Monday, early morning, July 1, 2002. Tver is moving away from the next City Day celebration. In his country house crime boss Alexander Kostenko - “Crowbar”, “Ivanovich” - plays chess with the killer of the “Wolf” gang Alexander Osipov - “Wolf Cub”, “Younger Wolf”. Nearby is the father of the “Wolf Cub”, a bald, powerful man with a dangerous squinting of his eyes - Anatoly Osipov - “Skull”, “Shaman”, the leader of the combat wing of the killers of the “Wolf” gang, which was completely subordinate to “Crowbar”.

Phone call, Kostenko picks up.

Krug was killed! - sounds at the other end of the line.

I didn’t order that... - the authority bursts out in response...

So, ten years after these events, Alexander Osipov told the investigator “Cub.” Sentenced to life imprisonment, he decided to tell everything as it happened, to reveal the secret of the murder of Krug, he had nothing to lose.

Kostenko was very scared then,” “Little Wolf” explained to the investigator and continued without looking back.

Murder in detail

On the evening of June 30, 2002, Mikhail Krug, having performed a concert on City Day, decided not to stay for the fireworks display and returned home earlier than planned. In the house on the outskirts of Tver there were the chansonnier’s mother-in-law, his wife Irina and three children - two from their first marriages and a child together.

Around midnight, the mother-in-law climbed a steep two-flight staircase to the billiard room on the third floor. Before that, Krug was sitting there - playing the guitar a little, tinkering with game console... Then Irina called him. It was time to go to bed, and the mother-in-law began to lay out the sofa for herself. At that moment, two people attacked the woman from behind. Hearing a noise upstairs, Irina Krug decided that her mother was feeling bad and ran to the billiard room. Opening the door slightly, she saw two big guys with weapons beating her mother.

Misha, they are killing mom! - Irina shouted, breaking through the horror and ran to her husband.

Mikhail was already in the bedroom. A couple of seconds later, he intercepted Irina on the stairs and, covering her with himself, began to lead her to the first floor. Following, from the flight of stairs, shots were heard. In the back. It was inconvenient for the bandits to shoot - the stairs were narrow. One bullet hit the tiled floor, but two still reached the recipient.

Krug was seriously injured, but was still alive for some time. He even managed to run to a neighbor, who took him by car to the hospital. The chansonnier died on the operating table on the morning of July 1. The bandits calmly left the house...

Eight months after the murder, in early March 2003, an emerald-colored Japanese SUV stopped on a country road near Kimry. Two people got out of the car - “Volkov” killers Alexander Osipov and Dmitry Veselov, “Vesel”. Osipov took Veselov to a deserted place under a far-fetched pretext, saying that his father “Shaman” was waiting for them in a village near Kimry.

In fact, Osipov, as he himself admitted to the investigation, wanted to receive incriminating evidence on Kostenko from Vesel (Veselov was part of Loma’s inner circle of trusted people). For what? He says that he wanted to collect information and hand him over to the FSB. This would give him and his father the opportunity to become the first, the main, the main ones in the Tver criminal world. It is clear that after such a conversation Osipov did not plan to leave Veselov alive. But that's not why he killed him.

This is what “Teen Wolf”, already in prison for life, told the operas on record:

“I took out my PM pistol, pointed it at him, at chest level, and said:

- Dima, calm down, I need information on Kostenko.

Why do you need it?

- I want to put him in jail.

Veselov said that the only thing Kostenko is afraid of is revenge.

- From whom, from the lads?

No, revenge for Krug.

- Dima, did you do this?

Yes, we are, by order of Kostenko.

- For what?

Veselov replied that in May 2002, Krug, my father (Anatoly Osipov. - Ed.) and Veselov himself. At that meeting, Kostenko offered to pay the Circle money from concerts. The circle refused. After that, Kostenko had a plan - while Krug was performing at a concert on City Day, his house had to be robbed and then the stolen goods returned, thereby Kostenko would benefit Krug, he would become obliged to him and begin to pay.”

Hearing this, Osipov shot Veselov in the chest and head and buried the corpse. The remains were found only in 2012 - the life-long killer himself indicated the location.

