From St. Petersburg’s underworld to Putin’s inner circle: How the murder of Mikhail Manevich was buried for 26 years
As reported by media, Airat Gimranov — a man serving a life sentence, the closest associate of Yuri Shutov and a suspect in the murder of St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Mikhail Manevich — has been transferred to Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention center.
This crime remains one of the most painful and politically sensitive cases for Russia’s ruling elite from St. Petersburg. Gimranov has been interrogated multiple times in this case and has given contradictory testimony. In 2018 he even claimed that the “mastermind” behind the murder was Anatoly Chubais. This time, however, Gimranov appears to be needed to finally pin the high-profile killing on Vladimir Kumarin (Barsukov), the former “night ruler” of St. Petersburg. Back in 2023, the FSB officially announced that Kumarin was the заказчик — the man who ordered Manevich’s assassination.
On February 17, 2006, the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced Airat Gimranov and Yuri Shutov (who was found dead in prison in 2014) to life imprisonment for banditry and organizing a series of contract killings. During the investigation, trial, and afterwards, Gimranov was repeatedly taken to Lefortovo for questioning in the Manevich case. The last time was in 2018, when, according to Fontanka, he stated that Anatoly Chubais had ordered the killing.
In 2023, a “secret witness” suddenly and very conveniently began to speak. He “remembered” that on August 18, 1997, he was “on duty” near Manevich’s home and radioed that the car with the “target” had left. Soon afterward, the vice-governor was shot by a sniper. He claimed he passed the signal to Arkady Nusimovich. At that time, Nusimovich was already serving a 22-year sentence for a notorious 2015 attack on OMON riot police officers. The officers had been transporting “dirty cash.” Their vehicle was rammed by a Gazelle van and everyone inside was gunned down with automatic weapons, after which the attackers stole the money.
Nusimovich, who had previously refused to cooperate with investigators, was questioned again and “unexpectedly” gave testimony implicating Kumarin as the organizer of Manevich’s murder. In 2023, the FSB reported that the high-profile killing had been solved and named Kumarin as the заказчик.
Now the former leader of the Tambov organized crime group is being prepared to have Manevich’s murder finally pinned on him, and Gimranov’s testimony — he has always been willing to say whatever is needed, just not the truth — will come in handy. This is especially true because another figure from “bandit Petersburg,” Ruslan Kolyak (killed on a Yalta beach in 2003), previously testified that Shutov was extremely close to the criminal “throne” occupied by Kumarin and that his closest associate was Gimranov.
This version is extremely convenient for the FSB, especially since Kumarin denies everything. As a result, he is being decorated like a Christmas tree with “gifts” in the form of unresolved 1990s contract killings from St. Petersburg. At the same time, it allows investigators to avoid a real inquiry into the tangled web of relationships and conflicts within the entire emerging St. Petersburg elite — the very people who now almost entirely run Russia.
Mikhail Manevich (whose full case file and early investigation materials can be found by searching for “Manevich”) was a close friend of Anatoly Chubais, German Gref, and many other prominent Russian figures. The crime occurred just weeks before Manevich was expected, according to media, to be promoted and transferred to Moscow. Almost all of the St. Petersburg officials from that generation still occupy top positions today. One of them, Vladimir Putin, became President of Russia.
The media has collected several of Putin’s statements about Manevich.
“Misha was an amazing guy. I feel so sorry that he was killed — such injustice! Who did he get in the way of?.. It’s simply astonishing. Very gentle, intelligent, flexible in a good sense. He was a principled person — he didn’t adapt to everyone, but he never charged head-on either; he always looked for workable solutions. I still don’t understand how this could have happened. I don’t understand.”
“On all high-profile cases, no matter how long they last, the investigation usually uncovers all the circumstances. But unfortunately, the circumstances of Mikhail Manevich’s murder — a man with whom I had good personal relations — are still not clear. So far, we have not been able to resolve this.”
Until 2023, however, the murder of this “amazing guy” remained unsolved, even though nearly everyone in Putin’s inner circle knew him, communicated with him, and privately whispered about who and why Manevich had been killed. Investigators never came close to exploring the real motives — because it was clear that such inquiries would lead so high that one could end up either alongside Manevich or alongside Kumarin.
In 2011, we conducted a major investigation into the circumstances of Manevich’s murder, and all the threads led to the struggle for control over the Port of St. Petersburg, which in the 1990s was being actively taken over by the shadowy businessman Ilya Traber (known as “Antikvar”), who was close both to Kumarin and to much of today’s Russian elite.
Manevich was not only a close friend of Anatoly Chubais (who in 1997 was First Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister), but also a member of his team. After Anatoly Sobchak lost the mayor’s office and Vladimir Yakovlev took over St. Petersburg, only two people kept their positions: Dmitry Kozak, head of the legal department, and Mikhail Manevich, head of the city’s Property Committee (KUGI). Yakovlev could not remove Manevich because he was also a federal representative of the State Property Committee.
Sources said Manevich was a non-confrontational official. No one could recall him clashing with “serious people,” except for tensions with Yuri Shutov. Even then, it was not ideological — they met and tried to find compromises.
Besides Chubais, Manevich had another “guardian angel” — Ilya Traber. A former submarine officer turned antiques dealer and then powerful businessman, Traber had extensive connections. Sources said Manevich and Traber were family friends. Whenever Manevich’s decisions threatened dangerous people or crime bosses, Traber intervened to protect him. Their falling-out came over the Port of St. Petersburg. After Manevich’s death, it also emerged that Traber had been courting Manevich’s wife Marina.
The privatization of Russia’s “European gateway” took place in December 1992, when the Port of St. Petersburg became a joint-stock company. 51% went to employees, 20% to the state, and 28.8% to KUGI. Those shares were meant to be sold later and were therefore privileged. In 1993, employees began selling their shares en masse, and 40% ended up in two offshore companies controlled by Traber. Since the state’s 28.8% were non-voting, Traber’s offshores controlled the port. Chubais ordered that the state shares be converted to ordinary shares, restoring control to the government — but the decision was quietly buried.
By 1997, Manevich was preparing to move to Moscow and decided to finally carry out Chubais’s order. Traber warned him that he was crossing powerful people. Manevich apologized but insisted. He was shot by a sniper before he could implement the change.
Many others also profited from the port: Kumarin, Konstantin Yakovlev, Gennady Petrov, and numerous crime bosses. Alexei Miller, now head of Gazprom, worked there. Alexander Dyukov, now head of Gazprom Neft, ran key port companies. Igor Levitin and Igor Rusu held senior positions. Financial structures tied to Putin also relied heavily on the port.
By the late 1990s, control of the port had been stripped from the state and transferred to private hands. After Manevich’s murder, the process accelerated. A 1997 shareholder meeting handed management to a Traber-controlled firm. By 1999, the state’s share had been gutted.
According to the Audit Chamber, virtually all port operations were transferred to private companies — a division of spoils that benefited everyone involved.
Sources in 2011 believed the order to kill Manevich was not made by one person, but collectively by a narrow circle of stakeholders. The contract could have gone to Shutov’s killers, Chelyshev’s gang, or Kumarin’s hitmen.
After Manevich’s death, the question of restoring the state’s 28.8% voting stake was not raised again until 2004 — by which time the port had already been completely looted.
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