Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak died suddenly in his room at the Rus Hotel while on a business trip to Svetlogorsk. This happened on February 19, 2000. Doctors determined that the cause of death was coronary heart disease. Despite this, there were many rumors and even a criminal case was initiated, which was soon closed. Anatoly Sobchak was a brilliant politician, the first mayor of St. Petersburg, a lawyer, from whom many today's statesmen studied.
Anatoly Sobchak is a major politician, one of the leaders of Russian democrats. This bright and controversial person aroused either adoration or hatred among his opponents. His last years were like a Hollywood movie. There was everything: intrigue, bullying, separation from loved ones and help from friends. In the finale there is the sudden death of the hero, Anatoly Sobchak. My heart couldn't stand it. Many are convinced, including V. Putin, that these are the consequences of bullying.
Date and place of death
In 1999, Anatoly Sobchak returned to Russia from France, where he was treated and rehabilitated after surgery. In the early 2000s, his former assistant Vladimir Putin became acting. O. President of the Russian Federation. For his part, Putin did not miss the opportunity to invite Sobchak to his headquarters. Anatoly Alexandrovich received the position of Vladimir Vladimirovich’s confidant and took part in the development of the presidential program. The first business trip took place in the Kaliningrad region.
Acting representative The President and his aides were the first on schedule to visit the city of Svetlogorsk. Rooms were reserved for them at the Rus Hotel.
On the evening of February 19, the group went down to dinner at a restaurant. Dinner dragged on, and midnight was approaching. Sobchak was the first to leave the late meal. After 20-30 minutes, the assistant discovered the lifeless body of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg in the hotel room on the bed. Arriving doctors confirmed death from heart failure. At the time of his death, Sobchak was 63 years old.
In 2015, the posthumous publication of Anatoly Sobchak “Stalin. Private bussiness". The author debunks the cult of Stalin and regrets that the criminal regime did not suffer the fate of the Nuremberg trials.
Kompromat.Ru ®
Nobody killed Sobchak, he just drank a lot
Sobchak faked all his heart attacks. There was not a single scar on the deceased's heart
Original of this material © “Interlocutor”, 08/17/2000
They lied twice about the true cause of Sobchak's death
Polina Ivmnushkina
Sobchak died on the night of February 20. And on May 6, a criminal case was opened “in connection with the death”: one of the Kaliningrad newspapers stated that, to put it mildly, the St. Petersburg politician was helped to die. Rumors spread. They said, in particular, that the former mayor of St. Petersburg died from a drug incompatible with high alcohol levels: the day before, Sobchak drank with the governor of the Kaliningrad region at the Rus Hotel.
That Sobchak spent the last hours of his life with a free-spirited girl, a local beauty. Finally, that his body was opened twice - in Kaliningrad and at the St. Petersburg Military Medical Academy, and the results of the examinations turned out to be different. The other day, the criminal case “into Sobchak’s death” was closed “for lack of corpus delicti.” However, the events around Aman Tuleyev, the threat of an assassination attempt on the Kemerovo governor add color to everything that is happening... But was it worth disturbing the ashes of Anatoly Alexandrovich? - we were surprised and went to Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg.
“The organs were in perfect order, but there was a terrible smell of alcohol.”
We drove to the resort town of Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region, along the same neat German autobahn along which Anatoly Sobchak made his last journey. The fashionable Rus Hotel stands as if nothing had happened - 50 meters from the Baltic Sea, 4 stars and a large list of honored guests - Kirkorov, Makarevich... On the night when it became known about the death of the famous guest, the hotel building was cordoned off, and the staff was forbidden to open mouth. The autopsy in the Kaliningrad morgue was carried out under heavy police guard, then in great haste the body was transported to St. Petersburg, and the results of the forensic medical examination have still not been shown to anyone except the wife of the deceased and the presidential administration. And, as you know, there is no smoke without fire.