I have been friends with Krug since 1996, when he came to Kimry for a concert. I talked to him. I loved not only his work. I respected him as a person. By killing Veselov, I avenged Krug,” Osipov admitted in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, we managed to meet the killer in the Tver pre-trial detention center.

The question remains - who was second in the Circle's house. Osipov does not know about this, he only assumes that it was someone Sergei, a friend of Veselov, who helped him control prostitutes on the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway in the Tver region.

It is not surprising that after Osipov’s testimony, the investigation into the murder of Mikhail Krug was resumed in December last year. So far, detectives are not revealing the details of the case, as they have not done for 12 years. But, as you know, everything is secret...

Of all characters In the story of the murder of the chansonnier, only Alexander Osipov remained alive. Now he, like other members of the Wolves gang, is facing a life sentence. Anatoly Osipov, "Shaman", killed in 2005. Alexander Kostenko, “Lom”, killed in 2006. These crimes have never been solved.

Special look

More reliable version haven't heard

Oleg ZINCHENKO

The morning of July 1, 2002 surprised me with the speed at which rumors spread. As soon as it became known that Krug was killed, allegations were already flying around Tver about who did it and why. Although at that moment the operatives at Krug’s house did not even make any assumptions in a whisper.

And then the pages of criminal case volumes and years of ignorance began to rustle. What versions did I not manage to hear during this time? And the thieves sentenced him because he “behaved inappropriately” - he did not sit, but he sings about the life of a thief. And he answered for the vodka business - he allegedly intended to start producing Krugovka vodka, and in order not to get involved in the alcohol business, he was punished (by the way, Krug himself told me that he really plans to produce such vodka). For a long time there was a version about an attempt to steal the matrix of a new disc from Krug in order to demand a ransom from it or sell it to pirates, but they got carried away and killed the chansonnier. And that these are simple burglars, having mixed up the cottage, they accidentally shot the singer...

Perhaps, in 12 years, a multi-volume volume could be printed from versions alone. But what Osipov told, in my opinion, is the most harmonious of all the stories I have heard. It feels like he is saying something he knows for sure. And although the investigators - and there will be a platoon of them during this time - are skeptical about the killer’s confessions, they say, he wants to drag out the case longer so as not to move from the pre-trial detention center to the special regime zone, I see Osipov’s version as the most harmonious and complete of all that has been circulating all these years - from popular rumor to confidential stories of people in uniform.

In the case of the murder in 2002 in Tver of the Russian chanson star Mikhail Krug, new turn. In the suburbs regional center detectives discovered the remains of a second criminal who was directly involved in the shooting famous singer. Thus, this case is effectively over - the singer became a victim of a banal robbery, and his killers were dealt with by their own accomplices, fearing the revenge of the leaders of the criminal world, who promised to find and punish the killers of their favorite performer.

As sources in the Ministry of Internal Affairs told Izvestia, recently one of the former Tver bandits, who is now serving life imprisonment for a series of serious crimes, gave new confessions in the case of the murder of Mikhail Krug.

The convict showed the place where he and his accomplices buried the corpse of the murder participant Mikhail Vorobyov, better known by his stage name Mikhail Krug, who was shot by them, says the operative. - The remains are skeletonized, there is practically no soft tissue left, but in the near future the examination will give a final result on the identity of the deceased - although we already know who it is.

According to him, the gangster was directly involved in the robbery of the chansonnier’s house and his murder. According to operational data, he was a member of the so-called Lomov group, which operated in Tver in the 1990s and was defeated by security forces in the early 2000s. It received its name from the surname of one of its leaders - a certain Lomov, a former professional boxer who later died during criminal disputes.

Let us recall that the corpse of another participant in the murder of the chansonnier, also a “fighter” of the Lomovskaya organized crime group, Mikhail Veselov, was previously discovered and identified. As experts established, he was killed 2-3 months after Krug’s death.

Detectives are convinced that both robbers who shot Mikhail Krug were dealt with by their accomplices, simply afraid of the enormous resonance of the crime.

