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The history of the formation of the political and economic elite in the Sverdlovsk region

Aslan Rashidovich Usoyan ("Grandfather Hasan")

Born on February 27, 1937 in Tbilisi (Georgia). By nationality - Yezidi.

He graduated from school and at the age of 19 received his first term for resisting police officers - 1.5 years in prison. Then, in 1956, the Supreme Court of the Georgian SSR re-qualified the criminal case, and Usoyan was released "after serving his term, counting working days." However, he did not walk for long. On January 15, 1959, the Stalin District Court of Tbilisi sentenced Usoyan for robbery to five years in prison (released on parole).

According to information published on the Internet, in the late 1950s, Aslan Usoyan began to engage in racketeering of shadow businessmen (shop assistants) in Georgia together with thief in law Ilo Devdariani, who, allegedly, was one of the first to master this type of criminal business. In the first half of the 1960s, Devdariani was killed.

On December 28, 1966, Aslan Usoyan was again in the dock. Now the court of the Oktyabrsky district of Tbilisi sentenced him for speculation to 3 years in prison. On June 24, 1968, Usoyan was released on parole by order of the People's Court of the Tsulukidze District of Georgia.

Different sources published different data on when exactly Aslan Usoyan received the title of “thief in law”: in 1957 (from “thief in law” Ilo Devdariani), in 1963, during his release in 1966-1968.

On August 3, 1984, Usoyan again appeared before the Supreme Court of the Georgian SSR for selling counterfeit gold coins to the natives of Uzbekistan and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He served his term in Tbilisi (Georgia), Tobolsk (Tyumen region), Krasnoyarsk Territory, Omsk Region. In 1989, Usoyan was serving his sentence in the White Swan colony (Perm Territory). Information was published that in this colony in those years, criminal authorities were being processed, who were forced to cooperate with the authorities. In 1990, Usoyan was transferred from the White Swan colony to serve his sentence in the Sverdlovsk Region. By the decision of the Nizhniy Tagil court on December 28, 1991, he was released on parole.

Information was published that while serving his sentence in ITK-17 in the Sverdlovsk region, Ded Khasan subordinated almost the entire prison world of the Urals to his influence. The operational department of the Department of Correctional Affairs of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Sverdlovsk Region, under the guise of operational contact, concluded an unspoken agreement with Usoyan that, using his authority among the prisoners, he would ensure order in seven correctional institutions in Nizhny Tagil.

While serving his sentence, Usoyan “crowned” several “thieves”, including his nephew Temuri Mirzoev, nicknamed Timur Tbilissky (in the 2000s, the media began to call him Timur Sverdlovsky). It was reported that the coronation procedure of Mirzoyev took place in the fall of 1989 in one of the premises of the remand prison. Mirzoev became Usoyan's representative "at large" in the Sverdlovsk region. Shadow businessman Igor Tarlanov supported Temuri Mirzoev in the Sverdlovsk region. Tarlanov was Assyrian by nationality, and Usoyan and Mirzoev were Yezidis. Historically, close ties have developed between the Assyrians and the Yezidis, including, possibly, kindred ones, which led to the partnership of Usoyan and Mirzoev with Tarlanov.

In the late 1980s, the state allowed citizens to engage in private entrepreneurship in the form of cooperatives. An insufficiently well-developed regulatory framework and weak state control have led to a flourishing of crime in this area. Many cooperators knowingly or not violated laws, as a result of which, to solve problems, they had to turn not to law enforcement agencies, but to criminal structures. The number of these cooperators was so great that the old criminal structure collecting "tribute" from the "guilds" was not enough. To "cover" and collect tribute from cooperators Temuri Mirzoev created his own group, the headquarters of which was the Sverdlovsk restaurant "Kosmos", controlled by Igor Tarlanov. In close connection with the group of Mirzoyev and Tarlanov, the organized criminal group "Center" of Oleg Vagin was active, in which athletes and former employees of state power structures were actively involved. It is quite possible that the OCG "Center" was originally created with the support of Usoyan and Tarlanov.

Information was published that Usoyan was involved in the supply of drugs from Uzbekistan to the Sverdlovsk region, from where drugs were supplied to other Russian regions. It was reported that Usoyan's partners in Tashkent were Salim Abduvaliev and Gafur Rakhimov. Perhaps as a result of this connection, the natives of Uzbekistan Mikhail Chernoi and Iskandar Makhmudov began to actively operate in the Sverdlovsk region, which resulted in the creation of one of the largest financial and industrial groups in the Sverdlovsk region - the Ural mining and metallurgical company.