As it turned out, the doctors had something to hide. For the first time, the newspaper “New Wheels” started talking about this, where we headed when we arrived in Kaliningrad. It was on the pages of “New Wheels” that a message appeared that, firstly, Sobchak, in a state of severe alcoholic intoxication, spent that night with a girl of easy virtue, and secondly, that the St. Petersburg politician did not die from a heart attack and he could have been saved , have a doctor on hand. The scandalous article with which Sobchak’s second “funeral” began was called “Love to the grave.” The author, who is also the editor of the newspaper, Igor Rudnikov, claimed that he had evidence of both hypotheses.
Rudnikov explained the appearance of the publication by saying that he was greatly puzzled by the atmosphere of secrecy surrounding the death of the distinguished guest and the rumors spreading throughout the city. But the television appearance of Sobchak’s attending physician, the current Minister of Health and Putin’s personal friend Yuri Shevchenko, added fuel to the fire. He stated that Sobchak died of a fourth heart attack, as he had recently been walking on the edge of an abyss. Death in the Svetlogorsk hotel was presented as a logical result of the persecution inflicted on him in St. Petersburg by Governor Yakovlev. But the editor of the Kaliningrad newspaper had completely different information.
“For obvious reasons, I cannot name my sources, otherwise they will lose their jobs,” he told us. “But I saw with my own eyes the conclusion of a forensic medical examination, which said that Sobchak died of acute coronary insufficiency. As the experts explained to me, it was a blood clot, the consequences of which could have been eliminated very easily if an ambulance had appeared immediately. But she was not called before the arrival of Governor Leonid Gorbenko. And the doctors who opened Sobchak’s body and held his heart in their hands confirmed to me that there was not a single scar on him that would form in the event of a heart attack. No one! What can we say about the fourth. They noted that his internal organs were in excellent condition and that there was a terrible smell of alcohol inside. So why did you have to lie?
They learned about Igor Rudnikov’s discoveries in Moscow, and then a call rang in his editorial office: the caller introduced himself as TV presenter Andrei Karaulov.
“He started from above,” Rudnikov continues his story, “he said: “Boy, do you understand what you’ve gotten yourself into? Yes, they can knock your head off for these things! I can save you, provide protection. There is an option: you take all your materials, get on a plane, fly to Moscow, and the whole country will know about you.” Our dialogue ended in nothing, since I refused such “help”, and Karaulov made his program himself.
Sobchak’s death turned out to be beneficial for many: in St. Petersburg they used this to fight Governor Yakovlev - then elections were approaching, and in Kaliningrad Rudnikov used this fact to fight Governor Gorbenko. Who, if not the governor, should be blamed for making the guest drunk and sneaking in an overly gambling girl? If she was, of course.
Gorbenko realized who the hole was being dug for, and immediately wrote a statement to the prosecutor’s office demanding that a criminal case be opened for libel. There is one important circumstance here: “New Wheels” live by criticizing Governor Gorbenko. As a souvenir, the editor of the newspaper gave us an anniversary issue entitled “The History of One Governor” - a 48-page compromising dossier collected over many years by Rudnikov. The editor paid for this intelligence activity and for the fact that a couple of years ago he ran for mayor of the city: on the eve of the elections in 1998, he was met at the entrance and his skull was broken with a wrench. It was then that he ended up in the Kaliningrad emergency hospital, where a conclusion about the nature of the head injury was made by the same forensic expert who, some time later, was on the team of 4 people who opened Sobchak. Most likely, it was from this old acquaintance that editor Rudnikov received sensational information.
“He did not see any scars from heart attacks on Sobchak’s heart”
Hoping to find out from other sources whether there were scars from heart attacks on Sobchak’s heart, and to find confirmation of the “New Wheels” version, we went to the Kaliningrad Bureau of Forensic Medicine. However, in a conversation with us, Fyodor Zhitnikov, deputy head of the bureau, stubbornly dismissed the authorship of the information leak.
“We are strictly forbidden to show any documents related to this case!” Not a single piece of paper, not even a journal entry about the acceptance of the corpse,” he told us.
At this time, a cheerful guy Max in a blood-stained apron jumped out of the rickety morgue building, emitting a rotten fishy smell - the body of Anatoly Sobchak was brought into these iron doors on the night of February 20.
