Nikolay Suleimanov (russian: Николай Сулейманов; born and reportedly killed December, 1994) nicknamed "Khoza" and "Ruslan", was one of the leaders of the
Chechen mafia in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
. He is also the boss of the Suleimanov clan.
Life
Suleimanov came to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in the early 1980s and helped
Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev and
Movladi Atlangeriyev to set up the Chechen gangs there. By 1986, his group controlled Moscow's Southern River Port, the largest car market in the capital, and specialized in
racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
the "
New Russian
The New Russians (russian: link=no, новые русские ''novye russkie'') were a newly rich business class who made their fortune in the 1990s in post-Soviet Russia. It is perceived as a stereotype, stereotypical caricature. According to ...
" class. Following a turf war in 1988–89, the Chechen alliance, nominally controlled by Musa the Older, managed to force some of the top rival criminal organizations completely out of the city and assume the dominant position in Moscow.
[Phil Williams, ''Russian Organized Crime: The New Threat?''] In 1990, he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was released two years later.
In 1993, he went with his men to
Chechnya
Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...
, where he was joined by the charismatic gangster-turned-militant
Ruslan Labazanov
Ruslan Labazanov (1967 – disappeared 1 June 1996) was a Chechen mob boss and warlord who led the Russian-supported Chechen anti-Dudayev faction in the First Chechen War.Sebastian Smith, ''Allah's Mountains: The Battle for Chechnya'', 2006, p. 1 ...
and took part in a coup attempt against the Chechen President
Dzhokhar Dudayev
Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev (, ; russian: Джохар Мусаевич Дудаев; ; 15 February 1944 – 21 April 1996) was a Soviet Air Force general and Chechen separatist leader who was the first president of the Chechen Republic of Ichke ...
, demanding his resignation. After having been seriously wounded during a demonstration-turned-shootout in the center of
Grozny
Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia.
The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a pop ...
and taken into Dudayev's government custody, Sulejmanov left the separatist republic and returned to Moscow.
[''RFE/RL research report: weekly analyses from the RFE/RL Research Institute'', Volume 3, p. 59]
"Khoza" was reportedly killed in December 1994, shortly before the outbreak of
, shot dead at one of his businesses, the 7th Car Service Station in Moscow, by a contract killer sent by the
Russian mafia
Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...
. His position was taken over by "Aslan" and "Lechi the Beard".
[ It was one of the series of high-profile gangland murders that marked the beginning of another turn of major ''mafiya'' bloodletting in 1995–1996.
]
References
1955 births
1994 deaths
Assassinated Chechen people
Chechen gangsters
Deaths by firearm in Russia
Russian crime bosses
Murdered Russian gangsters
People murdered in Russia
Russian people of Chechen descent
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