vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #162 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Sergei Larionov, alleged godfather of the Larionov criminal gang, was stabbed to death by a fellow inmate at the trial pending prison unit on Partizansky Avenue Feb. 25.

The murder occurred in a corridor near Larionov’s cell, as he and a group of other inmates were being conveyed back to their cells. According to prison sources, the guards were busy locking up one of the inmates, when fellow prisoner Yevgeny Danilenko ran up to the group and stabbed Larionov. The 38-year-old Larionov, who is accused of numerous crimes related to gangsterism and the organisation of a criminal gang during 1992 and 1993, had apparently just returned from a routine meeting with investigators. He and other co-defendents in the trial had been kept at the unit since 1994, apparently in deluxe conditions, police report.

According to prosecutor Sergei Bazhutov, a criminal case has been filed against Danilenko, although the nature of witnesses — other unit inmates — may pose problemes for investigators. A man classified as highly dangerous, with a long criminal record, Danilenko was awaiting trial for a hold-up. He has now been isolated.

Theories about the motive for the murder vary from a simple internal dispute between inmates to a full-blown contract murder. In the course of his trial, Larionov, who intended to plead not guilty, was expected to implicate a number of people in the Vladivostok underworld, who may consequently have ordered his murder, sources said.

In 1993, Sergei Larionov and his younger brother Alexander were high profile figures in Vladivostok’s crime world. Before he was arrested Sergei headed the joint-stock company Kioey-Auto, was a co-owner of a security firm, controlled various companies, and owned a sizeable stake in shipping company Vostoktransflot. Sergei Larionov and other gang members were arrested after his brother Alexander was assassinated in 1994. Investigators say Larionov was involved in the punishment of his brother’s assassins by locking them in a garage full of carbon monoxide fumes.