TV presenter Solovyov in the 90s tried to order the murder of Otara Kvantryshvili

Former Russian FSB officer Sergey Astashin told The Insider that in the early 1990s, TV presenter Vladimir Soloviev tried to order him to kill businessman and criminal authority Otara Kvantryshvili, who was later actually killed.

As stated in the material of The Insider, Astashin himself contacted the publication, namely – investigative journalist Sergei Kanev, who had previously worked with Novaya Gazeta for many years. The motive, according to the ex-FSB employee, was one of Solovyov’s broadcasts, in which he said that in the 1990s he participated in so-called “shootings” with bandits and stated that when he was in business he “never paid anyone.”

According to Astashyn’s story, he met the TV presenter in 1993, when he studied at the Academy of the Ministry of Security of Russia (now the Academy of the FSB) and came, at the request of an acquaintance, to the office of Solovyov, who was engaged in business at the time. Astashyn was asked to check the premises for the presence of listening devices.

After some time, according to Astashyn’s story, Solovyov invited him to a confidential meeting and asked him to find a killer to kill Otara Kvantryshvili – allegedly he was interfering with the TV presenter’s business at the time, namely the supply of vodka from Israel. According to the ex-employee of the special service, the customer promised to pay him twenty thousand dollars, clarified that it was not his money, but “allocated” by someone. Astashin claims that he refused and wrote a report, which is still kept in his personal file at the FSB academy. Since then, he has not met Solovyov, but he claims that he is ready to confirm what he said on a lie detector test, and also confirm his words at a possible trial.

The Insider emphasizes that Vladimir Soloviev was asked to comment, but he did not respond to numerous calls and letters.

• In the early 1990s, businessman and criminal authority Otara Kvantryshvili (master of sports in Greco-Roman wrestling in his youth) founded the Lev Yashin Fund for Veteran Athletes and the Russian Sportsmen’s Party, which included Olympic and world champions in wrestling, boxing and sambo. According to mass media, Kvantryshvili recruited former athletes from these structures for their participation in criminal activities. In addition, the businessman together with the singer and member of the State Duma Iosif Kobzon established the “Shield and Lira” Law Enforcement Assistance Fund, owned shares in several capital casinos and banks, and also controlled several companies mining precious metals and transporting oil.
• Kvantryshvili was killed on April 5, 1994 while leaving the Krasnopresnensky baths in Moscow by several shots fired from a sniper rifle. The crime was officially solved after 12 years. The killer of the Medvedkovo organized crime group, Alexey Sherstobytov, known in the criminal world under the nickname “Lyosha-Soldat”, confessed to the murder. As the customer of the crime, Sherstobytov named the second criminal authority – Sergey Timofeev nicknamed “Sylvester”, with whom Kvantryshvili allegedly did not share the Tuapse oil refinery, and as an intermediary – the former KGB employee of the USSR Hryhoriy Husyatinsky. Both of them had already been killed by the “Lyoshey-Soldat” shown by the dacha.
• According to The Insider, former Russian FSB officer Sergey Astashin is now retired. In addition to working in the special service, he worked as an investigator at the prosecutor’s office, and at the end of his career – as a lawyer.