On Friday, a Moscow court ordered the detention of billionaire Ibrahim Suleymanov on charges of organizing two contract killings from 1999 and 2004. The murders targeted Gennady Borisov, a Vnukovo Airlines union leader, and Georgy Tal, a former Federal Service for Financial Recovery and Bankruptcy chief. The hearing took place behind closed doors, with the press admitted only for the announcement of the detention order.
Suleymanov’s arrest comes two days after the alleged gunman in the killings — organized crime figure Abakar Darbishev — died in police custody, reportedly from a heart attack, while being transferred to Moscow. Before his death, Darbishev testified to police against Suleymanov, according to the newspaper Izvestia.
While the contract killing charges against Ibrahim Suleymanov are the most serious allegations he’s ever faced, this is not his first brush with the law. He previously served a 10-year sentence for fraud and money laundering before being released on parole in 2015. Suleymanov was convicted of illegally selling more than $4.5 million worth of equipment from Kazan International Airport in 2002.
Suleymanov is reportedly the son-in-law of Platon Lebedev, one of the founders of the oil company YUKOS, which the Russian authorities seized and dismantled in the mid-2000s. Despite Suleymanov’s time in prison, he managed to retain his influence and assets. According to Izvestia, Suleymanov and his son, Rasul, were beneficial owners of the major IT company Sirena-Travel, whose Leonardo reservation system handles roughly 80 percent of all airline ticket sales in Russia.
Union leader Gennady Borisov was stabbed 12 times in late January 1999 by an attacker in the lobby of his apartment building. “Investigators have already classified the crime as a contract killing,” the newspaper Kommersant reported in the aftermath.” Police are aware that Borisov had strained relations with Vnukovo Airlines management and organized several protests outside the company’s administrative building.”
Georgy Tal was shot four times in the back on April 28, 2004. His killer fled the scene in a vehicle and evaded police. “Investigators are examining the ex-FSFR head’s professional work as a potential factor behind the killing,” RBC reported at the time. According to the Telegram channel 112, Tal’s work before his murder included managing bankruptcies at multiple airports in Moscow.