Russia Update: Suspect in Assault of Kashin Claims to Have Audio Tape Incriminating Turchak

A suspect in the case of the brutal beating of journalist Oleg Kashin in 2010 has said he can provide testimony proving that Governor Andrei Turchak of the Pskov Region ordered the assault, TV Rain and Novaya Gazeta report.

Danila Veyolov has demanded a meeting in person with Turchak, his wife Aleksandra Vesyolova told TV Rain (translation by The Interpreter):

“My husband is prepared to provide an audio tape exposing Turchak and Gorbunov, but his offer to provide evidence to the court has twice been turned down. They do not believe my husband, that Turchak himself ordered the crime.”

In the Russian criminal justice system, both the prosecution and the defense can organize meetings in person between plaintiffs and defendants before trial to obtain more information for the case.

Vesyolova told TV Rain that she feared for herself and her children, because Gorbunov had repeatedly threatened her with reprisals if she disclosed the tape.

Earlier Vesyolova had told Kommersant that she had a tape of Aleksandr Gorbunov, her husband’s boss in a factory security department, discussing the attack with Turchak, and Turchak saying that Kashin should be beaten up “so he can’t write anymore.” Gorbunov was arrested on charges of possession of unlawful weapons in another case, and then released from pre-trial detention last month.

Turchak has not been interrogated in the case and has refused to comment.

Turchak’s father, Anatoly Turchak, president of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg, was a judo sparring partner of Putin’s in his youth.

Andrei Turchak was elected governor of Pskov Region last year in the first gubernatorial elections in a decade.

Vesyolov’s lawyers, Denis Gerasimov and Gennady Li were ordered not to disclose information from the case. An investigator told Gerasimov that his work would be hindered if he refused to do this. So now the attorneys refuse to comment on the latest developments.

So far, Vesyolov has pled guilty, but the second alleged assailant, Mikhail Kavtaskin, has denied his involvement in the attack on Kashin. Another suspect, Vyacheslav Borisov, has gone into hiding. All three men were employees of the security department of the Mechanics Factory, one of a number of businesses in the holding company Leninets owned by Turchak’s father.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick