At the end of January, Mikhail Timofeyev, a former aide to ex–Khabarovsk Krai governor Sergei Furgal, was detained in Georgia. Russian authorities accuse him of organizing contract killings on Furgal’s orders, while federal media describe him as the leader of an organized crime group that included members of his sports club "Moses." Timofeyev himself denies these accusations claiming instead that for many years he and members of his sports club worked together with the FSB. He also boasts of having helped Furgal win the gubernatorial election by deceiving Moscow, then of changing the composition of the regional legislature. The Kremlin did not forget, and it did not forgive Timofeyev and Furgal for any of this.
The people’s governor
In July 2020, the sitting governor of Khabarovsk Krai, Sergei Furgal, was detained in the regional capital of Khabarovsk. A special operations team pulled him out of an expensive SUV right in the middle of the street, forced him into a blue minibus, and took him to the airport to be flown to Moscow. There, under heavy guard, the national capital’s Basmanny District Court authorized the governor’s arrest.
At the time of his detention, Furgal had been governor of Khabarovsk Krai for two years after defeating United Russia candidate Vyacheslav Shport in 2018. Frugal enjoyed broad public support, and following his arrest, mass protests erupted in Khabarovsk, drawing tens of thousands of people and continuing until 2021.
Furgal was immediately charged with two contract killings – those of businessmen Yevgeny Zorya and Oleg Bulatov – and with the attempted murder of entrepreneur Alexander Smolsky, all allegedly committed in the period 2004–2005.
The authorities’ preparation of the criminal case had not been a secret. The investigation into the old murders had been abruptly revived in April 2019, and in the fall of that year, Furgal’s business partner Nikolai Mistryukov was detained and placed in Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. While there, he gave incriminating testimony against the governor.
Scrap metal turf wars
The murder of businessman Yevgeny Zorya took place in October 2004 and remained a “cold case” for nearly fifteen years. The hitman lay in wait for the businessman in the evening as he walked from a guarded parking lot to his home in Khabarovsk and shot him with a standard-issue Makarov pistol that had been lost back in 1995. He then discarded the weapon at the scene and fled, taking neither the documents nor the money that Zorya had been carrying. The businessman himself split time between two countries and had returned to Russia from Canada two days before his death.
As the newspaper Kommersant reported, Zorya was a former serviceman who left the military with the rank of major. By the time of his murder, he had been in business for ten years, together with his wife, Larisa.
By 2004, the Khabarovsk couple owned a wholesale market, a grocery store, and two chains of retail kiosks selling beer and grilled chicken. Zorya had also set up production of tent structures, bought an auto repair plant, and was acquiring other real estate and shares in companies.
Immediately after the murder, investigators examined several potential versions of events, including the possible involvement of Furgal and Mistryukov. But the investigation reached a dead end, and the case was ultimately closed. Fifteen years later, when it was reopened, only one version remained: that the businessman had been killed on Furgal’s orders.
In the mid-2000s, the future governor, together with Mistryukov, was buying up ferrous scrap across the region. Both Furgal and Zorya were seeking to acquire a rebar workshop at the bankrupt reinforced concrete plant ZhBI-2, along with its access railway tracks. According to case materials, Furgal’s company Mif-Khabarovsk was the first to sign a contract and secure ownership of the facility. However, according to Zorya, he himself was the first to pay and finalize a deal, because the documents submitted by Furgal’s company were allegedly forged. The dispute ended up in court, where Zorya ultimately prevailed.
The second murder – that of former police officer Oleg Bulatov – took place in January 2005. According to the prosecution, Furgal and Mistryukov decided to kill Bulatov because he had learned of the partners’ involvement in Zorya’s killing and began blackmailing them.
The third episode – the attempted murder of entrepreneur Smolsky in the settlement of Progress in July 2004 – is also attributed to Furgal and Mistryukov. It actually preceded the murders of Zorya and Bulatov. According to investigators, the partners saw a competitor in the 20-year-old Smolsky, who was also dealing in ferrous scrap.
At first, the pair purportedly attempted to reach an agreement to work together with Smolsky, but when that failed, they hired a hitman to throw a grenade into the entrepreneur’s garage. In the end, Smolsky escaped with minor injuries, and Furgal and Mistryukov quickly wound down their business in Progress.