The execution on July 1, 2002 in Tver of 40-year-old Mikhail Krug, whose songs did not leave the first places in the charts of Russian radio stations, then caused a huge resonance.
Chansonnier was mortally wounded by two shots in the chest in his own cottage in Tver, where his house was known to everyone and was almost the main attraction provincial town. The bleeding singer was taken to the nearest hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery. Krug himself was conscious before the operation began, but could not say who exactly shot him. The operation did not help him - the singer died a couple of hours later.

The detectives reconstructed minute by minute the course of events that took place at the Circle mansion.

The criminals entered the house through the attic around midnight. In one of the rooms they encountered the singer’s mother-in-law, who was going to the bathroom. The woman was stunned by a blow to the head from the handle of a TT pistol, but she managed to scream. The owner of the house ran out of the bedroom in response to the scream and received two bullets at point-blank range, one of the members of the investigative team involved in the investigation of the murder explained to Izvestia.

According to him, several versions of what happened were considered - from domestic to contract murder. The latter was supported by the fact that shortly before his death, Krug recorded a new album and entered into contracts. However, the version of the ordered execution was not confirmed during a thorough check.

Officially, the criminal case was suspended with the wording “for failure to identify the persons subject to prosecution,” says a senior officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. - Although we had information that this murder was an accident!

He claims that the raiders - complete drug addicts - went “on the job” only for the sake of profit - they hoped to profit from the singer’s money and valuables. They were allegedly sure that he and his family were supposed to be absent, and therefore the shots were actually fired out of fear.

Immediately after the death of the chansonnier, whose songs were listened to throughout Russia, information appeared that the thieves in law promised to find and punish his killers. However, the operatives treated this data as boasting.

Krug was indeed acquainted with a number of influential crime bosses, but he was not a criminal. He had never been to the zone and in fact had a very relative relationship with the criminal world,” they say in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Detectives note that Krug actually wore a ring on his hand, given to him by Tver thief in law Alexander Severov, better known as Sasha Sever. By the way, one of Mikhail Krug’s main hits, “Vladimir Central,” is dedicated to this authority. At one time, Sever served time in this prison, and initially the lines in the song sounded not “Vladimir Central - the north wind”, but “Vladimir Central - Sasha Severny”.

The circle visited us twice - after the North left us,” says one of the officers of the Vladimir Central. - But both times only as a visitor, and he spoke not in front of the “main” prisoners, but in front of convicts from the household service detachment.

Spectators of the concert recall that the singer himself made a strong impression by arriving at the prison in slippers and a skullcap.

According to operatives, none of the thieves in law really intended to take revenge for Mikhail Krug. The exception was Sasha Sever, but he made his loud statements while intoxicated. Besides, in Lately The North has seriously undermined its credibility after several media interviews. The fact is that thieves' concepts categorically prohibit a thief from communicating with journalists - this is almost the same as making a deal with law enforcement agencies.

Mikhail Krug ( real name Vorobyov) is a Russian bard, performer in the chanson genre and, according to fans, “the king of Russian chanson.” The author of the most popular composition in this genre is the song “Vladimir Central”. His life was cut short by a bullet fired at him in his own home by robbers. Long years Krug’s murder and his mastermind were unknown, but in 2019 new details appeared in the case that helped identify the killers.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Vladimirovich Vorobyov was born in the city of Kalinin (present-day Tver) on April 7, 1962. His father, Vladimir Mikhailov, worked as an engineer at a carriage factory, and his mother, Zoya Petrovna, worked at a cotton mill. Mikhail became the second child in the Vorobyov family, whose daughter Olga was already growing up.


Misha Vorobyov spent his childhood and youth in the old proletarian district of the Morozov town, about which he later wrote the song “My Sweet City.” These were ancient barracks, heated with peat. They lived poorly, but amicably. Little Misha was different from the dejected inhabitants of the microdistrict: he constantly joked, amused the adults, and was even more of a tomboy. Later, his father was given an apartment on Ordzhonikidze Street, but the memories of his childhood in the Morozov barracks remained with Mikhail for the rest of his life.

At a music school, the boy learned to play the button accordion, but completed his education. IN secondary school Vorobiev studied poorly, and, as his relatives and friends recall, he constantly skipped classes.


