Criminal body: what is known about the family of the murdered ex-mayor of Samara

The accused in the murder of ex-Mayor of Samara Viktor Tarkhov and his wife faces up to 20 years in prison, lawyers believe. The arrested person - Tarkhov's granddaughter Ekaterina Belskaya - attracted attention when she tried to sell her grandfather's car under a forged power of attorney. According to Izvestiya's source, Belskaya could dismember the bodies of the victims and transported the remains by cab. The interlocutor specified that the evidence base against the accused is already serious: at the time of her arrest, there were parts of the bodies in the apartment, during the search she was found phones and passports of the murdered. The Tarkhov family has already appeared in the criminal chronicle. Ekaterina's mother Lyudmila was convicted of extortion for seven years, and her father, who had been convicted several times, was called a criminal mastermind nicknamed Lord by the media . Read more about the high-profile case and criminal stories associated with the family of the ex-mayor - in the material "Izvestia".

Why the granddaughter is suspected in the murder of Viktor Tarkhov

"The samurai has no goal, there is only the way" - such a signature to one of his accounts in social networks left 29-year-old Ekaterina Belskaya. At the moment, the "path" has led her to a pre-trial detention center: on February 5, the court arrested her for two months on charges of murdering her grandfather, former mayor of Samara Viktor Tarkhov, and his wife Natalia.

The disappearance and probable death of the couple became known in the morning of February 5. The alarm was raised by Tarkhov's former deputy in the mayor's office of Samara Alexander Kuznetsov. In the New Year holidays could not get through to the former chief. He hung up and wrote back that he couldn't talk, and then he wrote that he had urgently taken his wife with a stroke to Moscow, and asked his granddaughter Ekaterina for all questions.

As a result, on January 31, he wrote a statement to the police about the disappearance of the man. "In the course of verification of the applicant's arguments, it was established that the missing man and his wife were last in touch at the end of December 2024," read the report of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of the Samara region.

Belskaya immediately fell under suspicion. When the police came to her house, she did not open the door for about five hours, a concierge who acted as a witness told Izvestia.

- There were a lot of police, 25 people. Then she did open the door. The police told her: "Call your grandparents, and we'll leave right away. Call them and make sure they are alive and well. And she says that her phone does not work, or there is no charger," - said the woman.

Having examined the recordings from video surveillance cameras, the investigation found that Tarkhov and his wife last entered their entrance at the end of December and never came out again. But Ekaterina Belskaya came and left the apartment many times, taking out some packages, and several times - large 100-liter barrels.

The regional directorate of the Investigative Committee said that Belskaya had been preparing for the murder for a long time. For this purpose, she purchased canisters with a chemical agent and plastic containers.

According to Izvestiya's source, as a priority version is considered that the granddaughter dismembered the bodies of her relatives, and then gradually took their fragments out of the house and took them away by cab. Some parts of the bodies remained in the apartment at the time of detention, our interlocutor said. During the search Belskaya was found passports and cell phones of Viktor and Natalia Tarkhov.

It was from these phones that SMS-messages were sent for the last month - Victor and Natalia Tarkhov as if they even continued to write to each other. The investigation believes that the dialogs of the dead relatives were imitated by Belskaya.

Law enforcement authorities have already established the places of sale of jewelry that belonged to the Tarkhovs. Some time ago Belskaya tried to sell a car belonging to her grandfather under a forged power of attorney, after which law enforcement officers became interested in her. The IC reported that the sold car, which was previously owned by the suspect's grandmother, has already been found in Samara.

Who is Viktor Tarkhov

Victor Tarkhov once graduated from the chemical engineering faculty of Samara State University. After that, he got a job at the local Syntezspirt plant, and 10 years later became its director. By 1990, Tarkhov became chairman of the regional executive committee of the Council of People's Deputies. In 1992, he became head of the Novokuibyshevsk Refinery, which was then owned by Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Yukos company.

In the late 1990s, he founded a company - a manufacturer of domestic ultra-light aircraft under the brand name "Sigma" - "Samara VVV-Avia". And in 2006, Tarkhov decided to return to politics and won the election for mayor of Samara - he ran the city until 2010.

For the last few years, Viktor Tarkhov and his wife Natalia lived in Finland and returned shortly before the murder.

- He always had an entourage, in addition to security, he was always surrounded by some people. He is a man from the 90s, from Novokuibyshevsk, who is used to, as you might say, such attributes," said local journalist Vitaly Papilkin.

In the winter of 2008, Viktor Tarkhov found himself at the center of a scandal. Then the city experienced the heaviest snowfall, the regional authorities declared a state of emergency. The prosecutor's inspection came to the conclusion that the municipal system was not ready for extreme conditions: the equipment was defective, snow removal and removal were not organized. Several dozen administrative cases were initiated, the mayor was going to be held criminally liable, but the case never reached the court.

"And to step over me in those days was impossible. All the explanation! Here, so to speak, the creative part of the oligarchic entrepreneurs agreed with the current gubernaya authorities. And that's it, I'm no good, I'm bad, I must be changed. All this was poured into the ears of the population," Viktor Tarkhov said at the time, responding to the attacks in his direction.

