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An Italian sewed freedom
On Tuesday, Andrei Kochuykov, nicknamed Italian, the right-hand man of Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), one of the most notorious thieves in law in the post-Soviet space, left Penal Colony No. 3 in the Kaluga Region. He, who worked in a carpentry and sewing shop, was sentenced to eight years and 10 months in prison in connection with a 2015 shooting outside the Elements restaurant in Moscow that left two people dead. Italian became the last of 12 defendants convicted in the case to be released.
59-year-old Andrey Kochuykov was released early in the morning of October 15. A group of friends, accompanied by security, arrived at the maximum security penal colony No. 3, located in the village of Tobarkovo in the Kaluga region, and picked him up in two Mercedes at 7 a.m. The young men, who looked like athletes, did not allow journalists to approach Kochuykov, who was leaning on a cane. As soon as Kochuykov left the building, he immediately got into one of the cars and left the colony, not wanting to talk to the press.
As his lawyer Konstantin Trapayze told Kommersant, upon returning to Moscow, his client "went first to his wife, and then to his elderly parents, like a normal person, and while in prison, he was constantly worried about his health." According to the lawyer, all of his client's immediate plans are to restore his health after imprisonment and "continue business" in the real estate company he headed before his arrest.
Andrei Kochuykov was the last of the 12 defendants sentenced to prison terms ranging from 7 years and 4 months to 9 years and 10 months by the decision of the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow on March 29, 2019. At that time, the court sentenced Zakhar Kalashova to the maximum penalty for two counts of extortion on an especially large scale as part of an organized group (paragraphs "a" and "b" of Part 3 of Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). . ).
One is connected with an attempt to get 10 million rubles. General Director of Nordneftegaz LLC Lev Garamov and the second - 8 million rubles. These are the words of a citizen of Kazakhstan Zhanna Kim, the owner of the Elements restaurant on Rochdelskaya Street. According to the investigation, having learned that his common-law wife's friend, designer Fatima Misikova, was doing the repairs and that Kim had not paid her and the workers, Shakro Molodoy took advantage of this. It was decided to "squeeze out" the business.
On December 14, 2015, his right-hand man Andrey Kochuykov arrived at the Elements restaurant with employees of the private security company Zaslon to demand a "debt" from Zhanna Kim. The frightened restaurateur turned to lawyer Eduard Budantsev, a former employee of the Soviet KGB and RUBOP, and two of his associates for help. The conversation with the criminal representative ended in a shootout. The lawyer shot two Italians accompanying him, Alexey Kitaev and Filipp Domaskin, with a premium Beretta. The defendants denied guilt. Therefore, Andrey Kochuykov's lawyers claimed that he was not extorting money, but simply trying to help his friend Myshkova resolve her financial dispute with Kimzhanna.
Gradually, the convicts left the colony one after another. Thus, the head of another private security company, Zashchitnik, Batyr Bekmuradov, was released from the colony in Lipetsk after being sentenced to 9 years in prison (he was later sentenced to 15 years in another new case). After signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense in 2023, he took part in the Special Military Operations and received the Medal for Courage, which served as the basis for his conviction being removed.
In January 2023, Shakro's colleague and bodyguard Alexei Maksimov (aka Boston), who was sentenced to 7 years and 4 months in a maximum security penal colony, was released on parole.
One of the last to leave the colony in Krasnodar Krai in March 2024 was 71-year-old Zakhar Kalashov, who was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison, but did not serve two years. The decision to release him was made by the Ust-Labinsky District Court of Krasnodar Krai due to a serious illness, due to which Shakro Molodoy is almost blind.
It is worth noting that Andrei Kochuykov, who was wounded in the back during the shootout on Rochdelskaya Street, may also be eligible for release from punishment due to illness (this possibility is provided for by Article 81 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The bullet that passed near the ganglion caused major problems for the Italian, who began to feel severe pain in his spine and even during the investigation began to move around with a cane. The injury also became the basis for his transfer to a colony with a more lenient regime. For example, a prisoner can skip morning exercises and move to an easier work environment, but this does not exempt him from work at all. As Kommersant found out, in the colony, Andrei Kochuykov first worked in the carpentry shop, and then in the sewing shop.
And although he was often hospitalized due to problems with his spine, and even had doctors from Moscow visit him several times, Andrei Kochuykov, by his own account, was convicted for two more cases. He did not start his release due to illness. In 2019, he filed a petition for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence. However, the prison administration opposed this, and the Dzerzhinsky District Court of the Kaluga Region rejected the petition. According to Kommersant's sources, since then Kochuykov has been punished regularly, accumulating more than a dozen times. In total, he spent almost a year in a punishment cell or a cell-type cell. Therefore, early release in his case is out of the question.