The teachers bombarded the schoolboy Vorobyov with comments: his classmates could have one, maximum two comments, but he once accumulated as many as 47: either he didn’t say hello to the teacher, or he didn’t bring his shift. When mom wanted to know the reason for this behavior, Misha took the pose: “I don’t greet her because she’s unfair!”

Mikhail always took the side of truth and justice. Although he was considered the first bully in the class, he was also the most sympathetic and caring student. He was the first to go out on cleanup days, and many years after graduating from school, he was the only one who visited his first teacher.

At the age of six, Mikhail first heard the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky and immediately fell in love with the work of this poet and musician. This passion helped Misha fall in love with music. At the age of 11, the boy had already mastered the guitar, and when he was 14, he wrote his first poems, which he dedicated to a classmate. One day at school, Mikhail sang the song of his idol Vysotsky, after which a scandal broke out.


Having received a matriculation certificate, the future musician went to the Kalinin School and received the profession of a car mechanic there, and then was called up for urgent work. army service to the Sumy region of Ukraine.


Upon returning from the army, Mikhail continued to perform songs, imitating Vysotsky. From 1986 to 1993, Vorobiev worked as a driver at various enterprises. He was fired from one of his jobs, at a dairy factory: he lost his temper when he learned that some cans were filled with full-fat milk for party officials, while water was added to the milk in those intended for ordinary residents of Tver. He changed the cans, but the deception was revealed.

Then, for a short time, Mikhail was the head of the city motorcade. Office work He quickly got bored, and he returned to the driver’s seat, where he worked until 1996. By that time, he could already make a living exclusively from music.

Creative path

In 1987, Mikhail was sent from work to get an education in Polytechnic University, which he, however, soon abandoned. That same year, he decided to take part in an art song competition, where he performed his composition “About Afghanistan” and took first place.

The first victory instilled in him more self-confidence, and he took songwriting seriously. The bard Sergei Klyachkin, who was the chairman of the festival, also pushed him into creativity. The musician appreciated Vorobyov’s talent and told the debutant: “Misha, you need to work...”. The aspiring bard chose the pseudonym Mikhail Krug.


Why Circle? We don’t know the exact answer to this question, but we will quote his mother’s words:

He liked this figure. He told me: “If you stand in the center of the circle, you will be equally distant from any point.” And thirdly, as in fairy tales: “If there is any trouble, draw a circle around yourself - and you are safe.”

However, there is an opinion that Mikhail Krug was named after the hero from his favorite Soviet TV series “Resident's Mistake.”

In 1989, Krug released his first album entitled “Tver Streets”. A year later, a second album appeared called “Katya” and a third without a title at all. However, none of these records were officially released - they were all distributed throughout Russia through piracy. Later, Krug himself re-recorded almost all the compositions from the albums on his next records.

Mikhail Krug - “Zhigan-lemon”

In 1994, the artist’s new album, “Zhigan-Limon,” appeared, which became a turning point in the musician’s fate. Despite the fact that the name of the record refers to criminal themes, not only criminal, but also lyrical compositions were recorded on it. “Zhigan-Limona” was subsequently reissued several times, and it was this album that became Mikhail Krug’s symbolic invasion of Russian musical and poetic culture.

In 1994, a film about the musician was filmed documentary“Bard Mikhail Krug”, which was shown on the “Culture” TV channel only in 1999. For some time, Krug was simply not allowed on television - the musician’s videos began to be broadcast only in 1996. The first audience saw was the video for the song “It Was Yesterday.”

“It Was Yesterday” - the first video by Mikhail Krug

Mikhail Krug performed abroad for the first time in 1997 - at the Russian Chanson in Germany festival he sang with the Zhemchuzhny brothers. At that concert, Krug performed four songs, one of them – “Madame” – in a guitar version. In the same year, a new soloist, Svetlana Ternova, began working with Mikhail Krug.


In 1998, Russian migrants in American cities became acquainted with the work of the Russian performer, and in 2000 the musician toured Israel. Mikhail Krug very often gave charity concerts and performed for free in prisons.

It is worth noting that the artist himself never sat in places not so remote.

