Sergey Aksyonov

Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (Сергей Валерьевич Аксёнов; Сергій Валерійович Аксьонов; Serghei Valerievici Aksionov; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.

Sergey Aksyonov was born in Bălți in the Moldavian SSR on 26 November 1972.

His father Valery Aksyonov was a Red Army officer and the founder and leader of a group called the Russian Community of Northern Moldova in Bălți.

After the founding the group at the end of the 1980s, the tensions between Russians and Moldavians soon broke to a war.

Russian army came to help Russian paramilitary troops.

In 1989, Sergey Aksyonov moved to Crimea and enrolled in a college for military engineers in Simferopol; however, the fall of the Soviet Union occurred before he could graduate from the academy to become a Soviet Army officer like his father and grandfather.

He then refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Ukraine, which he considered 'an unjustly severed appendage of Russia'.

Sources have alleged that Aksyonov served in the mid 1990s as a lieutenant, or overseer, with the nickname "Goblin" in the organized criminal gang "Salem (organized crime group)".

Aksyonov has denied the allegations.

"Aksyonov reportedly used to work side-by-side with another gang member, Serhiy Voronkov, in the early 1990s. According to Kyiv Post, Voronkov is a well-known mafia boss who was released from prison in 2008 and is still doing business in Crimea," said Andrei Yanitskiy, a journalist of Livy Bereh newspaper who investigated Aksyonov.

A native of Sevastopol, Yanitskiy alleges that Aksyonov is still a member of the Salem gang.

According to Mikhelson, Aksyonov started his criminal career in the gang "Greki" (Greeks) that was created in Crimea by the Savopulo brothers, and only later Aksyonov switched to more notorious "Salem".

Finally, Transnistria was separated from Moldavia in 1992.

From 1993 to 1998, he was deputy director of a company named Ellada, a business related to food products.

In 1994, authorities were suspecting him and Aleksey Zhuk in the killing of Oleg Fenyuk through a contract.

Although the Greki were liquidated, unlike many others Aksyonov managed to survive.

Likewise, Zhuk was killed 10 minutes after his phone talk with Aksyonov, which raised suspicions among the former "partners".

In 1995, some members of Salem had taken office as local deputies, receiving Legislative immunity.

In January 1996, Aksyonov was wounded after a Volvo car in which he was driving overturned on the Simferopol–Moscow highway during a shootout.

According to official documents, the intended target was Samhan Mazahir-oglu Agaev (nicknamed "Sani").

Beside Agaev and Aksyonov, Aleksandr Bogomol and Pahrutdin Aliev were also in the vehicle.

The hit was conducted with automatic weapons by militants of the Greki gang Ruslan and Rusel from Yevpatoria who were driving a black Samara.

The hit was contracted by Ivan Savopulo.

Both Ruslan and Rusel were arrested on 24 January 1996, but were released due to lack of evidence.

Aksyonov received his Ukrainian passport on 12 August 1997.

Ukrainian politician and former chief of militsiya in Crimea, Hennadiy Moskal (1997–2000) claims that Aksyonov had connection with the criminal world.

In 1997, the chief of Bakhchysarai patrolling unit Berezhnoi claimed that Aksyonov, with a former Major of militsiya, Vladimir Berenshtein ("Ben"), killed a chief of the Crimea network of heat supply Kuzin and a director of an alcoholic factory.

A HUBOZ operative stated that Aksyonov kept close relations with Sergei Voronkov ("Voronok") and the "godfather" of Salem Vyacheslav Sheviev (leader of Party of Economic Revival).

Around that time, Aksyonov started to buy and stockpile weapons.

There is suspicion that the regional office of General Prosecutor of Ukraine received $60,000 to discontinue the investigation into the murder of Volodymyr Tykhonchuk.

Aksyonov also received all the assets of Agaev who was killed in the spring of 1997.

From October 1998 to March 2001, he was deputy director of the Asteriks company and since April 2001 he has been deputy director of the Eskada company.

Aksyonov is also the head of Crimea's Greco-Roman wrestling organization, Sports club Hwarang-do.

By 1998, both Salem and Bashmaki had become the most powerful gangs in Crimea and the President of Ukraine was forced to send special operations units of militsiya and the Security Service of Ukraine to restore order in the region.

Senchenko alleges that "there were reports that he participated in the contract killing of (Volodymyr) Tykhonchuk [in 2004], then head of Crimean State Securities Commission, and before that in the killing of head of State Property Fund (Oleksiy) Golovizin [in 1997]."

Aksyonov was investigated by the police for both murders, but has never been prosecuted.

Senchenko believes Aksyonov managed to evade criminal responsibility due to his connections on the peninsula.

Aksyonov sued Mikhail Bakharev, Vice Speaker of the Crimean Parliament in 2010, for alleging such improprieties.

Although the court of the original jurisdiction ruled for Aksyonov and demanded that Bakharev publish a retraction, the decision was overturned by an appellate court which determined that there was no evidence to disprove the allegations.

Andriy Senchenko, a Crimean member of Verkhovna Rada from Batkivshchyna party alleged that Aksyonov was involved in these activities together with Supreme Council Chairman, Vladimir Konstantinov.