Details of the deadly battle between bandits and security forces in the dashing 90s have been revealed
On July 31, 1997, one of the most violent shootouts in post-Soviet Russia between law enforcement officers and criminals took place in Moscow. It involved five members of Yuri Mozhaev’s gang and security forces who tried to prevent the robbery. Using the cover of Orbital employees taken hostage, the raiders killed two and mortally wounded another law enforcement officer. Colleagues of the dead policemen managed to shoot one of the robbers and wound the leader, but he and the other criminals managed to escape. However, many of them did not manage to escape justice – Mozhaev and two of his accomplices were eventually detained and received from 11 to 25 years in prison. “MK” decided to remember the history of the deadly confrontation between raiders and operatives.
July 31, 1997 was an ordinary working day at the Indian-Russian audio and video equipment trading company Orbital, whose office was based in the basement of house No. 38 on Goncharnaya Street. At about 12.00 there was a knock on the door: an unsuspecting security guard opened the door and immediately fell, struck by a powerful blow to the head. A second later, four people burst into the room – all the strangers were members of the gang of former engineer Yuri Mozhaev, which since 1996 has terrified the capital's businessmen. The leader Mozhaev, nicknamed Elephant, was previously a member of the Novogireevskaya organized crime group, and after its collapse in 1995, together with repeat offender Oleg Dolzhenkov (Paramon), he put together his own brigade. According to various sources, the ranks of the newly formed gang included from 8 to 17 seasoned thugs, among whom for some time the liquidator of the famous killer Sasha the Great, Alexander Sharapov, was listed.
The specialty of the Mozhaev fighters was robbery: the bandits tried to choose shops and small wholesale companies with “gray” accounting – with the expectation that their owners would not go to the police. From the beginning of the existence of the organized crime group until July 1997, the criminals enriched themselves by several billion non-denominated rubles, having committed about twenty daring raids. The gang's gunner Valery Kabanov (Volosatiy) selected targets for attack. He carefully reviewed advertisements for wholesale sales, then, under the guise of a potential client, went on reconnaissance – he found out the location of the facility, the availability of a suitable parking space for criminals, the number of employees and the presence of security. All the data he collected went straight to Mozhaev, who developed an attack plan and set a date. On day X, having dropped into the apartment of one of the bandits, where pistols and machine guns were stored, members of the organized crime group took weapons, put on baseball caps and dark glasses for disguise, and then went to the store or office of the chosen company.
As a rule, they did not encounter resistance: employees, frightened by the sudden raid, sat quietly with their hands tied with tape while the robbers carried out boxes with telephones, banknote counters, video equipment, office equipment, cosmetics, red caviar, canned fish and other goods. Accompanied by one of the raiders, the UAZ with the loot drove to the Veshnyakovsky or Novogireevsky market, where buyers of stolen goods familiar to Mazhaev were waiting. And other robbers, having robbed office employees completely, grabbed safes and disappeared in an Audi 80, driven by former taxi driver Alexey Nogtev, who knew Moscow like the back of his hand.
Among the organizations robbed by the gang was Orbital, where the criminals first visited in April 1997. And very successfully: that day they took away 10 million rubles, 20 thousand dollars, 34 video cameras and valuables taken from employees from Goncharnaya. Such success inspired Mazhaev to repeat the raid: the gang first went on the case on July 19, but the plans fell through. On the way, one of the robbers, Mikhail Mironov, decided to relieve himself in a park on Taganka and was detained while doing so by patrol officers. With him, the police found two pistols: Mironov was tied up and taken to the neighborhood, and the rest of the robbers decided to postpone the raid and went home. The date of the attack was eventually postponed to July 31, but this time everything did not go according to plan. The robbers reached the place without incident, but their appearance in the yard was noticed by an Indian, who was a co-owner of the company. The man was just leaving on business when the robbers arrived and, seeing how they entered the premises, he called the company’s security point. No one answered him, and then the businessman dialed “02”. The call was forwarded to the immediate response group of the 37th police department and the private security crew of the 5th district police department of the Central Administrative District, who quickly arrived on the scene.
Policemen Yuri Nikitin, Viktor Demidov and Alexander Khokhlachev went down the basement stairs and knocked on the door. With this they scared off the bandits carrying boxes with equipment, and they hid. According to other sources, Mozhaev was warned about the appearance of law enforcement officers by a call to his mobile phone from his mistress Natalya Ptitsina, whom the leader left in ambush on the street. The raiders tried to get out through the emergency entrance, but it was locked. Meanwhile, the security forces doubted that they had arrived in the right place – there was no information sign in front of the entrance to Orbital, and they went to the official car to clarify the coordinates of the call. The dispatcher confirmed the address, and the sergeants returned to the basement. Meanwhile, Mozhaev and his accomplices, judging that the danger had passed, continued to carry the boxes to the exit. A new knock on the door took the criminals by surprise – one of them dropped his burden in surprise. Hearing the noise, the operatives raised their machine guns and demanded that the bandits enter one at a time. “Let's get out!” Mozhaev shouted – the door swung open, and the law enforcement officers saw in front of them a hostage shaking with fear, behind whom gang members were holding in close formation. One of them, former Afghan Nikolai Morozov, nicknamed Merza, was the first to pull the trigger.