“It wasn’t my shift then,” Max recalls, “but the next morning I came to clean up the traces: on the “flagship” table (that’s what we call the middle of the three tables on which we dissect corpses), a sheet and a pillow remained from the night autopsy, on which Sobchak was lying . I threw them in the trash. But he kept Sobchak’s Versace underwear for himself: he put it in a bag and hid it in the closet. But when I returned from vacation some time later, I didn’t find them there: they had been stolen. I was hoping to make a fortune from them in my old age - I would sell them at auction...
Max spread his hands. He knew nothing more about that night. But we accidentally met a general practitioner who came to this morgue to visit his friends. It was he who put the finishing touches on our doubts. Dr. Gennady Siltsov (name and surname have been changed because he faces dismissal from his job for disclosing the secret) turned out to be a close friend of the deputy head of the thanatology department, who supervised Sobchak’s autopsy.
“That night I was here early in the morning - at five o’clock,” recalls Siltsov. “My patient died the day before, and I came to him. I walked inside the morgue and suddenly I saw Sobchak lying there. I recognized him immediately, as I had always admired him. (Although early in the morning his death was not yet known.) He looked magnificent (here his face reflected sincere admiration for the state of the dead body, which was difficult for us, who do not communicate with the dead very often, to share). It seemed that Sobchak simply fell asleep; there were no traces of blood or injuries on him. And already in the afternoon I got into a conversation with my friend who supervised the autopsy. So he told me that it was just heart failure: he didn’t see a single heart attack scar on Sobchak’s heart!
So that's why they opened a case! It turns out that they lied about the true cause of Sobchak’s death twice: the first time - immediately after his death, the second - after the “closure” of the murder case. The Kaliningrad prosecutor's office knew the truth from the very beginning, but they are still silent.
“A murder case had to be opened to verify the arguments presented in “New Wheels”: if we are talking about the death of a person, then only one article is suitable here - 105, part I (murder), - the investigator who closed this case cooled our ardor, Nikolay Yakovlev. “We verified the hot facts about the girl allegedly present there by interviewing again the witnesses who were with Sobchak at the hotel: those accompanying him (several St. Petersburg businessmen) and all the staff, especially the duty administrator Kalmykova. But they didn’t remember anything new.
“They came to me and told me to keep quiet”
Based on these surveys, the prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that the newspaper version about the girl of easy virtue was not proven. And they decided not to check the version that Sobchak did not die from a heart attack at all. The fact is that when a medical report was required for a criminal case, they naturally did not pull Sobchak out of the ground and simply rewrote the act drawn up that very night.
Okay, exhumation is not our business. But we can try to find the girl...
We managed to find out that this girl supposedly worked as a stripper in the Tete-a-Tete bar in the center of Kaliningrad, where we went straight from the morgue. However, Sergei Shamanov, the director of the bar, made surprised eyes.
“I keep an eye on my girls, I don’t allow them to go outside,” he said.
But after three hours of conversation and watching striptease together, I suddenly remembered:
- Well, of course! In the same house, above our heads, on the 11th floor, a girl named Vika, my good friend, is now sitting. The day after Sobchak’s death, when the whole city was talking about it, she told me that she saw him that night.
Vika is a young woman, 25 years old, lives alone with her child. Her apartment is indeed right above the Tête-à-Tête bar. Knowing many of the city’s “party bosses,” Victoria often graced their gatherings with her company. So that night she found herself on the ship “Chebotarev”, on the deck of which there is a small cozy establishment with a couple of tables - only for her own people. Governor Gorbenko and Anatoly Sobchak were among those that evening.
“I was sitting at the next table with my friend,” Vika said. — Sobchak was already very drunk (the official version of forensic experts: no alcohol was found in Sobchak’s blood. — Author). But there seemed to be no women with them. Then they left, and the next day they came to me and told me to keep quiet. I don’t know what happened next.
And then there was the Rus Hotel and a naked dead man in a room on the second floor. And even further - the story that they helped the famous Sobchak die.
***
Why did Andrei Karaulov need to shout: “They killed Sobchak”?
