The Lomonosov District Court of the Leningrad Region sentenced Vyacheslav Tolmachev to 15 years in a penal colony for four murders committed in the 1990s. The regional department of the Investigative Committee of Russia disclosed the resolution of the Saint Petersburg killings, news outlet 78.ru reported.
Fontanka identified Tolmachev as a staff hitman for the Malyshev gang. Investigators said Tolmachev joined the organized crime group in October 1994, committing the killings to redistribute criminal influence and conceal crimes.
Tolmachev was involved in the 1994 liquidation of gang member Andrey Borovikov, known as Andrey Bolshoy, who was shot with a sawed-off shotgun in Lomonosov. In early 1995, Tolmachev killed Alexey Schinov, another gang member who planned to join a rival group.
Victims and Motives
Schinov was lured to a meeting with the hitman by a female friend and was later found with his throat slit at a dump near the Saint Petersburg State University cryogenic workshop. The female friend and gang member Alexey Markin were later found dead with gunshot wounds near the Ring Road in the Bolshaya Izhora area.
Investigators said the pair were killed for participating in Schinov's murder and for talking too much. Tolmachev has already served two prison sentences for the killings of women.