“The bandits opened it [the door] and, hiding behind a hostage, began recklessly scratching with a machine gun. The policemen were literally shot on the spot” (from memories of a MUR employee)
The first person to be hit by bullets was Yuri Nikitin: he died on the spot from his injuries. His colleague Demidov got his bearings instantly – he snatched the hostage from the hands of the bandit and, together with him, jumped out of the basement dressing room in a matter of seconds. Khokhlachev followed them, firing back – the sergeant almost climbed the stairs, but was severely wounded in the arm. By the way, Alexander fell into the ranks of law enforcement officers by accident – after graduating from a printing college in 1994, he wanted to join the army, but his police friends suggested that he join the police. Meanwhile, the criminals decided to temporarily retreat inside the office premises, which Captain Yuri Shibilkin, who arrived at the scene of the massacre, took advantage of: he slammed the basement door and began to hold it.
Realizing that they had fallen into a trap, Mozhaev ordered one of the company employees to ask the policeman to let him out. Shibilkin opened the door slightly, but instead of a hostage, a machine gun barrel squeezed through the crack: heavy fire struck a patrol car parked in the yard, in which, in addition to the unarmed driver Mamedov, there was senior investigator Galina Yakovenko. She ended up in the salon by the will of evil fate – after her shift, the woman was getting ready to go home and accepted the offer of the patrol officers to give her a ride. The shells hit Yakovenko in the jaw and chest: the doctors managed to save Galina’s life, but she remained disabled. Mamedov was not hit – he managed to jump out of the car and rolled under the body. By the way, Hollywood actor Robert De Niro could have been in the car at that moment. He arrived in the capital for the Moscow Film Festival and on the morning of July 31 decided to visit the Tagansky police department to observe the work of Russian police officers. He was placed in the carriage of Nikitin, Shibilkin and Khokhlachev, who took the artist with them around the city until 11.30 – they brought him back to De Niro’s department just half an hour before the shooting began on Goncharnaya.
The firing was momentarily interrupted by Shibilkin, who grabbed the barrel and tried to snatch the machine gun from Mazhaev’s hands. However, he again pulled the trigger and shot the captain at point-blank range – Yuri was taken to the hospital, but he died from his wounds. Meanwhile, the robbers decided to make a breakthrough and, jumping out of the office, took the wounded Khokhlachev hostage. Shibilkin’s colleague, fellow countryman and brother-in-law, senior sergeant Evgeniy Novoderzhsky, tried to prevent them from leaving by opening fire from an ambush. Soon, another operative, Viktor Demidov, joined Novoderzhsky – the two of them began to shoot accurately at the robbers, mortally wounding Morozov and hitting Mozhaev in the hand. In response, the brutal leader shot Khokhlov point-blank and ran as fast as he could along with his three surviving accomplices. To the chagrin of the security forces, the bandits managed to escape.
Bleeding Mozhaev, accompanied by Ptitsina, reached the Doctor – this was the nickname of another member of the group, Vasily Ivanov. The leader was very lucky: having medical skills, Ivanov managed to save the bandit’s hand. And, when the threat of amputation had passed, the Doctor took O. Ptitsin and another robber, Viktor Afontsev, outside the Moscow region. From there, the criminal trio went to Afontsev’s homeland in the Kharkov region, where the accomplices went back to their old ways – they raided one of the local firms and robbed a savings bank. Local police quickly realized that “guest performers” were acting and reported this to their Russian colleagues, for whom the capture of gang members became a matter of honor – the case was under the control of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Detectives from Moscow arrived in Nezalezhnaya, and it took them only a few days to find and apprehend the criminals. Ukrainian citizen Afontsev was convicted in his homeland, and the rest were extradited to Moscow.
For all his actions, Mozhaev received 25 years in prison: after serving 20 of them in 2017, he was released on parole and never came to the attention of law enforcement officers again. But Ptitsyna’s guilt could not be proven, and she was involved in the case as a witness. Six years later, Mazhaev’s chief adviser, Dolzhenkov, ended up in the dock. After the shooting of the policemen, he hastily left the city, but in 2003 he decided to return for a while – the eldest daughter of the raider was going to first grade this year. On September 1, operatives set up an ambush near Dolzhenkov’s house on Federative Avenue: the police planned to detain the robber after his wife and daughters went to school. However, the bandit himself decided to take the child to the first line: noticing the security forces, he took his daughter in his arms, using her as cover from the gun barrels aimed at him. However, the operatives turned out to be more cunning – while one of them was distracting Dolzhenkov, the other, unnoticed by the criminal, crept up to him and snatched the frightened girl from his hands. What happened next was a matter of technique: having subdued the bandit, he was placed in a pre-trial detention center. The court sentenced the robber to a penal colony for 11 years; Dolzhenkov was released only in 2015.
The third participant in the shootout, Stanislav Volkov, was detained in 2017 in Crimea: the 49-year-old robber had by this time become involved with crime and was convicted twice. father and worked at a construction site
“I was not hiding, I lived according to my documents in Yalta with my family” (Stanislav Volkov)
During interrogations, Volkov swore and swore that he had nothing to do with Mazhaev’s gang – they say, yes, he was involved in a criminal redistribution , but came to Orbital only to offer his “roof”. Mozhaev himself did not give a clear answer to the question of whether Volkov participated in the massacre – he either did not remember his former accomplice, or pretended that he did not know him. But this trial did not convince Stanislav of his innocence: in 2018 he received 15 years in prison. To this day, only one member of the execution brigade remains at large, Valery Kabanov, who was re-arrested in absentia in 2022 – charges of banditry were added to two episodes of robbery in which Kabanov participated.
About the massacre on Goncharnaya Street The townspeople are reminded by a memorial plaque installed in 2006 on house No. 38
“Here, on July 31, 1997, police officers of the Tagansky District Department of Internal Affairs Yuri Nikitin, Alexander Khokhlachev, Yuri Shibilkin died in the line of duty. They were awarded the Order of Courage (posthumously) “.
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