In 1991, a war broke out in Yekaterinburg between criminal groups. The main opposing parties were called the OCG "Center" of Oleg Vagin and the OCG "Uralmash" of the Tsyganov brothers. In March 1992, at the height of this war, Aslan Usoyan was released. In May 1992, Usoyan's partner Igor Tarlanov was shot dead. Information was published that in August 1992 the influential Sverdlovsk authorities Kukla (Sidorenko Viktor Borisovich) and Bozhenka condemned Usoyan's actions, which led to a wave of violence. In the media, as versions of the reasons for the criminal war, they called the confrontation of a new wave of criminal authorities (athletes) with the authorities of the old formation - thieves in law. However, this is hardly true. For example, the leaders of the Uralmash organized crime group in the fight against the clan of Aslan Usoyan supported another thief in law - Korogly Mamedov (Karo), who, by the way, just like Usoyan, was a Yezidi by nationality.

In June 1992, in Nizhny Tagil, Korogly Mamedov took part in the "coronation" of the Sverdlovsk crime boss Andrei Anatolyevich Trofimov (Trof). Subsequently, Andrei Trofimov will be in close contact with Korogly Mamedov. Judging by the fact that Aslan Usoyan also took part in the "coronation" of Trofimov, there was still no conflict between Usoyan and Mamedov, although at that time a war was already raging between the Yekaterinburg organized crime groups "Center", in the creation of which Usoyan probably took part, and OPG "Uralmash", which will later become an ally Mamedov.

Information was published that after his release Usoyan lived a little in Yekaterinburg, then officially registered in Gorodovikovsk (Kalmykia), but spent most of his time in Moscow and the North Caucasus. It was reported that in Moscow the Usoyan clan was lobbying the most influential thief in law Rafael Baghdasaryan (Rafik Erevansky or Raf Svo), who died in June 1993.

In 1994, Aslan Usoyan moved to St. Petersburg. Information was published that support for Usoyan in St. Petersburg was provided by the criminal authority Konstantin Yakovlev ("Kostya-grave"), but probably more significant was the support of the Assyrian Georges Avdyshev, who was called the assistant to the deputy chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg and who was the brother of the criminal the authority of Julvern Avdyshev. Perhaps Aslan Usoyan's move from Yekaterinburg to St. Petersburg was due to the close ties between the Assyrian diasporas of these cities.

On May 30, 1995, in Moscow, in the framework of criminal case No. 30010, Usoyan was detained by officers of the RUBOP of St. Petersburg and the UOP Minvod. During a search at the place of residence, operatives seized about two kilograms of gold and 380 thousand US dollars.

Usoyan himself has repeatedly stated that he is a simple pensioner and does not participate in criminal cases.

After the arrest in June 1995 in the United States of thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik), Aslan Usoyan became the formal holder of the thieves' common fund and one of the most influential authorities in the criminal world of the post-Soviet space. Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik), Datiko Tsikhelashvili (Dato Tashkentsky), Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov (Taiwanchik), Evgeny Vasin (Jem) were included in the closest circle of Aslan Usoyan.

Korogly Mamedov had a younger brother, Mirian Mamedov (Miron), who was also a “thief in law”. In February 1995, Mirian Mammadov gathered a gathering in Moscow, at which he raised the issue of depriving Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro-Molodoy) of the title of thief in law, a member of Aslan Usoyan's clan, due to the fact that he is engaged in drug trafficking. Perhaps the cause of the conflict between Mamedov and Usoyan was the aggravation of relations between the thief in law Aksen (Sergei Mikhailovich Aksenov - "Izmailovskaya" organized criminal group in Moscow) and Zakhary Kalashov. Information was published that the reason for the conflict between Aksenov and Kalashov was the division of the aluminum business. In January 1996, Mirian Mamedov was killed in Moscow. It was argued that the reason for the murder was the enmity of the Mammadov clan with the clan of Aslan Usoyan. After the murder of Mirian Mammadov, at a thieves' meeting, it was decided that the "overseer" of the Samara region would instead be thief in law Anzor under the supervision of Zakhary Kalashov. Taking this into account, it is possible that the real reason for the conflict between Mamedov and Kalashov was the issue of control over the Samara region, where the largest automobile plant AvtoVAZ was located, which served as a source of income, including for criminal groups. Another version of the reasons for the start of the criminal was the conflict between Aslan Usoyan and Rudolf Oganov (Rudik Bakinsky) after the death in 1993 of the recognized crime boss Rafael Baghdasaryan, who patronized Usoyan.

