Alexei Sherstobitov carried out contract killings in Moscow in the 1990s for a criminal group the court proceedings called the Orekhovo-Medvedkovo group. He was arrested in February 2006. On September 29, 2008 Moscow City Court, sitting with a jury and presided over by Judge Pyotr Shtunder, sentenced him to 18 years for banditry, participation in a criminal community and murders, and added part of an earlier sentence from March 2008 to reach a total of 23 years in a strict-regime colony. Twelve murders and attempted murders were proven against him. His term is due to end in 2029.
Sherstobitov was born in Moscow on January 31, 1967. He trained at a higher military school for railway troops in Leningrad, returned to Moscow in 1989 and left the army in 1992 as an officer. He worked briefly for the Moscow railway, then ran a small business that rivals ruined, and afterwards took work as a bodyguard.
He was introduced to the Orekhovo-Medvedkovo group through Grigory Gusyatinsky, one of its leaders, whom he met at a gym in Moscow. The group was linked to the larger Orekhovo organisation led by Sergei Timofeev. From the early 1990s until the middle of the next decade Sherstobitov worked for it as a contract killer.
The offenses set out in the 2008 verdict run from 1993 to 1999, all in Moscow.
In October 1993 Igor Yurkov and several of his associates were killed. In March 1994 an attempt was made on the life of a man who was unharmed; a man named Sheikhulin died in the same attack. Otari Kvantrishvili was killed in Moscow in 1994. In December 1996 Iosif Glotser was killed. In January 1999 an attempt on another man failed, and he survived.
The group's leader at the time of the killings, Oleg Pylev, was identified in court as the man who ordered them.
Moscow police identified Sherstobitov in 2006 after information given to investigators by a member of a group from the Kurgan region. He was detained in Moscow in February 2006. The inquiry that followed took about two years and dozens of hearings before the first trial.
Two trials took place in Moscow City Court in 2008. In March 2008 a jury found Sherstobitov guilty of banditry, participation in a criminal community, three attempted murders and one contract killing.
The second trial ended in the autumn. On September 24, 2008 the jury returned its verdict of guilty, with a finding that he deserved leniency, in the case of the Orekhovo-Medvedkovo group. Five days later, on September 29, 2008, Judge Shtunder passed sentence. The court recorded convictions for banditry, participation in a criminal community and murders, with attempted murder also in the charges. The sentence for that trial was 18 years. The court added part of the March 2008 sentence, which produced a total of 23 years in a strict-regime colony.
Three co-defendants were sentenced in the same trial. Sergei Yelizarov, who also assisted the investigation, received 11 years in a colony. Pavel Makarov, convicted of taking part in two murders, received 13 years in a strict-regime colony. Oleg Pylev received 19 years, which was absorbed into the life sentence imposed on him by Moscow City Court in 2005 and is served in a special-regime colony.
He avoided a longer term in part through cooperation with investigators, and his statements helped clear a number of crimes from the 1990s.
Sherstobitov was tried by Moscow City Court sitting with a jury. The jury returned the verdict, including the finding that he deserved leniency, and the judge fixed the sentence. The 23-year total was formed by adding part of the March 2008 sentence to the 18 years imposed in September. Other members of the same organisation were tried separately in the following decade. In 2014 Moscow City Court sentenced the group's leader Dmitry Belkin to life imprisonment and Oleg Pronin to 24 years.
Sherstobitov's term is due to end in 2029 and he is held in a strict-regime colony in the Lipetsk region. In October 2024 a Moscow lawyer, Alexander Khaminsky, said that he had become eligible to apply for conditional early release, and press accounts of that month said a first application had been refused. On March 5, 2025 a report that his colony had approved a parole petition and sent it to the court was denied by the regional prison service, and the court said it had received no documents. As of March 2025 he remained in custody. He has published an autobiography in several volumes.
The figure of 12 murders and attempted murders proven against him has never been broken down by victim, and the outcome of any appeal against the 2008 sentence has not been reported. Reports in March 2025 that a parole petition had been approved were denied by the regional prison service.
January 31, 1967: Born in Moscow.
1992: Leaves the army as an officer.
October 1993: Igor Yurkov and associates killed in Moscow.
March 1994: Attempted murder; Sheikhulin killed.
1994: Otari Kvantrishvili killed in Moscow.
December 1996: Iosif Glotser killed in Moscow.
January 1999: An attempted murder fails.
February 2006: Sherstobitov arrested in Moscow.
March 2008: First jury trial in Moscow City Court; first sentence.
September 24, 2008: Jury verdict, guilty with a finding that he deserved leniency.
September 29, 2008: Sentenced to 23 years in aggregate.
October 2024: Reports of an application for early release.
March 5, 2025: Parole reports denied by the regional prison service.
2029: Term due to end.