Usually Krug sang songs of his own authorship, but a number of compositions were written for him by Alexander Belolebedinsky. These are “I passed Siberia”, “The process is over”, “Hello, Mom”, “Sparks in the fireplace”, “Cry, violin (In every city)”, “Chaim” and “Student”. These songs were previously performed by Arkady Severny. But “Svetochka” was written by Leonid Efremov - Krug only slightly changed the original text.


The most popular and beloved among fans was Mikhail’s song “Vladimir Central”, which became one of the most famous compositions of Russian chanson in general. The song was first performed in the album “Madame” (1998). There is an assumption that it is dedicated to thief in law Sasha Severny.

Mikhail Krug - “Vladimir Central” (concert at Luzhniki, 2000)

In March 1998, Mikhail Krug received the Ovation Award in the Russian Chanson category. And in the fall of 1999, the musician entered the “Music Ring” together with Sergei Trofimov and defeated his colleague in a friendly duel. In the same year, the singer took second place in the Russian Chanson competition. At that time, he became one of the most popular artists in the country, although the attitude towards his work among different circles of society was ambiguous - the creative intelligentsia called the success of the Circle a symbol of the crisis of Russian culture in difficult times for the country.

Personal life of Mikhail Krug

Mikhail Krug's first love was called Marina. The young man spent all the pennies he earned on her. She promised to wait for him from the army, but did not keep her word. Mikhail got married for the first time after serving in the army. The wife's name was Svetlana. She was a seamstress, and they met through a mutual friend. But family life was short-lived: the wife did not like that her husband often came home drunk, and her intelligent parents never tired of reminding her that a vocational school graduate was not a match for her. In 1988, Mikhail Krug divorced his wife and sued her son Dmitry - he decided to raise the child on his own.


In 2000, Krug married for the second time. His chosen one was a waitress from Chelyabinsk Irina, with whom he, a restaurant client, fell in love at first sight. To always be close to this beautiful woman, the musician offered her a job as a costume designer, but at first the girl refused. But, after weighing all the pros and cons, Irina later accepted the job offer and for a year simply carried out her tasks and toured with the Circle. The musician filmed her one-room apartment in Moscow and helped financially in every possible way.


Finally, in 2001, Irina married Mikhail. She already had a daughter from another marriage, Marina, whom Krug took under his wing and began to raise as his own. In 2002, the family welcomed common child- son Alexander.


By the way, the musician was a supporter of monarchical political beliefs, a conservative and homophobe, supported the Domostroevsky way of life in the family and was disgusted by feminism. Russian stage he considered “the dominance of people of non-traditional sexual orientation.” Krug was a member of the LDPR and one of the assistants to its leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.


Death

On the night of June 30 to July 1, 2002, in the Tver village of Mamulino, the artist’s house was attacked. At that moment, in addition to the singer, his wife, mother-in-law and children were in the house. Two unknown men entered the third floor of the house, attacked the artist’s mother-in-law and began to injure her. Krug himself and his wife Irina came running to the woman’s screams. Then the criminals opened fire on them. Irina was able to escape, and Mikhail, who protected her from the bullets, received two serious wounds and lost consciousness. In the confusion, the attackers managed to escape, finally shooting the dog.


The circle came to its senses and was able to get to neighbor Vadim Rusakov, where Irina had fled. The man took the musician to Tverskaya city ​​hospital. At this time, the police were already working at the scene, and doctors were helping the musician’s mother-in-law. Fortunately, the children were not harmed.

The farewell service took place on July 3. IN last way The musician was seen off by the whole world. Not only colleagues, but also government officials came to say goodbye. The funeral ceremony stretched for several kilometers. Mikhail Krug was buried at the Dmitrovo-Cherkassky cemetery.


Consequences and memory

After the death of her husband, Irina began performing under the pseudonym Irina Krug. Most of her repertoire are songs dedicated to the memory of her late husband.

Irina Krug - To you, my last love

Mikhail's eldest son, Dmitry Vorobyov, was barely 14 when the bard was killed. The family was worried that the loss of his father would have a negative impact on the teenager and decided to transfer him to cadet corps. Of course, at first the boy did not understand why such a punishment would be given to a man who had just lost his father? But he quickly got involved and even fell in love with cadet life. Subsequently, he graduated with honors from the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and became a policeman.