State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev noted that "Tarkhov was a man without malice, good-natured, a great lover of fishing and outdoor recreation".

- At the same time, in some places he was rather useless as a leader and not very obligatory," the parliamentarian noted.

After leaving politics, Tarkhov took up a new project - a network of gas stations "Vityazi" and was its co-owner. Now Viktor Tarkhov has a 38.7% stake in Novitrek LLC. The company is engaged in processing waste from oil refineries.

The criminal saga of the Tarkhov family

Representatives of the Tarkhov family were periodically mentioned in criminal chronicles. Thus, Victor Tarkhov's daughter Lyudmila was married to businessman Sergei Loginov, whom the media dubbed a criminal authority nicknamed Lord. Under this nickname he passed in police reports as a previously convicted member of the Mukoedov organized crime group. Its members were associated with the theft of oil products at the Novokuibyshevsk refinery.

In 1994 Loginov was sentenced under Articles 208 ("Buying stolen goods") and 196 ("Using a knowingly false document") of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. The birth of his daughter Ekaterina the man met in places of imprisonment, from which he returned only in 1997. After that, Sergei and Lyudmila got married.

"Back in the late 80's he (Sergei Loginov. - "Izvestia") had friendly relations with [well-known criminal leader from Novokuibyshevsk] Konstantin Berkut. Together they started out in petty racketeering. They hung out in discos together. It seems that together with Berkut and met [the daughter of the head of the Novokuibyshevsk refinery YUKOS] Lyudmila Tarkhova," wrote about Lord in his blog Oleg Ivanets, author of books about the criminal life of Samara.

With Lyudmila Tarkhova Loginov separated in 2006, shortly before her father became mayor. And in 2010 he was charged with embezzlement of oil for 21 million rubles, illegal possession of weapons, explosives and drugs and attempted murder of an FSB officer. According to the investigation, Loginov ordered to kill an officer of the special service who was developing him with the help of a poisonous substance in the passenger compartment of the car.

As "Izvestia" managed to find out from the court decision on the deprivation of Loginov's driving license, by 2020 he was released, officially lived on the pension of the liquidator of the Chernobyl accident and raised two children from another marriage.

In 2022, the case of Lyudmila herself came to court. She was sentenced to seven years of general regime colony for extortion. According to the case materials, Tarkhova together with an accomplice extorted 200 million rubles from the deputy of the Samara Gubernaya Duma of the VI convocation Alexander Mileyev. Otherwise, she threatened to give the media some dirt, which she allegedly had.

Alexander Mileev filed an extortion report with the FSB, and then informed Tarkhova that he was ready to pay her for her silence. On July 12, 2021, Tarkhova arrived at the address to collect the money and was detained by law enforcers.

Lyudmila did not admit her guilt. She stated that in January 2013, together with her father, Viktor Tarkhov, she brought two suitcases of money to the deputy. According to her, Mileev asked to borrow $2.5 million at 20% interest for three years. But he never returned the money.

Against the background of all these turbulent events were the childhood and youth of the only granddaughter of the former mayor of Samara - Ekaterina. The girl changed her surname and even her patronymic several times. Once she got into a rehab. After treatment she married Israeli Vladislav Pasik, from whom she had a son in 2018. In the divorce, the woman managed to sue him for about 15 million rubles, the child was left to live with her.

Such, to put it mildly, strained relations with relatives and personal financial problems, and the investigation considers the main motive for the murder of Viktor Tarkhov and his wife. Allegedly, after the arrest of her mother, her grandmother controlled Ekaterina's expenses, including access to the funds sued from her ex-husband.

In 2020, Lyudmila Tarkhova tried to get custody of her daughter's child: through the court she wanted to recognize Ekaterina as having limited legal capacity - the girl allegedly took drugs and got into debt. The court did not accept the case for consideration.

Now, as Ludmila Tarkhova's lawyer Andrei Karnomazov told Izvestia, the child is in an orphanage. The father's whereabouts are unknown, he has been living in Israel for some time. The boy will be handed over to close relatives for foster care.

What threatens the accused

The sanction for committing the murder of two or more persons provides for imprisonment from 8 to 20 years, Vladimir Kuznetsov, chairman of the All-Russian Union of Mediators, reminded Izvestia.

- It can be assumed that the suspect, if found guilty, will be imprisoned for 16-18 years," he said. - At the same time, the qualification of the crime may be adjusted during the investigation, for example, in connection with the establishment of selfish motives of the suspect.

Criminal defense lawyer Tatyana Pashkevich noted that the guilt of the accused in the murder of the ex-mayor of Samara and his wife will be proved with the help of various expert examinations, as well as video recordings from surveillance cameras. They will also check her movements by uploading the data of her cellular operator.

- In such a category of crimes, when there is a suspect, proving her guilt will not be difficult for law enforcement officers, - said the expert.

Also, Ekaterina Belskaya will be appointed a complex psychological and psychiatric examination - it will help to establish whether the girl was sane at the time of the murder of her relatives, the lawyer added.