In Russia, a famous thief in law was released from prison

Shakro Molodoy was repeatedly convicted, including for money laundering in Spain.

In Russia, by a court decision, a well-known criminal authority who may be involved in the recruitment of prisoners for the war against Ukraine was released early from a correctional colony.

According to The Moscow Times , the “king” of Russian crime Zakhar Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy), previously convicted of extortion, was released from prison. The corresponding decision was made by the Ust-Labinsk court of the Krasnodar region.

“In 2018, Kalashov was sentenced to 9 years and 10 months in a maximum security colony. According to the case materials, he was called the leader of the Russian underworld. He took leading positions after the death of thief in law Aslan Usoyan (Ded Khasan),” the report says.

According to the Gulagu.net project, Kalashov assisted the special services in recruiting prisoners for the war with Ukraine. In particular, the ex-commander of one of the units of the Wagner PMC, Andrei Medvedev, told human rights activists that he saw how intelligence officers came to IK-2 of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Krasnodar Territory and organized “luxury conditions” for Kalashov to organize negotiations with other criminal leaders in order to facilitate recruitment prisoners for war.

According to ASTRA , Kalashov has been serving a sentence since 2018 on charges of extortion on an especially large scale – 14 people were recognized as victims.

“In December 2015, there was a shootout near the Elements restaurant in Moscow. As the court found, a criminal group, on Shakro’s instructions, extorted eight million rubles from the restaurant owner Zhanna Kim. As a result of the investigation, several criminal cases were opened, including against employees of the Investigative Committee, whom accused of receiving bribes,” the report says.

It is noted that one of the defendants in the case, the former head of the internal security department of the investigative committee, Mikhail Maksimenko, died in a colony in 2023, where he was serving a 13-year sentence.

“Before his arrest in 2016, Kalashov was convicted three times in Russia, and in 2008 he was convicted of money laundering in Spain. In addition, Georgia unsuccessfully sought the extradition of Shakro Molodoy, where he was sentenced in absentia to 18 years for murder,” the resource reported.

Now the court, at a closed meeting, has decided to release 70-year-old Shakro Molodoy on parole for medical reasons. The thief in law was supposed to be in prison until 2027.

Zakhary Kalashov: what is known about him

According to open sources, Zakhary Knyazevich Kalashov was born on March 20, 1953 in Tbilisi. Russian crime boss, thief in law. Comes from a family of Yazidi Kurds. He is widely known in criminal circles in the post-Soviet space under the nickname “Shakro Molodoy”. He was convicted three times. It is noted that the activities of Kalashov are connected with Russian organized crime. At least ten attempts were made on his life.

Let us recall that former Wagner member Marat Gabidullin said that this private military company was specially created to solve the problems of occupying eastern Ukraine , and its only real owner was Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the ex-mercenary, the “Wagner group” was the result of cooperation between the Russian Ministry of Defense and Yevgeny Prigozhin, who subsequently took over the supervision of the project.

(C)UNIAN 2024