Russian prosecutors have recommended a 23-year prison sentence for Sergey Furgal, the former governor of the Khabarovsk region, for the murder of many businessmen who were once business rivals.
In 2020, Mr. Furgal was arrested on charges of masterminding the murder and plotting to kill rival businessmen 20 years earlier. Furgal is a member of the Free Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and became Governor of the Khabarovsk region in the Far East in 2018.
Recently, a jury found that the former leader of the Khabarovsk region committed a number of crimes in the 2000s, when Mr. Furgal was a businessman.
According to RT, Mr. Furgal’s business is related to logging and scrap metal. Mr. Furgal was at odds with a competitor, Evgeny Zorya. Mr. Zorya was then murdered in October 2004, just before a court had to decide which of the two businessmen would have the legal right to manage a factory they contested.
Another business rival of Mr. Furgal, Aleksandr Smolsky, survived the assassination attempt to throw a grenade into his garage. Prosecutors accused Mr. Furgal of masterminding both attacks.
Another victim, Mr. Furgal’s associate Oleg Bulatov, died in a gun and grenade attack in early 2005. Prosecutors said the victim had information about the businessman’s murder. Zorya, so Mr. Furgal was afraid of being exposed, so he killed people to kill his mouth.
Russian investigative agencies suspect Mr. Furgal is a member of an organized crime group. In addition to the former governor of the Khabarovsk region, four other people, including two suspected assassins who carried out the murder attacks, were also arrested. However, the fifth suspect is still on the run.
Political career
Mr. Furgal entered politics in 2005 as a member of the LDPR and ran for governor of Khabarovsk region twice. In 2018, he was elected Governor in the second election.
In July 2020, Mr. Furgal was arrested and taken to Moscow for trial. At the time, Boris Zhirinovsky, founder and later leader of the LDPR, claimed Mr. Frugal had been targeted for investigation because of his loyalty to the LDPR.
Responding to Mr. Frugal’s impeachment, Yaroslav Nilov, a member of the LDPR high council, said that Mr. Frugal could appeal the sentence and could be pardoned by the Russian president.
Also in 2020, after Mr. Furgal was arrested, President Vladimir Putin has affirmed that the prosecution of the former governor of Khabarovsk region is not politically motivated, and asked the public to leave the investigators alone.
Earlier, many suspected Mr. Furgal’s arrest as an act of revenge after he won a landslide victory in the 2018 gubernatorial election against a candidate from President Putin’s United Russia party.
“I have a good relationship with him, and in general, he is a loyalist to the federal government. I have no problem with him,” Putin said.
According to President Putin, the charges against Mr. Furgal are very serious, and he understands the anger of some public opinion about the arrest of a senior official.