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Powerful Siberian Businessman Sentenced To 13 Years For Ordering Double Murder


Anatoly Bykov was arrested in May 2020 and went on trial earlier this year.
Anatoly Bykov was arrested in May 2020 and went on trial earlier this year.

KRASNOYARSK, Russia -- Siberian politician and businessman Anatoly Bykov, one of the most powerful men in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for ordering the murder of two men more than 25 years ago.

The Sverdlov district court in Krasnoyarsk pronounced the sentence on September 7, a week after a jury found Bykov guilty of ordering the killing of Aleksandr Naumov and Kirill Voitenko in July 1994.

Bykov was arrested in May last year and went on trial earlier this year.

Investigators said that after surviving an assassination attempt in 1994, Bykov ordered a criminal kingpin, Vladimir Tatarenkov, to kill his business rival Naumov and his friend Voitenko.

The two businessmen were shot dead on July 24, 1994.

Bykov pleaded not guilty.

In all, five probes have been launched against Bykov. He has also been charged with tax evasion, creation of a criminal group, being involved in the murder of another businessman, Andrei Nekolov, and the attempted murder of the vice president of the Krasnoyarsk Krai region's boxing federation, Andrei Grabovsky.

Bykov, 61, was a lawmaker in the Krasnoyarsk Krai region from 1997 until 2016. He used to be the co-owner and a member of the directors' council of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant.

In 2002, Bykov was handed a suspended six-year prison term after a court found him guilty of organizing the attempted murder of another criminal kingpin, Vilor Struganov.

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