It should be noted that a significant part of the criminal authorities who have joined one or another side of the conflict can be conditionally divided according to their "national orientation" towards Armenia or Azerbaijan, often regardless of their real nationality. Thus, the clan of Aslan Usoyan was dominated by crime bosses with surnames of Armenian origin (the ending of surnames in -yan). And on the side of Korogly Mamedov, criminal authorities with surnames of Azerbaijani origin or who had lived in Azerbaijan for a considerable time (before the start of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict) prevailed. Part of the middle name (and in the case of Korogly Mamedov himself, the name) of Oglu indicates his Azerbaijani origin. Rudolf Oganov, who was on the side of Mamedov, although he was an Armenian by nationality, lived a significant part of his life in Azerbaijan and received the nickname Rudik Bakinsky. In addition, among the enemies of Aslan Usoyan, the actual Azerbaijani criminal authorities, for example, Rovshan Dzhaniev, were mentioned. It is quite possible that the conditionally “Armenian” and conditionally “Azerbaijani” clans of Yezidi crime bosses existed for a long time, but until a certain time there was a truce between them, and in the mid-1990s, contradictions led to the outbreak of a criminal war.

In June 1997, at a thieves' meeting in Sochi, Korogly Mamedov questioned Usoyan's "thieves" authority due to the fact that he was engaged in drug trafficking and the supply of technical alcohol for making fake vodka.

In July 1996, Usoyan was detained by employees of the St. Petersburg RUOP in the car of a near-criminal businessman Zhorzh Avdyshev. Under Usoyan, a TT pistol was found, and a large sum of money was found in his apartment (at the same time Usoyan's son was detained in Moscow). In a short time, a large bail was paid for Usoyan, and he was released. For a while Usoyan was forced to leave Petersburg, but soon returned.

In 2001, Usoyan's cousin Boris Pashayev, who worked in one of the Moscow Interior Ministry units for combating organized crime, was accused of robbery, abuse of authority and rape, after which he fled to Georgia. Usoyan often used Pashayev's services to discredit competitors: he obtained for Usoyan incriminating photos of "authorities" who were serving time, or planted weapons and drugs on those who interfered with Usoyan's freedom. Despite the fact that Pashayev was put on the wanted list by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, he got a job as a lawyer in Georgia.

It was alleged that Aslan Usoyan had extensive connections among corrupt officials, the FSB and the Interior Ministry.

In 2004, the leader of the Uralmash organized crime group, Alexander Khabarov, gathered a gathering of loyal crime bosses in the center of Yekaterinburg. During his speech, Khabarov said that he supported the criminal authorities Trofa (Andrei Trofimov) and Karo (Korogly Mamedov) and would not tolerate attempts to dispose of them by Aslan Usoyan. Among those who "stir up" against Trofa and Karo Khabarov mentioned Timur (Temuri Mirzoev), Avto (Avtandil Kobeshavidze) and Kazaryan (Eduard Kazaryan), whom Khabarov especially noted as the instigator of criminal clashes. Among the negotiable authorities, Khabarov mentioned the leader of the organized criminal group "Center" Varaksin. The demonstrative gathering in the center of Yekaterinburg and the mention of the undesirability of inciting interethnic conflicts was probably addressed to the federal center and state power structures, so that they would take action and extinguish the conflict in the bud. But Khabarov's calculation turned out to be wrong. Law enforcement agencies first of all hit not on Usoyan and Kazaryan, who were in the shadows, but on Aleksandr Khabarov, who dared to bring the conflict to the public plane. He was charged with coercion into a deal with Bank24.ru shares and driven to suicide in a pre-trial detention center in January 2005. It is not entirely clear in this whole story the role of the leader of the organized criminal group "Center" Alexander Varaksin, who was also accused in the case with the bank's shares, but came out dry. A version was expressed that Varaksin did not actually conflict with Usoyan and Kazaryan, but played along with them, luring Alexander Khabarov into a trap.

Among Moscow crime bosses, Alexander Khabarov announced his support for Aksen (Sergei Mikhailovich Aksenov - "Izmailovskaya" organized criminal group) and Baiko (Sergei Nikolayevich Kutateladze), who were in conflict with the criminal clans of Aslan Usoyan and Zakhary Kalashov.

It should be noted that Khabarov tried to play the national card, claiming that he was protecting Yekaterinburg from the expansion of Caucasian crime bosses. And some media picked up this topic, presenting the conflict as a showdown between Caucasian and Slavic crime bosses. In reality, the conflict was probably between two Yezidi clans - the clan of Aslan Usoyan and the clan of Korogly Mamedov, in which Alexander Khabarov sided with Mamedov.

When Vyacheslav Ivankov (Yaponchik) returned to Moscow in the summer of 2005, it was Usoyan who provided him with a monetary allowance in the form of a share in the business and deductions from the thieves' fund (Slavic groups and "authorities" limited themselves to only expressing tribute and recognition of past "merits"). It should be noted that Vyacheslav Ivankov was married to an Assyrian woman, in connection with which he had the nickname Assyrian Son-in-law. As noted above, the Yezidis, to whom Aslan Usoyan belonged, have close ties with the Assyrians.

