LUKOIL’s vice-president has been kidnapped

This was not incidental. He definitely knew something

The situation with kidnapped Vice President of the Russian oil giant LUKOIL Sergey Kukura is not clear still. Police, the Federal Security Bureau, and other investigative departments have been looking for him in Moscow and in the Moscow region for two days already. However, no results have been produced: the kidnapped executive has not been found . The investigatiors have not found any motives for the kidnapping of Sergey Kukura. No one is asking for any redemption.

Well, it this not really surprising. LUKOIL is the most closed Russian company. President of the company Vagit Alekperov is the most mysterious Russian oligarch. Alekperov has the loyalty of the Russian media and law-enforcement bodies. They say that Alekperov’s foreign partners ordered a PR campaign against him in 1994. Vagit Alekperov personally came to Izvestia’s editor-in-chief Igor Golembiovsky and forced him to cancel a PR article in the newspaper. By the way, those foreign partners were either kidnapped or killed later. Alekperov remained the only owner of the company. The newspaper Izvestia became LUKOIL’s friend.

Acting prosecutor of the Moscow region Alexander Mitusov said in an interview to Interfax that the oil company was doing its best to assist in the investigation. LUKOIL’s security service is involved in the search for Sergey Kukura. In other words, LUKOIL has taken the investigation under its control.

Sergey Kukura, LUKOIL’s first vice president, was kidnapped on Thursday, September 12 near the settlement of Vnukovo in the Moscow region. A black Volga car blocked the way of his Mercedes. Four men wearing masks came up to Mercedes. They carried machine guns. The men took Sergey out of Mercedes, put him in their Volga car, and off they went. Kukura’s driver and security guards were injected with drugs. They recovered only four hours later.

This crime was committed not far from the Vnukovo railway station, and dozens of passengers saw everything with their own eyes. However, it did not even occur to anyone that there was something bad happening. The Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Moscow region instituted criminal proceedings.

The investigation is not rushing to share its information with the press. Nevertheless, some details have been reported. The newspaper Gazeta believes that Kukura’s kidnapping could be directly connected with the scandalous resignation of Moscow Spartak football player Dmitry Sychev. LUKOIL is Spartak’s major sponsor. Spartak is still unwilling to part with such a perspective player as Sychev.

LUKOIL surely had something to say and do in this situation. It is not ruled out that Kukura’s kidnappers wanted to have a reliable trump card in the dispute around the football player. As is believed, there are influential people behind Sychev: former athletes who have become businessmen. Yet, a dispute over a player is not very likely to result in a kidnapping.

The newspaper Vedomosti thinks that the motive for the kidnapping was connected with certain troubles within LUKOIL. However, investigators discovered that Sergey Kukura was not driving to his work along the usual route. In addition to that, there was only one car accompanying him instead of the usual two. Furthermore, his security guards have been changed prior to his kidnapping.

One way or the other, nothing happens to such people of such rank as Sergey Kukura incidentally. If he has been kidnapped, then it implies that he had problems with someone. He definitely knew something.

On the photo: Vladimir Putin and LUKOIL President Vagit Alekperov

Igor Vrazhina PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov