Some pages from the biography of the former owner of the New Russian Word - Vadim Rabinovich

In 2003, when Ukrainian media tycoon Vadim Zinovievich was half a century old, he acquired a majority stake in the New Russian Word and became the owner of the oldest continuously published Russian newspaper in the world, as well as its radio station Narodnaya Volna. Since Rabinovich was denied entry into the United States back in 1995, he could not visit the editorial office of his next acquisition in person and instead sent a capture group to New York consisting of his son Oleg, a former radio employee, businesswoman Larisa Mudrak, and Kyiv journalist Vladimir Katsman. 

This triumvirate took turns calling newspaper employees for interviews, retaining some, and firing others. Among the latter was ex-Muscovite Alexander Grant, who covered crime in the LDC and wrote political editorials. As he told me the other day, when the people of Kiev called him to the show, Grant asked to increase his fees, since working for Rabinovich, who had long been banned from entering the United States, could cause reputational damage to the journalist. To support his words, he mentioned the claims on the basis of which the State Department canceled Rabinovich Sr.’s visa. Among them were connections with the mafia and international arms trade, including supplying them to the Taliban, which Rabinovich Jr. denied to me in the “Russian Samovar”, where they took me and Katzman. The connection between the new owner of the LDC and the mafia was confirmed, among other things, by the following quote from the voluminous FBI report “Organization of Semyon Mogilevich. Eurasian Organized Crime”, published for official use in August 1998: “Semyon Mogilevich participated in the summit of Russian organized crime figures in Tel Aviv, Israel, held from October 10 to 19, 1995. Participants included Sergei Mikhailov, Victor Averin, Boris Birshtein, Vadim Rabinovich, Leonid Bilunov and Arnold Tamm. The subjects met in the office of Boris Birshtein in the diamond center of Tel Aviv.” 

The subject of discussion by the mafia Sanhedrin was the division of spheres of influence in Ukraine. Grant’s daring attempt to increase his fee ended in his dismissal from both the newspaper and its radio station, Narodnaya Volna, which closed in November 2004. The NRS, which lay in New York kiosks for many years and even had a nickname among the natives (“Hobo Klobo”: that’s how they pronounced the “New Russian Word”), outlived it by 6 years and died in the year of its centenary, which it managed to celebrate at its headquarters. UN apartment on the East River, where he entered under the patronage of the Russian delegation. By this time, the newspaper had long returned from Rabinovich and Co. to its old owner Valery Weinberg and a year before his death it became a weekly publication. This metamorphosis was celebrated at the Tatyana restaurant in Brighton. The death of the newspaper was not noted in any way. Employees who were not warned in advance showed up to work and found no computers on their desks, that’s all. 

Weinberg moved to Florida and disappeared from the newspaper pages, but Rabinovich continues to appear regularly in the media and on social networks. For example, during the first “Ukrainian” impeachment of Donald Trump, the following post by the famous economist Anders Aslund appeared on Twitter: “Giuliani’s contacts in Ukraine are identified as Gennady Kernes, Pavel Fuks and Vadim Rabinovich. All three are considered by the FBI to be linked to organized crime and are barred from entering the United States. Why is Giuliani focusing on organized crime? Obviously because they have to pay more." Thus, in the crazy Trump era, Rudolph Giuliani, who broke the back of the New York Cosa Nostra when he was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, was, for polemical purposes, counted as an accomplice of the Ukrainian mafia. I was not previously familiar with Rabinovich’s political views, so I was struck by a quote from his speech from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada on February 3, 2020, when he reacted indignantly to the closure by Vladimir Zelensky of three television channels that were controlled by the pro-Russian figure Viktor Medvedchuk, who was arrested last year and exchanged Russia on a large group of Ukrainian prisoners of war. As the website dsnews.ua, from which I took the quote that struck me, wrote, at the end of his speech Rabinovich “switched to Russian and even began to sing.” 

Here is the quote: “Zelensky’s fascism has taken to the streets. Many dictators believed that by suppressing freedom of speech, they would rule forever. They have already drawn a second, third and fourth term for themselves... We are initiating impeachment proceedings against a president who made a mockery of the voters and the country. Today, fascism in our country has its own color - green. But just as our fathers and grandfathers stopped and defeated fascism in their time, we will do the same. No pasaran - fascism will not pass - and you will all die, because you are a fascist devil! Get up, huge country...” 

This nonsense could just as well have poured out from the lips of Putin and the entire pack of Kremlin propagandists. “Why are you surprised? Rabinovich’s former comrade-in-arms, who wished to remain nameless, raised his eyebrows. “He is very pro-Russian.”

Kharkov resident Rabinovich, born into the family of a Soviet military man and a local doctor, was “a well-known person in the Kharkov world,” Leonid Roitman, the former vice-president of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress headed by our hero, told me. We spoke with Roitman at the beginning of the 7s, even before he served XNUMX years in an American prison for the attempted contract killing (with Monya Elson) of the Konstantinov brothers (aka Karamazov Brothers), his former comrades in the Magadan brigade and in the Kyiv holding -Donbass".

In the photo: office of the holding "Kyiv-Donbass"

 “He was not a thieves, he was a guild worker,” said Roitman, who was mentioned in the documents in the Yaponchik case as Lenya Dlinny. “He earned a lot of money, he was so difficult, he could order a murder.” Rabinovich was never accused of this crime, although he was arrested twice in the USSR for others. According to Wikipedia, he was arrested on January 20, 1980, on charges of theft of state property - “three rolls of wallpaper.” He served 9 months in the penitentiary and was released “for lack of evidence of a crime” or, as evil tongues suggest, under the patronage of the KGB, which recruited him and gave him the nickname “Acorn”.

According to another version, he was recruited only into the second prison, when Rabinovich was given 1984 years of strict regime in 14 for theft of state funds on an especially large scale, of which he served 8 years. He does not deny the fact of recruitment, but says that he only pretended to be an “informer.” Roitman told me that Rabinovich is still connected with the FSB and allegedly bought the NRS with Russian money, and when the Russians realized that the game was not worth the candle, they returned the newspaper to Weinberg. According to this version, the Russians became disillusioned with the NRS because the editors refused to print “pro-Russian crap,” one source told me. I made inquiries with a former employee of the newspaper, Felix Gorodetsky, who said that he did not remember systematic attempts by the new management to place clearly propaganda Moscow materials in the newspaper. In his opinion, the newspaper was ruined not by Moscow propaganda, but by purely Ukrainian materials, which were sent to New York by the newspaper’s management, who was sitting in Kyiv. Russian-speaking

They were not in particular demand in America. Upon release, Rabinovich, together with the head of his detachment in the colony, Andrei Aleshin, opened the Pinta company, which traded metal. In the fall of 1993, he became a representative in Ukraine of the Austrian company Nordex, whose president, Grigory Luchansky, was known in the West as the head of the Russian mafia. According to Wikipedia, this fame also affected Rabinovich’s reputation. I asked Roitman whether Luchansky was really a member of the mafia. “Well, how was he? - he said. - He was a businessman. His roof was Mogilevich, Mikhas and Avera.” That is, the top of the Solntsevo mafia.

How Rabinovich escaped death

The following episode is known only to a narrow circle of initiates and I have not seen it in the press. One fine day, Rabinovich “threw Luchansky,” Roitman told me, that is, “through the special services, he was blocked from entering Ukraine. He started saying that Luchansky is a mafia, that he is a gangster, that he is an arms dealer. Rabinovich began to take control of all military contracts (Liberia, Sierra Leone) and supply them with Ukrainian weapons. He did this with us, with Kyiv-Donbass, in 94-95.” Roitman was vice president of security and a partner in this holding, which was valued in 1993 at approximately $400 million. Other partners (“not according to documents”) were the killer Oleg Asmakov (Alik Magadan) and Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov (Yaponchik). 

In the photo: Oleg Asmakov (Alik Magadan)

From the archive of Seva Kaplan, Metropol restaurant, 1993

Standing from left to right: Alik Magadan, Igor Grafman, Slava Karamaz, Edwardo Basoni, Kadik (Arkady Steinberg). 

Seated from left to right: Alik Karamaz, Boris Grigoriev. 

I asked if Rabinovich was telling the truth about Luchansky. “It was true,” my interlocutor replied, “but Rabinovich did the same thing!” He was his representative in Ukraine!” - “How did he know the cops?” “Everyone who could buy cops knew them. “He came out, he arrived, he still had old connections, he was of such union significance, he was not just some guy! He is such an inveterate criminal, I would say, but only of the financial kind. And his spirit is all right! In short, he fused Luchansky.”

“Our main war was in 95 over the Ministry of Defense,” Roitman continued. – We bought the CSKA Borisfen team then, they gave us all the Ministry of Defense, and we became Rabinovich’s competitors. He sold all the weapons from Ukraine. Here is a weapon in storage. I sold planes from combat duty, armored cars, machine guns, cartridges, explosives, shells to Angola, Uganda, Sierra Leone, and we did the same.” I asked why the Ukrainian gang squandered weapons that could be useful to Ukraine. “We were Russian! – my interlocutor exclaimed. “Our eldest was this Kovalev, the director of the FSB!” “Who has it from you? – I asked – In “Kyiv-Donbass?” - "Certainly! – exclaimed Roitman. “We were focusing on the Russian FSB!”