Vladimir Kozhemyakin
“There was no autopsy of Sobchak at the Military Medical Academy. That's for sure. Sobchak, after he was brought from Kaliningrad, was actually in our refrigerator, we did his makeup before the burial. But other than that, nothing!” - this is how an employee of the St. Petersburg morgue No. 2 on Zagorodny Prospekt, the forensic medical examination unit of the Military Medical Academy, answered the question of the Sobesednik correspondent. The speaker made it clear that he was directly related to the circumstances of the stay of the body of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg on Zagorodny. At the end of the conversation, the forensic expert added: “You can consider this our official answer. We didn’t cut Anatoly Alexandrovich a second time.”
The version of a re-autopsy that supposedly revealed in Sobchak’s blood “an unacceptable combination of a drink containing alcohol and specific medications” was voiced at the end of July by the host of the TV show “Moment of Truth” Andrei Karaulov. In one of his interviews, a popular journalist said that Sobchak’s wife, Lyudmila Narusova, insisted on a repeat autopsy. Narusova herself did not comment on this. It’s a strange silence, considering the fact that immediately after Sobchak’s death she publicly promised to name her husband’s killers. And then another person calls them, or almost calls them. A pill thrown into a glass of wine—that’s how the accusation ends up sounding.
Why did Karaulov speak? There are several versions on this matter. The first, and naturally what I want to believe most of all, is that the journalist really made the glaring facts public. Other explanations that suggest themselves are more dramatic. It is known that the relationship between Karaulov and Sobchak has always, to put it mildly, left much to be desired. The mayor pointedly avoided Karaulov, who, in turn, actively participated in the gubernatorial elections of Vladimir Yakovlev. A conflict situation, as they say, took place. The old hostility, like a relapse, seemed to make itself felt several years later.
It is also interesting that at one time the presenter of the “Moment of Truth” served not only the elections of the governor of St. Petersburg, but also more than once the elections of heads of other regions.
“It is possible that in Kaliningrad Karaulov had just such a “moment of truth”: speaking about Sobchak’s death, he actually joined someone’s election campaign,” the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Democratic Russia party told an Interlocutor correspondent. and the former assistant of the murdered Galina Starovoytova, Ruslan Linkov.
The emergence of all kinds of rumors
Since 1996, a real hunt has been organized for Anatoly Sobchak. He was persecuted, betrayed by close associates, and a criminal case was opened. The discrediting continued until the death of the politician. Even the last day of his life was not presented in the best light by some.
According to one of the unofficial versions, Anatoly Sobchak and his team were relaxing at the Rus Hotel. They consumed alcohol and stimulants such as Viagra. As a result of overdose and intoxication, representative and. O. The president died, and one of his aides was taken to the hospital with a heart attack. The ambulance was allegedly called by one of the women who was visiting a St. Petersburg group of officials. It is the second version that is supported by many, including Boris Yeltsin’s security chief, Alexander Korzhakov.
Cause of death
Immediately after the incident, the pathologist determined the cause of death - coronary heart disease. Indeed, the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg had serious problems with the heart muscle. Anatoly Sobchak suffered his first heart attack while serving as mayor. Then there was an operation in France and a long rehabilitation. It is unlikely that a person who has suffered a heart attack with surgical intervention will risk his health by taking stimulants.
This circumstance served as the reason for initiating a criminal case, which was opened on May 6 of the same year under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - Murder. The initiator was the prosecutor's office of the Kaliningrad region. The main version is poisoning. Sobchak's body was not exhumed. An analysis of the available material was carried out. It was revealed that there were traces of a medical drug in the tissues of the deceased’s organs. But how it got into the politician’s body is unknown. Three months later, on August 4, the case was closed due to the lack of evidence of a crime.
The French side, represented by the popular portal Slate, actually blamed his boss, Vladimir Putin, for the death of Anatoly Sobchak. Reporters released the material “Anatoly Sobtchak, le mentor de Poutine, aurait été empoisonné,” which translated from French - Putin’s mentor Anatoly Sobtchak was poisoned (mentor - mentor).
Life abroad
The politician's health deteriorates greatly, he is even hospitalized with a heart attack. Having recovered, he leaves for France for rehabilitation treatment. Sobchak remained in Paris until 1999.
