Exactly 25 years ago, a criminal leader from Kazan, Rustam Nazarov, known as Krest, was killed by his own assassins. At a young age, he not only increased his influence in the Volga region, but also took control of the main city in the Kama region.
Nevertheless, he still met a fatal end with a gunshot to his head. “BUSINESS Online” narrates the tale of the unsuccessful “king” of the criminal world from Tatarstan.
Journey of the Cross
Rustam Nazarov was born in 1968 in Kazan. Little is known about the early days of the criminal journey of the Cross: reportedly, in his youth, he was part of the organized criminal group “Beasts” of the Moscow region, then he moved up to the “Sotsgorod”. In 1991, he was imprisoned in Kazan IK-2, then, as a “denyer”, who did not comply with the rules of the colony administration, he was transferred to a more severe special prison in Zlatoust. After his release in 1994, he returned to Kazan.
At the same time, in Moscow, the police arrested the criminal leader Yakutenok (Nikolai Zykov). He was not an ordinary criminal – he had control over the entire Perm. There, Yakutenok was a very important figure, with no significant event happening without his approval. To the residents of Perm, he was better known as a businessman, philanthropist, publisher of a socio-political newspaper, and a supporter of Pyotr Stolypin. Locals referred to him as the “mayor in law.” Yakutenok was arrested on minor charges – during the check, the city's police found a pistol and a few grams of drugs in his possession. That was enough for an arrest.
Following the departure of the criminal leader, lawlessness began in the city, creating an extremely unstable situation. Perm waited in anticipation of a power shift. In the spring of 1995, Krest learned about this when he decided to take over the city.
Nazarov took to the streets of Perm for the first time in August 1995, as an introductory walk. Yakutenok left another criminal, Vasily Tarychev (Tarych), in charge of the city, so the Cross was not able to seize power right away. And foremost, in terms of status: at that time, he was not a “thief”. After some maneuvering, Nazarov quickly left Perm, heading to Sochi, where he received a “thieves’ mandate.” How and who crowned Nazarov is unknown. He was only 27 at that time.
Despite his young age, the newly appointed “thief” quickly gained the respect of senior criminals. In the same year, on the Black Sea coast, he was called to honor the memory of the criminal Rantik Safaryan, where the Cross conversed on an equal footing with influential criminals Ded Khasan (Aslan Usoyan), Nodar Jinchvelashvili, and others. In order to gain credibility, he toured the Volga region, participating in meetings, and addressing certain issues and tasks. In simpler terms, he gradually became a more formidable opponent of Yakutenok from a distance. As the mzk1 portal reported, ultimately, the Cross even reached the level where he was granted the authority to crown criminals himself. However, his only “godson” was the Slavic repeat offender Makosha.
Capture of Perm and vanishing
In 1995, Perm was captured for the second time. Support was given by the Kazan group to the fighters of the Cross, who were supplied by the leader of the Sukonka OCG, Martian Yakupov (Marsik). That October, members of his gang, including the Tatarstan killers brothers Irek and Radik Mukhutdinov, killed Tarych on the street. Yakutenok was in prison and couldn't influence the new leader of the city, but his main goal was to eliminate the Cross. Nazarov was actively involved in thieves' gatherings at that time. In 1997, he was arrested at a meeting in Samara, along with a dozen other respected thieves. A few months later, the Cross was temporarily captured in Irkutsk in the same manner.
After returning to Perm to improve the situation and expand their influence, the Cross disappeared on April 13, 1997. This was unexpected as he had just taken control of the city, leaving Perm without a leader. Marsik and the Kazan group were eventually forced to leave for Moscow.
Yakutenok was back from prison at the time of the competitor's disappearance. He began cracking down on traitors and rebuilding his authority. The Cross may have disappeared from his control, but the situation turned out to be even more unexpected.
The killers took the thief in a carpet and buried him
The Mukhutdinovs' killer group, which had helped the Cross gain control of Perm, moved to Moscow and continued with contract killings. However, they were caught by the police in 1999. The detectives traced their route from Perm to Moscow and found their involvement in several crimes. The killers were arrested in the Moscow region after a thorough operation. They were surrounded and apprehended by special forces. Radik Mukhutdinov and two others were found inside a five-story house. Soon afterward, the second Mukhutdinov was also found.
During the investigation, it was discovered that they had killed the Cross. Yakutenok was not involved. Irek and Radik were displeased with their boss for not sharing the money, so they lured him to a private house in the southern region of Perm and shot him in the head. They disposed of the body by wrapping it in a carpet, taking it to the forest, and burying it.
The Cross's body was found during excavations 7 years later. His remains were reburied in Kazan, at the Sukhoretsky cemetery.
How Perm was divided after the Cross
Perm did not stay long without a “crown”. After the disappearance of the Cross, Alexander Kudinov, Yakutenok’s assistant, took the throne. But his reign was very short – he was shot from a machine gun right at the department for combating organized crime of the local police department.
As we wrote above, Yakutenok eventually returned to the city himself. This was in 1998. But he didn’t have long to live. Having removed the enemies, he forgot about the very Marsik who sharpened his teeth on the blood enemy, deciding to remove him on his birthday. On June 19 of that year, Yakutenok was resting in the Bolid club, when fighters from the Mukhutdinov brigade burst in and shot the thief along with bodyguards.
Power passed into the hands of an authority nicknamed Kazachok, but he could not stand the tension and fled the city. The last ruler of criminal Perm was Shirali Aslanov, but he also left the game in 2003.
The leader of the Kazan organized crime group “Sukonka” Marsik, who helped the Cross take Perm, was crowned in 2000. He lived until 2012, until he died due to developed pneumonia. (Business Online, 04/24/2022, Stanislav Shemelov)