In May 2006, thief in law Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), like Usoyan, who came from a Yezidi family, was arrested in the United Arab Emirates and extradited to Spain. The division of his huge business empire in Russia and Western Europe resulted in a conflict between the clans of Usoyan, who sided with Lasha Shushanashvili (Lasha Rustavsky), and another influential thief in law, Tariel Oniani (Taro). By this time, the actual headquarters of Usoyan was a separate office in the Moscow restaurant "Old Phaeton" on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Here he received visitors, including high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, and resolved criminal and commercial disputes.

In parallel with the war against the Oniani clan in 2009, Usoyan intervened in another bloody war between two thieves' clans for control of the Moscow vegetable market. On one side of the conflict was the clan of the "thief in law" Bakhysh Aliyev (Vakha), who was supported by Aslan Usoyan. They were opposed by the clan of “thief in law” Rovshan Dzhaniev (Rovshan Lenkoransky), who during his time in Vakhi's imprisonment seized many assets and actually established control over the wholesale market for greenery in the Moscow region.

On the evening of September 16, 2010, an attempt was made on Aslan Usoyan's life on Tverskaya Street in the courtyard of 12/7 in Moscow. He came to visit the son of Nodari, who lived in this building, and according to other sources, he lived in this house for a long time, having registered an apartment for his son. After the assassination attempt, Usoyan retired for a while. He lived in one of the mansions in Lyubertsy, which belonged to the brothers-in-law Pipia, and handed over his powers to his close thief in law Lasha Shushanashvili (Lasha Rustavsky). According to operational information, the main conflict areas, because of which Usoyan could be assassinated, were financial flows around the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi and the territory on which the Cherkizovsky market was previously located, which was closed by the authorities in 2009. In addition, many sources pointed to the enmity and recriminations that arose in the criminal world after the injury and death of Yaponchik. After finishing treatment, Usoyan moved exclusively in an armored car, surrounded by a group of Yezidi and Armenian bodyguards.

In May 2012, thief in law Merali Musoyan, nicknamed Omar, died during his arrest near Anapa. This Yezidi was a close friend of Usoyan and one of the most influential "authorities" in the Krasnodar Territory. After that, Usoyan's positions were shaken, and he himself became isolated and began to wish only a quiet life. Almost all the affairs of the clan were managed by his nephews Dmitry Chanturia (Miron) (interests in Yaroslavl and the Moscow region) and Temuri Mirzoev (Timur Tbilissky or Timur Sverdlovsky) (interests in Yekaterinburg), as well as nephews Oko and Tengiz (interests in Moscow, including the network shops, and a vodka business in the Krasnodar Territory). Yuri Usoyan (Yura Lazarevsky) controlled the state of affairs in the Krasnodar Territory, and the Yezidi Gadi Kaloyan (Onik) represented the interests of the clan in Kazakhstan. "Crowned" by Usoyan, "thief in law" Yusif Aliyev, nicknamed Yuska or Yusif Bakinsky, was in charge of the Azerbaijani community in Moscow and the sale of vegetables and fruits in capital markets. The Yezidi community was supervised by another friend of Usoyan - the "thief in law" Valery Farizov (Valera Tbilissky or Valera Kurd) who had made peace with him.

According to the Italian police, on September 18, 2012, Merab Dzhangveladze (Merab Sukhumsky) gathered his closest associates in Rome to discuss a protracted war with the clan of Aslan Usoyan. According to some reports, the rally was also attended by Usoyan's enemies from other clans, including thieves in law Rovshan Dzhaniev and Dzhemal Mikeladze, nicknamed Dzhemo, who were members of the leadership of the so-called “united opposition”. During a telephone conversation with Oniani, who at that time was in prison, the thieves decided to liquidate Aslan Usoyan.

Aslan Usoyan was killed in January 2013.

At first, it was reported that the new leader of Aslan Usoyan's clan was his nephew, a young “thief in law” Dmitry Chanturia (Miron). But later it was asserted that his other nephew Temuri Mirzoev (Timur Tbilissky) became Usoyan's successor, who by that time was already called Timur Sverdlovsky due to the fact that he represented Usoyan's interests mainly in the Sverdlovsk region.

After Mirzoev's death in January 2014, Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) took the leading place in Aslan Usoyan's clan, who returned to Russia from Spain in October 2014.


Despite the ban on thieves in law to have a family, Aslan Usoyan had a common-law spouse - Dulsha Avdoev (born in 1937). She gave birth to Usoyanu two children - Nodari (born in 1962), who previously worked as the director of the Stolichny supermarket and is the founder of several commercial structures, and daughter Nunu (born in 1960). Perhaps the presence of the Usoyan family is due to the fact that he was crowned a thief in law after the birth of his children.

Date of information update: 2017.