Russian senator detained in murder-for-hire plot

Dmitry Savelyev allegedly commissioned a hit on a former business partner

Senator Dmitry Savelyev has been stripped of parliamentary immunity and detained in Moscow, on suspicion of commissioning a contract killing of a former business partner, the Russian Investigative Committee said on Friday.

Russian Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov appeared unannounced at the session of the Federation Council, just as it was recessing for the summer, and had Savelyev detained as he exited the chamber.

“The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Senator Dmitry Vladimirovich Savelyev, on charges of preparation for murder,” Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement, describing the senator’s actions as “guided by personal hostility.”

According to Petrenko, in August 2023 Savelyev asked an associate to offer a monetary reward for the killing of “a businessman,” whom the media have identified as Sergey Ionov. The man was reportedly the senator’s former business partner, who had embezzled money from a company they managed together through an intermediary. Ionov was imprisoned for the offense and the company ended up in the hands of Savelyev’s sons, according to TASS.

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Savelyev allegedly offered the equivalent of $100,000 for Ionov’s death, according to the media. His associates hired an employee of the Russian Federal Bureau of Prisons (FSIN) for the deed. After finalizing the agreement with the senator and his associates, however, the hired hitman went directly to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and became their informant.

Together with the FSB, the hitman staged the assassination of Ionov, going as far as to forge an ambulance call and a coroner’s report as proof. Satisfied, Savelyev then paid the hitman, according to the prosecutors.

Krasnov asked the Federation Council to strip Savelyev of parliamentary immunity. The request was granted on Friday. The senator is expected to be arraigned before a Moscow judge and face charges under Articles 30, 33, and 105 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Savelyev was first elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, in Nizhny Novgorod Region in 1999. In 2016, he was elected to the Federation Council as a senator for Tula Region. He served on the budget and financial markets committees. Forbes listed him among the 50 richest public servants in Russia.

This is the second time a Russian senator has been stripped of immunity in relation to murder-for-hire. Rauf Arashukov was detained in 2019 for allegedly commissioning the killings of two political figures in his native Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia. Arashukov and his father Raul were charged with murder, participation in a criminal enterprise and witness intimidation, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Their appeal was rejected in September 2023.