The events in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk became the center of attention for the Russian media. Forty-four-year-old Artyom Kosogov, one of the most well-known lawyers of Krasnoyarsk, was killed today at the entrance of his apartment building.
Kosogov’s name is directly connected with Vilor Struganov, who is widely known by his nick Pasha Tsvetomuzika (Pasha Color Music). Struganov was arrested at the end of December 2001, suspected of being involved in the organization of explosions, which took place in Krasnoyarsk on December 21, 2001. They brought terrorist charges against Struganov in the beginning of January.
Struganov is also one of the major witnesses in the case of the former director of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminium Factory, Anatoly Bykov. Artyom Kosogov was Struganov’s lawyer for a certain period of time. Kosogov actually defended well-known Krasnoyarsk businessmen, for example, Yevsey Kogan, the director of one of the automobile enterprises, who was charged with assassinating the director of the municipal department for transport and communication, Gennady Kondratyev. Kosogov was very good at that, which helped him to gain the fame of one of the most successful lawyers. Needless to mention that he was aware of a lot of details regarding the life of the Krasnoyarsk criminal community.
Artyom Kosogov has recently acted a witness on Struganov’s case, a very important witness, because he was in friendly relations with his former client. It seems that the things that Kosogov knew became the reason of his death, the investigation considers this version as the major one. There are other versions, of course. Gazeta.Ru supposed that Kosogov’s murder could be connected with the division of the spheres of influence in the criminal environment, which started after Alexander Lebed’s death. Is it true or not, but General Lebed initiated Anatoly Bykov’s legal persecution, who had not had time to quarrel with Struganov yet. Kosogov might know the details of that fight, which resulted with Bykov’s imprisonment.
By the way, they say that Bykov can seriously affect the gubernatorial elections in the Krasnoyarsk region. However, Bykov can hardly hope for taking the governor’s office, although he does have a certain influence in Krasnoyarsk, where he has quite a number of followers.
Nevertheless, there is one thing clear at present moment: it will be very hard to find out, who killed Kosogov. By the way, his colleagues do not doubt that it was an assassination. So, it seems that there will be a lot of news coming from Krasnoyarsk. Will this infamous crime give a start for the pre-election campaign in the city?
Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
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