The prosecution claims that Mikhail Timofeyev and members of his sports club "Moses" assisted Furgal in organizing these crimes. Federal media – Moskovsky Komsomolets, Kommersant, and other outlets – have described Timofeyev as a crime boss in Khabarovsk and the leader of an organized crime group that, according to these publications, consisted of members of the Moses sports club. For a long time, Timofeyev and Furgal were not personally acquainted, with Furgal allegedly passing assignments to Timofeyev via intermediaries.
Timofeyev was also credited with organizing Furgal’s personal security, and the sport club manager later became the entrepreneur-politician’s official aide in the State Duma.
The key prosecution witness was Vladimir Pershin, the former head of the department for combating banditry and robberies at the Khabarovsk Krai Interior Ministry. His testimony claims, as quoted by Meduza his testimony, that in the 2000s he provided “protection” to Furgal in exchange for modest monthly payments of about $1,000. However, Pershin acknowledges that he was not actually an eyewitness to the events and that his information comes via the account of another defendant, Andrei Karepov. Karepov, for his part, denies any guilt in the killings.
In 2016, Pershin was convicted of extortion, released on parole, and immediately gave testimony against Furgal and the others.
Furgal himself did not admit guilt in the crimes with which he has been charged. Timofeyev was abroad at the time the criminal case was opened.
Timofeyev and his ties to the FSB
"I am not an athlete, not the leader of an organized crime group, and have no connection to the criminal world. I am a businessman and a politician. I have been in politics for almost forty years — longer than Furgal," Mikhail Timofeyev claims. He is 60 years old: tall, lean, and completely gray-haired. At the Tbilisi City Court, he sought to appeal the refusal of Georgia’s migration authorities to grant him political asylum.
The court hearing is being held in open session. Timofeyev, without handcuffs, sits next to his lawyer, Rusudan Mchedlishvili, with a simultaneous interpreter behind him. Guards are seated on either side. The judge repeatedly interrupts him and asks him to speak strictly to the point. "This is to the point!" Timofeyev objects. He is trying to tell the court and the audience his biography.
Timofeyev graduated from the Voronezh Higher Military Engineering School of Radioelectronics (VVVIURE) before going on to serve in electronic warfare units in the village of Matveyevka (at the headquarters of the Far Eastern Military District) near Khabarovsk. After leaving military service in 1991, he worked for a time as an aide to RSFSR Supreme Soviet deputy Valentin Tsoi.
Still, Timofeyev spent most of his life in Khabarovsk, and as a former serviceman, he maintained close ties with the security services, including the FSB. With their support (including financial), he decided to establish the “Moses” sports club. "I needed a public organization that I could represent and speak as a public figure. Remove the phrase ‘sports club,’ and everything immediately becomes clear. The name ‘Moses’ is a reference to the Ten Commandments," Timofeyev explains.
Members of his club assisted the local police – for example, by combing through areas prior to events and even providing security at official meetings of FSB officers in Khabarovsk. In other words, according to Timofeyev, they "assisted the FSB in carrying out its tasks."
Members of the Moses club, according to Timofeyev, "assisted the FSB in carrying out its tasks"
Timofeyev says that he did not merely interact with the security services, but was a close friend of Dmitry Kostikov — son of Alexei Kostikov, who headed the FSB Directorate for Khabarovsk Krai from 2003 to 2009. "When a faucet broke in their home, I arranged for it to be fixed, because in terms of security they trusted only me," Timofeyev recalls.
At the same time, and his wife were engaged in business, owning a gold mining company, warehouse facilities, and bakeries. Timofeyev says he also invested in construction and was involved in supplying goods from China.
"At that time, I had connections everywhere, I could resolve almost any issue. That’s why people came to me," Timofeyev says. It was for this reason that in 2004 businessman Yevgeny Zorya approached him.
"Zorya asked for help"
"My friend Vladimir Rimer introduced me to Zorya. According to Zorya, at that time he had two problems: court cases with Furgal and issues with a neighbor – a gangster from the Obshchak criminal group, Andrei Borovik, who lived on the same landing as him," Timofeyev says.
He recounts that he met with Zorya, who asked him for help. Timofeyev made inquiries, assessed the risks, and agreed to help resolve the dispute with Furgal.
