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Russian investigators drop murder case against Putin-linked businessman Ilya Traber, partner Vladimir Danilenko, and two others

Source: RBC

Vladimir Danilenko, a longtime partner of St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber, has been released from pretrial detention, according to sources cited by the St. Petersburg-based news outlet Fontanka, the business news outlet RBC, and the state news agencies RIA Novosti and TASS.

Danilenko, like Traber, had been suspected of involvement in the 2020 murder of St. Petersburg businessman and municipal deputy Alexander Petrov, known as the “boss of Vyborg.”

According to Fontanka, the case against Danilenko was dropped due to his lack of involvement in the murder.

In addition, the Investigative Committee dropped the cases against everyone named in the Petrov murder investigation, sources told RBC and Fontanka. Investigators found contradictions in the testimony of former prisoner of war Igor Lykov, which was “inconsistent,” RBC’s sources said. The case had been built in part on that testimony.

Besides Traber and Danilenko, Fontanka said, the case named Alisultan Nadirbegov and Said Saladinov, both natives of Dagestan, whom investigators believed had carried out Petrov’s killing. Everyone named in the case is now entitled to exoneration and compensation for the emotional distress and financial losses caused by their time in custody.

Ilya Traber is a businessman considered to have been close to Russian President Vladimir Putin early in the latter’s career in St. Petersburg. In the 1990s, he controlled the port of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal — the largest oil-products transshipment facility in the Baltic region.

Traber was detained on June 17 on suspicion of involvement in Petrov’s murder. He was taken to Moscow the same day, and a court ordered him held in pretrial detention. His longtime business partner, Vladimir Danilenko, was sent to a detention center soon afterward. In late August, the Investigative Committee dropped the case against Traber “due to his complete lack of involvement” in the murder. He was released from custody and returned to St. Petersburg.

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