Sirotenko’s advocates believe that Mokrov had reasons to dislike Neverov. But the Neverov gang claims that the “Mir” massacre was the consequence of Mokrov’s infatuation with drugs.

The general dissatisfaction of the groups with each other’s behavior was growing. That is why development of a large scale conflict was only a matter of time. On November 13, 1997 the accumulated negative emotions burst out. On that day Miron and his bodyguard Vassily Sinyakov (The Blue) clashed with members of the Neverov group, Tolmachev, Batrshin, and Lomakin, at the Mir youth club. As a result, Lomakin and Batrshin were killed and Tolmachev wounded. Sergey Pichugayev, security guard for the billiard parlor, was also killed. We have written about this event many times, so we will not be too specific or describe it in detail. Let us just say that the massacre at the Mir triggered a short-spanned but bloody war between the Mironov and the Neverov groups. It ended with Miron’s death. He was gunned down on October 19, 1999 in the hallway of his house. Igor Rakovsky and Anatoly Korolev, who had been steering the team together with Miron, were killed not long before that. As a result, the decapitated group ceased to exist. Competitors rushed for its commercial legacy like vultures for prey. Those were Sirota and Neverov.

Heirs

It so happened that it was they who became the main claimants to Mironov’s legacy, Sirotenko as his ally and friend, Neverov as the winner who must take possession of the property of the defeated. The resulting situation clearly meant that war was unavoidable. Miron had in a way represented Sirota in the Avtozavodsky district, and as we have already mentioned, they were not only allies, but friends as well.

Besides, Igor Sirotenko and Miron Mokrov oftentimes would together found (naturally, acting through front men) numerous commercial enterprises. One and the same person, Anatoly Korolev, director of the VAZ plant shop 81/1 handled the shipping of cars to Sirotenko’s and Mironov’s organizations.

It seems to us that the conflict could have been avoided if the Neverov gang had settled for the companies owned by Mironov only and left Sirotenko in charge of the enterprises belonging jointly to him and Mokrov. On the other hand it is not evident, and we do not rule out that the conflict would have escalated in any event.

The reason is that Igor Sirotenko did not participate openly on Miron’s side in the hostilities against the Neverov gangsters, because Miron’s actions had violated all criminal rules of honor. In a state of inebriation, he killed three of Neverov’s subordinates who had done nothing to provoke the conflict.

At the same time Sirota never made a secret out of whose side he sympathized with, and most probably provided material as well as technical assistance to his war-waging friend. Our sources maintain that when, after the Mir massacre, Mokrov ended up behind bars, it was Sirota who paid his “ransom” to the corrupt police officers. According to our information, the payment was made in the colossal amount of US $200,000. We are inclined to hold true both the fact of the “ransom” payment and the amount paid, since Miron had been detained at the crime scene and under the normal course of investigations there was no way he could be set free.

We also know exactly how Igor Sirotenko reacted to the death of his friend. He was gravely upset, especially by the fact that immediately following his murder the Neverov gang did not fail to circulate the version implicating Sirota himself in ordering Miron’s murder so as to lay hands on his men and money. Such libel is very hurtful for a criminal boss, all the more so that in the opinion of Sirotenko’s gang the people circulating the base rumors were using them as a cover to appropriate the entire legacy of Mironov, while taking advantage of the complicated situation in which Sirotenko’s organized criminal group found itself at that moment.