"Timofeyev said that we would win this dispute in court. At the next hearing after the conversation with Timofeyev, we won the case, and from then on Timofeyev maintained relations with Zorya," the murdered businessman’s wife, Larisa Zorya, later said during questioning.
"Zorya joined my club and began paying dues – 100,000 rubles a month. So why would I kill him?! Moreover, at the time of these events, I was wealthier than Furgal. And in this conflict, I was on Zorya’s side against Furgal. All these accusations are simply ridiculous," Timofeyev claims. He insists that he does not know who killed Zorya or why.
As for the second issue – the conflict with Borovik – Timofeyev refused to help Zorya. According to Timofeyev, Borovik was imposing his "protection" on Zorya and interfering in his affairs. At the same time as Zorya’s murder, several other entrepreneurs were killed in Khabarovsk in cases that remain unsolved to this day. Borovik, Zorya’s closest neighbor, was not questioned by investigators.
It is noteworthy that after Zorya’s death, the disputed workshop passed to his wife by inheritance, but it was used by the prosecution’s key witness, Vladimir Pershin, something he confirmed during questioning in court in August 2022.
"There was no grenade attack"
Both Furgal and Timofeyev deny involvement in the murder of Bulatov and the attack on Smolsky. At the time of his death, Bulatov, the former head of the state-run security division in Khabarovsk’s Kirovsky District, had gone to work for Furgal as the head of his security service. The hitman killed Bulatov early in the morning as he stepped out of his home.
Furgal claims that shortly before his death, Bulatov had said that suspicious cars were following him and that he was likely under surveillance. According to Furgal’s version, his employee may have been targeted by Vladimir Kryukov, Bulatov’s former business partner.
As for the Smolsky episode, both Furgal and Timofeyev insist that the story involving grenades appears implausible. According to investigators, the hitman threw two grenades into the entrepreneur’s garage and left the small settlement unnoticed. Smolsky allegedly managed to throw one of the grenades back out, and it exploded on a vacant lot. The second was found by the police wrapped in tape, with the pin still in place and looking as if it had been prepared for storage.
According to Timofeyev, it is possible that no attempt on Smolsky’s life took place at all, and that the grenade exploded due to improper handling. The second grenade was then found by the police, and Smolsky may have invented the story of an attack in order to avoid a prison sentence for possessing grenades.
Timofeyev and Furgal
Timofeyev says that he was not personally acquainted with Furgal until 2007, when the situation within the FSB in Khabarovsk changed. "I needed some kind of alternative political resource," Timofeyev says.
Furgal himself, who at that time was already a State Duma deputy, recalls that he agreed to meet Timofeyev at the request of FSB Colonel Vladimir Bochkarev. "I was essentially imposed on Furgal. After that, Furgal treated me very cautiously," Timofeyev says.
Timofeyev adds that after Kostikov’s resignation in 2009, his own position in the region also changed. FSB officers were forbidden from maintaining contact with him, and a purge of the “old team” began in Khabarovsk Krai. By 2011, it had reached him as well.
"I was warned several times that my arrest was being prepared. I was in Thailand, and I was advised not to return. But I did return. I was detained in February 2011 right in front of the FSB building and charged with extorting three thousand rubles from a taxi driver," Timofeyev recalls.
I was warned that my arrest was being prepared and advised not to return from Thailand, but I did return
Initially, investigators accused Timofeyev of involvement in four episodes of extorting small sums from taxi drivers by members of his Moses club, as well as of leading a criminal organization. However, the court found him guilty only in the case of his alleged extortion of 1,100 rubles.
Even testimony from the head of the operational-search unit for combating organized crime at the Khabarovsk Krai Interior Ministry, Police Colonel Alexander Semiletko, and the future key prosecution witness Vladimir Pershin did not help. Both spoke in Timofeyev’s defense, denying his alleged ties to the criminal world and organized crime groups and confirmed that members of the Moses club had cooperated with the police. Timofeyev was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony.
Pershin proposes a deal
Timofeyev was released in early 2018. It turned out that during his time in the penal colony, Pershin himself had also been deprived of his freedom, having been convicted of extortion in 2016 and released on parole in 2019.
"He wanted to meet with me. I took some money, ten or fifteen thousand rubles for his support, and went to see him. He was very angry with Furgal. He said that Furgal had made his fortune thanks to his help in the 2000s. And now he [Pershin] is broke, while Furgal is governor. He said he wanted to testify against Furgal and suggested that I join him. He said that someone had allegedly promised him $3–5 million for this testimony. I refused," Timofeyev says.