Dmitry is similar to his father in appearance, but not in character: he is very introverted person, does not play the guitar, does not sing, avoids communicating with the press. However, relatives say that he changes around those close to him: he jokes, smiles, and is always ready to help.

The youngest son of Mikhail Krug, Alexander, does not remember his father, nor does he remember that ill-fated night. According to press reports, the boy officially took the surname Krug, as his mother Irina wanted. Unlike his brother, Sasha loves attention: he runs Instagram, which has several thousand subscribers, and sometimes participates in talk shows. Outwardly, he clearly took after his mother.


In 2007, a bronze monument was erected to Mikhail Krug on Radishchev Boulevard in Tver. A Russian bard and chansonnier sits on a bench and leans his hands on a guitar, next to him is free place, where anyone can sit and take a photo. Funds for the installation of the monument were raised by the Mikhail Krug Foundation, which headed it elder sister, Olga Medvedeva.


Investigation into the murder of Krug

The most different versions murders appeared one after another. Producer Vadim Tsyganov suggested that it was a banal robbery attempt. On the eve of the murder, the musician, together with Vika Tsyganova, Vadim’s wife, recorded the record “Vladimir Central-2” and was supposed to receive a large fee. According to another version, the artist became the victim of a planned and perhaps even contract murder

The case of the musician's murder has moved forward dead center only in 2008: the Tver Wolves gang was arrested in Tver, possibly related to the murder of Krug. One of its participants, Alexander Ageev, was identified by the musician’s widow Irina as the killer of her husband. However, his involvement could not be proven. Ageev received a life sentence, but for other crimes. The case was suspended out of despair.

Mikhail Krug: murder solved?

2019 brought new clues. An investigative experiment was conducted in Krug's house. Two members of the Tver Wolves gang, Dmitry Veselov and the same Ageev, testified. It turned out that one of the local crime bosses, nicknamed Lom, gave them the order to rob Mikhail Krug. He believed that the chansonnier’s modest house was stuffed with antiques and jewelry.


The bandits thought that no one was home, but in the midst of searching for the valuables, Mikhail’s family returned home. The criminals hid on top floor and were taken by surprise by Mikhail's mother-in-law. The men hit her with the handle of a pistol and tried to escape, but on the way out they ran into Krug. While fleeing, Veselov shot the musician twice. The wound turned out to be fatal.


Veselov is no longer alive. A year later, he was shot by another member of the Tver Wolves, an admirer of Mikhail Krug’s work, Alexey Osinov. He is now serving a life sentence. Since Ageev is already serving a life sentence, and also due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for attempted theft (his offense was included in this article), his punishment has not changed. The criminal case has been discontinued. Mikhail’s mother never found out the names of her son’s killers - she died of a heart attack in January 2018. Irina Krug thanked the Investigative Committee staff for solving the case.

Mikhail Krug is a famous Russian performer who has received the status of the king of Russian chanson. His hit “Vladimir Central” became a unique example of musical works in the “prison romance” genre. Even people far from chanson know Krug’s songs by heart, not only in Russia, but also far beyond the country’s borders.

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Vorobyov, better known as Mikhail Krug, was born on April 7, 1962 in Tver. He grew up in an intelligent Soviet family: Father Vladimir worked as a civil engineer, and his mother worked as an accountant at a cotton mill. The boy was named after his grandfather, a front-line soldier. As a child, he dreamed of becoming a chauffeur and driving a car.

The young man was interested in music, he liked songs. Having received a guitar as a gift from his parents, the guy soon performed songs in front of the children in the yard. On the recommendation of teachers from the music school, Mikhail began attending button accordion lessons, but Vorobyov only had enough patience for six months. Education never really captivated the teenager, even in high school he often ran away from classes.