According to Roitman, Rabinovich was allegedly ordered to his team by the Ukrainian oligarch Grigory Surkis, Medvedchuk and Mogilevich. “They were businessmen and couldn’t order anything for us,” Roitman told me, “so Magadan and I went to ask permission from the Solntsevskys in Hungary.”

“To do this, did you have to travel far away and ask someone for permission?” - I was surprised. “We worked with the Solntsevskys,” Roitman explained to me gangster etiquette. – We cannot make such a decision based on Rabinovich. What if they protect him, cover him? Mikhas was in Switzerland then, in 96, I think. We met with Avera, and he gave us the go-ahead to knock on Rabinovich. But we said that we want to sausage it ourselves, we don’t need anyone’s help. Because then we took control of Medvedchuk and Surkis. They already paid us, we had common businesses.”

“We told the Solntsevskys that we would slam him ourselves,” Roitman continued the story of his attempt to eliminate Rabinovich and said that Kyiv-Donbass had personnel for such operations. “We had surveillance teams and hit teams,” Roitman told me. Among the killers, my interlocutor mentioned the brothers Tarasenko (Tarasov) and Oleg Bakulin, nicknamed Cyclops. “Why Cyclops? Is he one-eyed? - I asked. “His eyes are different colors,” they answered me.

In the photo: Oleg Bakulin (Cyclops)

Like the Karamazov brothers, Igor and Yuri Tarasov graduated from the Kiev Institute of Physical Education, were masters of sports in freestyle wrestling, and in New York they worked as waiters in the Russian restaurant Metropol, owned by crime boss Igor Grafman. Both were killers, and Yuri also commanded the Kyiv-Donbass surveillance group, and in the early 90s he was involved in the murder of Oleg Zapivakhin, Monya Elson’s bodyguard, in Brooklyn. Yuri Taras, according to Roitman, pierced Zapivakhin’s tire at night, and when he was fiddling with the wheel in the morning, he was shot by Cyclops, who is credited with almost 23 corpses. The car that brought Cyclops to the crime scene was driven by Yuri Gitman (Yura Canadian), who was shot dead in Moscow near the apartment on Krasnopresnensky Val, where your humble servant had previously stayed.

The Solntsevskys rejected the proposal of the Kievites to deal with Rabinovich on their own. “They said it wasn’t necessary,” Roitman recalled. - They will give us a person who will enter his office. The only thing we need is to transfer 500 thousand to this person. And when he slaps him, give him another 500 thousand.” This man was Leonid Wulf, who had his own team of killers and was friends with Rabinovich. 

“I gave him the money,” Roitman said, adding that he received it from one of the leaders of Kyiv-Donbass. It seemed that the attempt was on the ointment. But no.

 “Why did Rabinovich remain alive?” – I asked. 

“Because that cretin Wulf went and told him everything, brought him a suitcase with money into his office: “So that they kill you,” answered Roitman, who did not say “cretin”, but another offensive word. “He thought that it would be better for him if he didn’t fucking exist in the office, but told him.”

“This is what killers often do,” Roitman noted. – Rabinovich went and wrote a statement to the SBU against me. I gave Wolf the money! The head of the SBU shared a stake with us. I went to Moscow for two days, hid, and they told me: “That’s it, Lenya, come back, we’ve settled everything.” We began to fight with Wulf. We started to melt him through the cops. And his entire team of killers was destroyed there. They all died in Kyiv. And we took these 500 thousand. We caught one of his crew there. They started to torture me, and he showed us where the money was. In Wolf's apartment." 

“Torture?” - I perked up.

 “Well, not literally, we showed him the gun: “Let’s go!” And so he went.”

 “Wulf has already dumped himself in Israel, we imprisoned him in 98-99,” Roitman continued. – They arrested him in Israel, we gave him material, well, just as they imprisoned me, we imprisoned him in Israel for previous affairs in Ukraine. For five years. In order not to extradite him to Ukraine, they said: “Let him serve five years with us.” The would-be killer of Rabinovich did not settle in Israel after his release and returned to Ukraine. 

On February 26, 2020, the website kievvlast.ua appeared with the headline “In Kyiv they found a shot businessman Leonid Vulf,” who, according to investigators, made a hole in his head with a Czech Scorpion submachine gun. Rabinovich, whom he did not kill, was denied entry into Ukraine, and he lives in Israel.

Author: Vladimir Kozlovsky