<\/p>\n
On\u00a0Friday, a\u00a0Moscow court ordered the detention of\u00a0billionaire Ibrahim Suleymanov on\u00a0charges of\u00a0organizing two contract killings from 1999 and 2004. The murders targeted Gennady Borisov, a\u00a0Vnukovo Airlines union leader, and Georgy Tal, a\u00a0former Federal Service for Financial Recovery and Bankruptcy chief. The hearing took place behind closed doors, with the press admitted only for the announcement of\u00a0the detention order.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Suleymanov\u2019s arrest comes two days after the alleged gunman in\u00a0the killings \u2014 organized crime figure Abakar Darbishev \u2014 died in\u00a0police custody, reportedly from a\u00a0heart attack, while being transferred to\u00a0Moscow. Before his death, Darbishev testified to\u00a0police against Suleymanov, according to\u00a0the newspaper Izvestia<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the contract killing charges against Ibrahim Suleymanov are the most serious allegations he\u2019s ever faced, this is\u00a0not his first brush with the\u00a0law. He\u00a0previously served a\u00a010-year sentence for fraud and money laundering before being released on\u00a0parole in\u00a02015. Suleymanov was convicted of\u00a0illegally selling more than $4.5 million worth of\u00a0equipment from Kazan International Airport in\u00a02002.<\/p>\n Suleymanov is\u00a0reportedly the son-in-law of\u00a0Platon Lebedev, one of\u00a0the founders of\u00a0the oil company YUKOS, which the Russian authorities seized and dismantled in\u00a0the mid-2000s. Despite Suleymanov\u2019s time in\u00a0prison, he\u00a0managed to\u00a0retain his influence and assets. According to\u00a0Izvestia, Suleymanov and his son, Rasul, were beneficial owners of\u00a0the major IT\u00a0company Sirena-Travel, whose Leonardo reservation system handles roughly 80 percent of\u00a0all airline ticket sales in\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n Union leader Gennady Borisov was stabbed 12 times in\u00a0late January 1999 by\u00a0an\u00a0attacker in\u00a0the lobby of\u00a0his apartment building. \u201cInvestigators have already classified the crime as\u00a0a\u00a0contract killing,\u201d the newspaper Kommersant reported<\/a> in\u00a0the aftermath.\u201d Police are aware that Borisov had strained relations with Vnukovo Airlines management and organized several protests outside the company\u2019s administrative building.\u201d<\/p>\n Georgy Tal was shot four times in\u00a0the back on\u00a0April 28, 2004. His killer fled the scene in\u00a0a\u00a0vehicle and evaded police. \u201cInvestigators are examining the ex-FSFR head\u2019s professional work as\u00a0a\u00a0potential factor behind the killing,\u201d RBC reported<\/a> at\u00a0the time. According to\u00a0the Telegram channel 112<\/a>, Tal\u2019s work before his murder included managing bankruptcies at\u00a0multiple airports in\u00a0Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On\u00a0Friday, a\u00a0Moscow court ordered the detention of\u00a0billionaire Ibrahim Suleymanov on\u00a0charges of\u00a0organizing two contract killings from 1999 and 2004.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[332,7888,7883,7886,7875,7868,7880,7870,7881,7887,7876,7864,7871,7865,7873,7874,7866,7869,7867,7885,7879,7872,7884,7882,7878,7877],"class_list":{"0":"post-471962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-russia","9":"tag-7888","10":"tag-7883","11":"tag-7886","12":"tag-7875","13":"tag-7868","14":"tag-7880","15":"tag-7870","16":"tag-7881","17":"tag-7887","18":"tag-7876","19":"tag-7864","20":"tag-7871","21":"tag-7865","22":"tag-7873","23":"tag-7874","24":"tag-7866","25":"tag-7869","26":"tag-7867","27":"tag-7885","28":"tag-7879","29":"tag-7872","30":"tag-7884","31":"tag-7882","32":"tag-7878","33":"tag-7877"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115312169316969351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}