Nine persons died when Yak-40 crashed after takeoff at
08:43 Moscow Time at Sheremetyevo-1 Airport on March 9. Interfax reports
that Flight 9651 Moscow-Kyiv crashed immediately after takeoff for reasons
that are still to be determined.
The established names among the passengers include Artem
Borovik, president of the Sovershenno Sekretno [Top Secret] holding company
and a noted Russian journalist, two of his aides, and Ziya Bazhayev, president
of the Alliance Group.
The presence onboard of the well-known journalist and businessman
has given rise to quite a number of leads. As always in such cases, sources
asking to remain unidentified insist that there was an explosion before
the plane caught fire. The Ekho Moskvy (Moscow Echo) Radio Station says
the crash could be the result of an act of terrorism. Sheremetyevo-1 management
rejects such allegations, insisting the onboard systems developed malfunctions
(to be ascertained after decoding the black box). Rudolf Teimurazov, deputy
chairman of the Intergovernmental Aviation Committee in Moscow, informed
the jet liner was to be discarded next July. Its flying record numbered
24 of 25 admissible years, meaning that its technological potential was
almost exhausted. Mr. Teimurazov, however, said he was sure the pilot,
Sergei Yakushkin, was not to blame. He was a first class pilot with a log
of some 7,000 hours in the air. Some light could be shed on the case after
establishing the plane’s ownership and who chartered the flight, yet here
one finds more questions than answers. While the Yak-40’s registration
presents no problem (Aviation Enterprise of Vologda), no one seems to know
who chartered the flight. AFES Co., the plane’s insurer, says the flight
could have been chartered by Aerotex Co. which had, allegedly, leased it
on previous occasions. This information has not been corroborated.
Artem Borovik, journalist and businessman, was born on
September 13, 1962. Graduate of International Journalism Department, Moscow
Institute for International Relations. Since 1991, anchored RTR’s journalist
investigation program “Top Secret” and was chief editor of the title weekly.
Nikolai Ziatkov, editor of the weekly Argumenty i fakty
who knew Borovik well, says Artem was not much for mixing with celebrities
or other journalists. Always remaining somewhat aloof, getting any newsworthy
information out of him and about him was a very big problem. A while ago,
however, he confided in Ziatkov, saying he had to hire bodyguards because
the kind of publications his weekly carried caused anger in certain quarters,
including the underworld.
Aleksandr Ryklin, observer with political desk of Moscow’s
Itogi magazine, agrees that Sovershenno Sekretno carried
hot critical stories, adding that the situation in the Russian media is
quite tense (Artem Borovik recently spoke of the redistribution of Russian
information space in an interview with NTV). However, Mr. Ryklin does not
think this reason enough to start hunting down journalists. Even if the
terrorist act lead proves valid, he thinks the target was Bazhayev, not
Borovik.
Alliance Group President Ziya Bazhayev is very well known
in the Russian oil business. In 1995-96, after the first Chechnya War,
he was assigned by the Russian government to restore Chechnya’s oil complex.
He was president of the South Oil Company (of Chechnya) and then of the
well-known oil company SIDANKO. In April 1998, he became president of the
Alliance Group Company specializing in anticrisis programs for the oil
and chemical industries. Since October 1999, Alliance Group has been the
executive manager of the government interest in the Kherson Oil Refinery,
acting on behalf of Kazakhoil Co. and the governments of Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
He was on the “cadre reserve” lists of the Russian Ministry of Fuel and
Energy and is said to have been considered a candidate for the ministerial
post.
Sergei Lakunov, head of the Alliance Group’s press service,
told The Day that Mr. Bazhayev was flying to Kyiv on a business
trip in line with the Kherson Refinery’s anticrisis program, nothing out
of the ordinary. He added that Borovik and Bazhayev were good friends,
and that Bazhayev supported Borovik’s idea to publish the newspaper Versiyi
[Versions] in Ukraine. Mr. Lakunov insisted that Alliance Group and
the Sovershenno Sekretno holding company were planning a cooperation agreement,
and not only with regard to the Versiyi. He further informed that
Ziya Bazhayev wanted to fly to Kazakhstan from Kyiv to take part in the
talks between the governments, scheduled for March 10.
Sources close to the Kherson Oil Refinery believe that
Bazhayev’s death (after UNIAN’s allegation it was an act of terrorism)
will not in any way affect oil supplies (100,000 tons monthly, albeit somewhat
lower than envisaged by the contract). The said sources, however, point
to certain difficulties Alliance Group has encountered selling oil in Ukraine.
Lavrentiy Malazoniya, an independent TV producer, believes
Bazhayev and Borovik were flying to Ukraine to negotiate projects developed
by the publishing holding company Sovershenno Sekretno. Apart from the
publishing business, Artem Borovik was quite active in television (e.g.,
NTV version of the Sovershenno Sekretno). In the latest “Anthropology”
episode with Dibrov on NTV, Artem Borovik declared he was collecting data
on the Mykolayiv Alumina Plant, and that he intended to lobby for Russian
business interests.
The Journalists’ Union of Russia issued a statement mourning
the tragic death of Artem Borovik.
№8 March 14 2000 «The
Day»
In using our publications, reference to The Day is
mandatory. © "День"
