A VIP aide was killed, an ultra-exclusive spa was involved, and the investigation got stalled: this is how Malkin and Gref have denied Bychkov’s family justice for a decade
A previously undisclosed criminal case from ten years ago has come to light, related to a murder in which the main figures are former senator Vitaly Malkin and Sberbank CEO Herman Gref.
It was precisely because of this case that a rift developed between the former friends Gref and Malkin, and Malkin moved to live in Monaco. Due to Gref’s name, the relatives of the missing (murdered) man have been unable to obtain justice for more than ten years.
At the time, Vitaly Malkin, a member of the Federation Council from Buryatia and a banker (who was banned from entering Canada due to ties to organized crime), together with his wife Natalia Bondarenko and former Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo, established the DNП Arkhangelskoye within the eponymous wellness complex of the Presidential Administrative Department in the settlement of Voskresenskoye.
At the registered address in house 54, the billionaire and his neighbors (Herman Gref, Vladimir Rushailo, Mikhail Fradkov, and later Alexey Kudrin and others) organized a private spa where VIPs regularly spent evenings in the company of young men or women.
VIPs were also extensively renovating government-owned dachas: in 2011, both Vitaly Malkin and Herman Gref began renovations in their homes. The renovations in the two estates were overseen by Malkin’s aide Igor Bychkov (pictured). He had previously been responsible for arranging and later managing the private spa. Bychkov served as a personal “adjutant,” assisting Malkin with special assignments, and had worked for him since the so-called “seven-bank era” — in both the Russian Credit Bank and Impexbank. He had been an unremarkable person, but later mysteriously disappeared. The disappearance went unnoticed in Arkhangelskoye. Or rather, it appeared unnoticed. Only Bychkov’s family then embarked on a long and dangerous struggle with authorities.
At the end of 2011, Igor Bychkov’s wife went to the police to report his disappearance. He had taken his son to school in the morning and was walking home past School No. 119 (South-Western Administrative District). Around the same time, eyewitnesses reported a strange incident: several men approached a passerby, claiming to be Interior Ministry officers, and forcefully shoved him into a Zhiguli. The “detainee” struggled and screamed, but the “task force” wore civilian clothes and presented no documents.
The police realized that Bychkov had not simply wandered off. His wife was immediately questioned and explained that her husband worked not for ordinary people, but for Senator Vitaly Malkin and Herman Gref. According to her, shortly before the disappearance, Bychkov had a dispute with his employers over some conflict, feared appearing in Arkhangelskoye, and had recently been summoned for a meeting by unfamiliar “enforcers” acting on behalf of Malkin and Gref.
The car with fake license plates could not be tracked, and traffic cameras were reportedly ineffective. At one point, there was hope — Bychkov’s phone was “pinging” in Moscow, and shortly afterward, it was found with a migrant worker who said he had found it on the road along the highway. The criminal case was opened under Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Murder”), and the materials were sent to the 1st District Police Department of the Investigative Committee.
The case, however, was effectively “killed” under pressure from the influential figures involved. Investigators worked diligently: Malkin himself was questioned several times, denying involvement and pretending to be concerned about his missing employee. However, Herman Gref was forbidden from being questioned on orders from above. Objectively, there remains only one prevailing theory: Igor Bychkov was punished by his own employers.
The missing man had no other conflicts (his home life was stable, relationships with friends were normal) except for a single incident in Arkhangelskoye. One of the security guards of Malkin’s estate (the DNP and VIPs were guarded at the time by the private security company “Ares,” headed by a former banker associated with Malkin) gave revealing testimony. Bychkov had a conflict with Malkin and Gref and had informed the boss’s wife about the orgies at the dacha spa, exposing the entire scheme to Natalia Bondarenko. The co-founder caused a major scandal, nearly leading to a divorce. Moreover, Bychkov claimed to Bondarenko that he had evidence of everything happening at the spa, which could become public. Interestingly, the real concern, according to him, was not so much Malkin as Gref.
Given the clear motive of Malkin and Gref’s operation, the criminal case was stalled for almost ten years. It was repeatedly suspended; Malkin was last questioned five years ago when he returned from Monaco to Moscow and attracted public attention when he was admitted to Kommunarka hospital with suspected COVID.
According to sources, Malkin later received a “Chinese warning” (it is believed that Gref forced him to resign from the Federation Council) and finally accepted the role of “philanthropist and benefactor in Monaco.”
Despite the case being suspended, Igor Bychkov remains missing. His relatives are unable to get any action from investigators because of Gref’s influence, which effectively blocks all normal proceedings. Perhaps, in the future, renewed interest in old crimes may prompt the authorities to finally uncover this long-buried case, but it seems unlikely.
Автор: Nikolay Gerasimenko