"We effectively seized power"
Immediately after his release from the penal colony, Timofeyev claims, he also received an offer from Furgal. The latter was planning to run for governor and wanted Timofeyev to unofficially head his campaign headquarters.
"I didn’t want to, but my relatives insisted. We thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be part of the team of a sitting governor and, in general, to have such connections." In the end, even the remaining members of the Moses club got involved in the campaign. "At first it was difficult, but then they got into it," Timofeyev recalls.
Sergei Furgal was supposed to be a “technical candidate” in the election — a name put on the ballot representing the ultra-nationalist “Liberal Democratic Party of Russia” (LDPR) in order to create the impression of genuine competition in a process that was organized to the clear advantage of Vyacheslav Shpor, the candidate from the ruling United Russia party. But after winning the first round, Timofeyev gathered his team and said that he intended to deceive everyone. Shport offered him a deal: withdraw from the race in exchange for the position of first deputy head of the regional government. Furgal formally agreed, but he did not withdraw his candidacy. In fact, he went on to win in the second round.
After winning the first round, Furgal gathered his team and said that he intended to deceive everyone: to promise to withdraw his candidacy, but not actually do so
"Furgal told us right away that this was what he would do. He publicly promised to withdraw and didn’t, and they [the authorities] didn’t check it. He effectively deceived the Kremlin and Putin himself," Timofeyev says.
However, that was not the end of it. This election campaign was followed by another. Furgal dismissed all the regional level cabinet ministers “from Moscow” and set out to lead his party to victory in the 2019 elections to the Legislative Duma of Khabarovsk Krai.
"We ran the campaign, and the LDPR won by a huge margin. We effectively changed power in an entire region by peaceful means. After things like that, people don’t live long. And yet we are still alive," Timofeyev says.
In February 2023, Furgal was sentenced to 22 years in prison, and the term was later increased to 25 years under a second conviction related to embezzlement.
Other alleged accomplices – Marat Kadyrov, Andrei Paley, and Andrei Karepov – received sentences ranging from 9 to 21 years in penal colonies. Mistryukov’s case was separated into a different proceeding, and he himself was transferred to house arrest.
How Timofeyev ended up in Georgia
Timofeyev decided to leave Russia in February 2020, before Sergei Furgal’s arrest but after Mistryukov’s detention. He first traveled to Thailand via China, and in 2024, after the Basmanny District Court authorized his arrest and Russia put him on Interpol's wanted list, he moved to Georgia.
"I began contacting various human rights organizations, writing to everyone. I didn’t have a Schengen visa, and my passport was close to expiring. In March 2024, I decided to go to Georgia and request asylum there," Timofeyev says.
At first, his lawyers submitted documents to Interpol and secured a suspension of the Red Notice, which in September 2025 was canceled altogether. Nevertheless, in January 2026, Georgia received a request from Russia to detain Timofeyev, and he was placed in a prison in the city of Gldani near Tbilisi.
At the same time, the Georgian authorities denied Timofeyev political asylum. The position of Georgia’s Prosecutor's Office is that Timofeyev failed to demonstrate the political nature of his case and did not substantiate his claim that he had been engaged in political activity in Russia — this despite his status as an aide to a State Duma deputy and his participation in Furgal’s election campaign.
As for the risk of torture or inhuman treatment in Russia, Georgian prosecutors argued that such treatment occurs to all Russian prisoners, not specifically to the applicant, concluding that the threat of torture therefore cannot serve as grounds for granting asylum. As a result, even his appeal of this decision in court was unsuccessful.
According to Georgian prosecutors, the risk of torture cannot serve as grounds for granting asylum
"The Georgian authorities did not take into account any evidence of my political work, not even a letter from the human rights center Memorial written in my support. In it, human rights advocates point to the political nature of Furgal’s case and, accordingly, mine," Timofeyev complains. "In Georgia, documents are being falsified in my case. The Russian side submitted papers stating that I have already been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. But I have only been arrested in absentia."
In the near future, Georgia is expected to consider the issue of Timofeyev’s extradition to Russia.
"If I am extradited to Russia, I have no doubt that I will die at the first transit point, because I am a valuable source of information," he says.