There he decides to study science. He even began to give lectures at leading higher educational institutions in France, including the Sorbonne. He publishes about 30 scientific articles and writes two books.
In November 1999, it became known that the criminal case against Sobchak was dropped due to lack of evidence. Only after this does he return to Russia, declaring that he is again ready to participate in big politics. In addition, at the beginning of 2000, his former assistant in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin, became a candidate for president of the country. Sobchak receives the position of confidant, and also heads the political council of democratic parties and movements in the Northern capital.
Where is he buried?
Farewell to Anatoly Sobchak took place on February 24, 2000. The ceremony took place in the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace. Lyudmila Narusova and her daughter Ksenia were present. Daughter from his first marriage and grandson. There were many politicians led by Vladimir Putin. People walked in endless streams, carrying flowers, wreaths and books by the ex-mayor. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, about 50 thousand people came to farewell.
In the afternoon, the coffin with the deceased was transported to the Transfiguration Cathedral for the funeral service. The ceremony was performed by Father Boris. The cathedral accommodated relatives and close friends. The funeral service took place in half an hour. Next, the funeral procession proceeded to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra of the Nikolskoye cemetery. At 17:30 the farewell ceremony began before the burial. With the last rays of the sun, the coffin with the politician was lowered into the grave. Sobchak’s burial place is next to his comrade-in-arms, previously killed by Galina Starovoitova.
Brief historical background
Anatoly Sobchak was born on August 10, 1937 into an educated large family. His father worked as an engineer, and his mother kept accounting records. Initially, the family lived in Chita. Then my father was given a position in the city of Kokand (Uzbekistan). The boy grew up positive from childhood and studied well. After graduating from school, Anatoly decided to get a serious education. To do this, he had to enter Tashkent University, from where he managed to transfer to Leningrad State University. After graduating from university, Sobchak became a certified lawyer.
How did you become mayor?
In addition to his work, Anatoly Alexandrovich participated in the political life of the country and was a member of the CPSU. In 1989, he received the mandate of people's deputy of the Supreme Council. During his first year of service, Sobchak joined the City Council. And after just 1 month he headed the administration of the city of Leningrad. Having taken the post of leader, Sobchak initiated the idea of returning the historical name of St. Petersburg to the city.
In 1989, Dmitry Medvedev and graduate students posted propaganda posters around Leningrad with a portrait of Sobchak in support of the future mayor. In those years, Anatoly Alexandrovich taught at the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University, where the current Prime Minister of the Russian Federation studied.
Personal life
Anatoly Sobchak was married twice. The first married life began in my student years. The young man’s chosen one was Nonna Gandzyuk, a student at the Herzen Pedagogical Institute. They lived together for 21 years. They raised a daughter who gave them a grandson. The second wife was Lyudmila Narusova. She ended up as his client in divorce proceedings from her husband. In 1981, the couple had a daughter, Ksenia.
Personal life
Sobchak's first marriage took place during his student years. Then he married the first beauty of the philological faculty of the Pedagogical Institute. Herzen Nonna Handzyuk, who gave birth to his eldest daughter Maria. But in 1977, the family idyll went out; the future mayor of St. Petersburg divorced his wife, having lived with her for 21 years.
Anatoly Sobchak with his wife Lyudmila
Sobchak's second wife was Lyudmila Narusova, whom he met as a lawyer and helped in a complex divorce proceeding with her first husband. Sobchak’s second wife became his reliable and true ally in his political career; she always took an active part in her husband’s affairs and supported him in all his endeavors.
At the same time, the wife of the ex-mayor of St. Petersburg was involved in the implementation of her own projects, in particular, she was a representative of the Russian government in the trustee German Foundation “Memory, Responsibility and the Future”, and also held several responsible positions.
Anatoly Sobchak with his daughter Ksenia
In 1981, a daughter, Ksenia Sobchak, was born into the family of a politician, who is currently a Russian TV presenter and successful journalist. Sobchak’s daughter, like Anatoly himself, is a controversial figure in society.
