A 30 October 1998 Vladivostok News article states:

A well-known Primorye businessman, a local nationalist political leader and a hired killer were found guilty Oct. 26 of murdering a fishing company director in a case that casts a stark light on the cut-throat battles over the fishing industry in post-Soviet Russia.

Businessman Alexander Brekhov and Alexander Shestopalov, a former local leader in Russkoye Natsionalnoye Yedinstvo [Russian National Unity], arranged the 1995 murder of Primorrybprom director Andrei Zakharenko, a Vladivostok court found. And Sergei Stepanenko(one of two killers(was found guilty of setting the explosives that blew up Zakharenko at home.

The court sentenced Brekhov and Stepanenko to 15 years in prison, while Shestopalov received a sentence of 12.5 years. The crime occurred Oct. 3, 1995, when Zakharenko returned to his 22a Svyazi Street home. He rolled up to his apartment block in his Jeep, accompanied by two bodyguards. One guard checked out the entryway and reported that nothing looked suspicious. He glanced at the central heating radiator, but didn't notice a wire attached to it. The guard radioed back to the Jeep. "The way is clear." But as Zakharenko entered the hallway, an explosion killed him. Both guards were injured in the blast.

A few days after the killing, Primorye Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko blamed Russia's privatization for creating the ruthless atmosphere. "Privatization from the very beginning to the end is a chain of crimes," Nazdratenko said.

The murder of the Primorrybprom director clearly resulted from a fight for control of one of the largest fisheries in the Far East. Primorrybprom had fish-processing factories in Vesyoly Yar, Kamenka, Slavyanka, Popov Island, Khanka Lake, and Svetlaya Bay. Primorrybprom produced 18 percent of the fish products in the Soviet Union - over 1 million tons a year. It once employed 43,000 people.

After Zakharenko's death, Brekhov was an immediate suspect. He was most interested in getting rid of the competition. Brekhov controlled 22 percent of the company's shares, and his supporters got three seats on the board of directors.

The fight for leading posts in the company reached its climax at the annual shareholders meeting on April 22, 1994. At the time, Brekhov had fewer shares than his opponents, so he announced that there wasn't a quorum, rescheduled the meeting, and left, according to testimony. But the others counted their numbers and discovered that 54 percent of the shareholders were present. They elected Zakharenko, then head of Interflot shipping company, as general director of Primorrybprom.

Brekhov appealed to the court, saying the meeting was illegal, and litigation was still going on at the time of Zakharenko's death. Brekhov also accused his competitor of forging the contract for purchasing 6 percent of Primorrybprom's stock, and Zakharenko was jailed pending trial. He faced a possible four- to 10-year sentence and having his property confiscated. And that property included the stock Brekhov needed in order to get control of Primorrybprom again.

The case was set for October, 1995, and Zakharendko was released until trial. And that is when he was murdered. Brekhov would later protest his innocence. "Why did I need to kill Zakharenko, when he would have been found guilty and lost his shares anyway," Brekhov testified in 1995.

But Oleg Ten, a member of the board of directors, said a company reorganization would have cut out Brekhov anyway, dooming his 18 month fight for control of the company.

Brekhov met members of the RNYe political party through his driver, and he bonded with the organization to such an extent that he financed their newspaper and hired party members as guards. Later a group of men, allegedly from the party, beat Ten at the entrance to his home on Nerchinskaya Street, stealing a folder filled with company documents.

"I had no doubt about who had done it," Ten said. "I wrote a complaint to the Leninsky District Police and fingered Brekhov. I told Brekhov the same thing when I met him." Brekhov responded by offering help in finding the lost folder. Police, however, were never able to identify the assailants.

According to testimony, Brekhov met Ologinsky and Shestopalov in the Zamok Okhotnika café and plotted how to kill Zakharenko using RNYe party members. He paid one of the killers, Yevgeny Boiko, a car, and a cash bonus.

Boiko bought TNT from an acquaintance in Nakhodka, and from another friend who worked at Vladivostok's Defense Factory No. 178, he purchased hand grenades. In his home on Russky Island, Boiko made a bomb. And he sent RNYe party members to watch Zakharendko's comings and goings.

On Oct. 3, Boiko set out with Stepanenko, who waited outdoors with two hand grenades, in case the bomb failed to kill Zakharenko. They never need to use them.

The gang was caught, prosaically enough, because of the basest of reasons: greed. Boiko refused to share the 2.5 million ruble bonus with Stepanenko, and so Stepanenko pulled a gun and shot him. Detectives tracked the group, and on Jan. 16 they arrested Brekhov in Zamok Okhotnika, the restaurant where the murder scheme was concocted.

During the investigation, Brekhov refused to cooperate and insisted he was innocent. But at court he suggested that Gov. Nazdratenko had actually ordered Zakharenko's death. Nazdratenko angrily denied the accusation.

Prosecutors dismissed the charge, saying they had investigated and proven Brekhov's role in the case. But one politician, at least, was quick to jump on the accusation. Vladivostok Mayor Viktor Cherepkov sent a letter to Yury Skuratov, Russia's prosecutor general, saying that Brekhov should be given special bodyguards to keep him from being killed off.

"Gov. Yevgeny Nazdratenko and regional prosecutor Valery Vasilenko were direct participants in the criminal process." Cherepkov said.

A 27 May 1998 Moscow Times article states:

In court, Alexander Brekhov, who is accused of a contract killing of Primorrybprom Director Andrei Zakharenko, told the judges about different illegal deals performed by highly placed officials, giving their names, in the Primorrybprom company.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

The Moscow Times. 27 May 1998. "A Brief Look at Stories Making Headlines in the Russian-language Press May 26." (NEIXS)

Vladivostok News. 30 October 1998. "Politics, Business Combine in Director's Death." [Internet] http://vlad.tribnet.com/1998/iss179 [Accessed on 8 Mar. 1999]