The ex-head of the Federation of free-style wrestling of St. Petersburg Kulibaba was detained. He is suspected of killing “authority” during the criminal wars of the 90s

Law enforcement officers of St. Petersburg detained the former head of the Freestyle Wrestling Federation of the Northern Capital Vladimir Kulibaba, reported “Interfax” on Tuesday informed source.

“Kulibaba was detained in the framework of a murder case,” said the agency’s interlocutor.

By data “Fontanka”, the investigators decided to ask Kulibaba questions about the 1993 murder case. Then, under unclear circumstances, the crime boss Igor Savin, nicknamed the Sledgehammer, died.

Former boxer Igor Savin was suspected of organizing in 1993 an unsuccessful attempt on the life of another crime boss Konstantin Yakovlev (Kostya Mogila), who was the main rival of the leader of the Tambovskaya organized criminal group Vladimir Kumarin, nicknamed Kum or the Night Governor. The killers broke into Yakovlev’s office and opened fire from pistols and machine guns at his guards. However, the Grave hid under the table and survived. In 2003, during another assassination attempt, Yakovlev was killed.

In the Tomb group, as the media wrote, Kulibaba was responsible for the military actions. In particular, the name of Kulibaba surfaced during the investigation into the murder of the deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, Viktor Novoselov. Fontanka also found documents according to which Kulibaba was attached to a military unit and was listed as a GRU special forces officer at the turn of 1990-2000. In 2001, he was allegedly awarded the rank of captain.

After the murder of Kostya Mogila, Kulibaba began to actively pursue a political career. He headed the coordinating council of the youth movement “Russia”, the leader of which was at that time the speaker of the State Duma Gennady Seleznev, and in the Youth Chamber of St. Petersburg he acted as an observer from the speaker of the State Duma. After the assassination of the vice-president of the National Security Academy (also supervised by Gennady Seleznev), Oleg Taran, Kulibaba took his place.

Then Kulibaba headed the St. Petersburg Freestyle Wrestling Federation and began to actively establish contacts with the National Olympic Committee of the Russian Federation. For charity, Vladimir Kulibaba was awarded the St. Petersburg diocese.

Ten years ago, Kulibaba became a defendant in a contract murder case. Then he was accused of organizing the assassination attempt on the director of the security company “Kaskad” Vadim Chechel. The killer, who shot Chechel, was quickly detained. However, the alleged organizer of the murder was taken into custody only two years later, in 2010. A few months later, Kulibaba was released on bail of 1 million rubles after he was illegally issued a disability. Later, the investigation again succeeded in arresting Kulibaba.

According to one version, the crime could have been committed out of revenge, since Chechel was going to marry Maria Stroganova, who had an intimate relationship with Senator and Honorary Presidents of the Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev. Vladimir Kulibaba was personally acquainted with Tyagachev and served as his assistant in the Olympic Committee.

Tyagachev eventually got off with only interrogations, and Kulibaba was acquitted by the jury in 2012. Only the killer was convicted for the murder of Chechel.