice to stand up for the fatherland and not hide, like many."

Sergei Maksimenko was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the Republic of Mordovia (a federal subject of Russia - ed.).

Maksimenko headed a criminal group called Olympia in the city of Penza, which during the 1990s and 2000s was engaged in organising prostitution, extortion and murder.

Maksimenko took control of the Olympia group in 1997, and the organised criminal group was engaged in running protection rackets and loan sharking operations. In the early 2000s, Olympia committed a series of murders, mostly local business owners and rival gang leaders.

In 2003, members of an organised crime group attacked seven men and their wives in a local bar with baseball bats and hunting rifles.

According to Russian media reports, Maksimenko joined Wagner Group in September 2022. He was killed in December 2022.

There is little information about Maksimenko's funeral except that it took place on 4 January at the cemetery in Penza.

Igor Kusk was serving a 23-year prison sentence in Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic.

Court documents from his 2015 verdict describe in detail how Kusk created its own criminal group in Tatarstan in 1998, named after him Kuskovskie [Kusk’s guys - ed.]. It was particularly active in Nizhnekamsk and Kazan. The Kuskovskie were notable for having a large number of Afghan veterans among their ranks. 

Initially, the Kusk’s gang was engaged in relatively low-profile crimes and contract killings in the late 90s. According to court documents, their first known murder in 1998 was the contract killing of a local electrician, who was shot dead outside his home.

In 2004, Kusk and his group were accused of murdering two general directors of the Kazan-based construction company Tatsantekhmontazh, which at its height employed more than 1,000 people. The construction company had contacted a criminal group, and these two murders were connected, according to the Russian prosecutor's office, with attempts by the general directors to disentangle themselves from the Kuskovskie.

Igor Kusk was a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He wanted to fight in Ukraine even before the Wagner Group visited his prison. Kuska's widow told the Russian newspaper Delovaya Gazeta that he sent a letter to Ramzan Kadyrov with a proposal to fight in Ukraine. However, he later ended up at Wagner PMC. It is not known whether the Chechens rejected him and on what grounds. His widow said that he joined the Wagner Group before being sent to the contact line on July 25.

The burial of Igor Kusko was a notable event. According to the Real New Times media outlet, more than 700 people attended the memorial service and burial, and about 100 cars took part in the procession.

According to independent Russian media outlet Holod, Kusk headed the veteran communities of Tatarstan, which provided him not only with popular support, which was reflected at his funeral, but also with a reduced prison sentence.

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