Death

Krug’s life ended suddenly: on the night of July 1, 2002, his house was attacked by unknown assailants. The criminals beat the singer's mother-in-law, and he himself was shot with pistols. The wife managed to hide in a neighbor's house, and the children were not harmed because they were sleeping in their rooms. Having recovered from his injuries, Mikhail managed to walk to the nearest house, from where a neighbor took him to the hospital. Doctors treated the singer necessary help, but in the morning the musician died from his injuries.

The death of the bard came as a big surprise to everyone. Relatives, colleagues, fans mourned. On the day of the funeral, a farewell to the author took place in the hall of the Tver Drama Theater. The funeral cortege, which went to the Dmitrovo-Cherkasy cemetery, where the musician’s grave is located today, was several kilometers long.

Mikhail Krug, the famous chansonnier and songwriter, was killed on July 1, 2002 in his home in Tver. There were five other people there with him at that moment: his wife, mother-in-law, daughter and two sons, one of whom was barely a month old. Before the tragic events, Krug was relaxing in one of the Tver entertainment establishments. He returned home shortly before the attack.

Robbery

One of the versions why Mikhail Vladimirovich could have been killed is a banal robbery. This version is official. Shortly before his death, Krug finished the album “Confession”. Just the other day he expected to receive a large fee for this work. Probably someone knew about this, and this “someone” decided to take advantage of the situation.

He directed the bandits to Mikhail Vladimirovich’s house, but at the same time did not accurately guess the most successful time of the robbery. The thieves were supposed to rob Krug's home when he was not at home. But the famous chansonnier returned earlier than expected and found himself right in the center of events.

The murder occurred on the night of June 30, approximately after 23:00. The first to suffer was his mother-in-law, who was closest to the door at that time. Then his wife Irina was wounded. The circle ran out to the screams of women and the sounds of shooting. He received 2 bullets, from which he died in the morning in a Tver hospital.

The version of the robbery is supported not only by the official authorities, but also by people who respected Mikhail Vladimirovich and believed that he could not be treated badly in criminal circles. In their opinion, only a fatal coincidence of circumstances caused the death of the man who wrote the song “Vladimir Central”.

Contract murder

A different opinion is shared by those who knew a little more about Mikhail Krug and his contacts with the Tver criminals. One eloquent fact confirms that the murder of Krug could have been ordered. Krug's wife Irina later identified one of the attackers that night. He turned out to be a certain A. Ageev, a member of the Tver criminal group “Tver Wolves”.

Members of this gang were widely known in Tver as executors of contract killings. This was their profile. The fact that, under the guise of a robbery, Krug was shot in his own home by a man who dealt in contract killings speaks volumes. Despite suspicions, it was not possible to find out the motives and details of the crime in 2002 (or it was not beneficial for anyone).

Details 10 years after the crime

A decade later, some details of this case began to emerge. One of the criminals, sentenced to life imprisonment, testified. For the first time, he spoke directly about what many suspected back in 2002: Mikhail Krug was destroyed by order.

Some details of the case reopened in September 2012 became known to the press. It turned out that in the spring of 2003 there was a “showdown” between members of the gangster group. A certain A. Osipov, a killer nicknamed “Volkov,” shot dead another bandit, D. Veselov, nicknamed “Vesel,” in the wilderness outside the city.

Osipov received from the future victim incriminating evidence against a certain major authority who stood in the way of another gang. But the killer had another reason to shoot Veselov. He wanted to avenge Krug, who was killed in 2002. It turned out that Veselov knew the “customer”. He was the crime boss Kostenko.

Didn't want to pay

At the height of his popularity, the Circle received very good fees. Kostenko demanded that the singer pay him a “share” from each concert. Mikhail Vladimirovich refused to pay tribute. For this, Kostenko sent thieves-killers to his house. The goal was not robbery, but to intimidate the singer so that he would become more accommodating. Racket - the reason for many murders in the 90s - put an end to the life of Mikhail Vladimirovich Krug.

Chansonnier suffered only because he was home at the wrong time. The killers were forced to shoot him. Soon the killer of the Circle himself found himself in the grave. His bones were found only 10 years later, following a tip from one “lifer” from the Tver Wolves gang. In the criminal environment, Mikhail Krug was respected, and therefore they took revenge for his murder, without waiting for proceedings from the authorities. That's how it is in this environment.