Otari Kvantrishvili (Georgian: ოთარ კვანტრიშვილი, Russian: Ота́ри Квантришвили; January 27, 1948 – April 5, 1994) was a Georgian mafia boss and one of Moscow's leading organised crime figures during the early 1990s.[1]
Prior to his 1966 conviction for rape, Kvantrishvili was on his way to becoming a world-champion wrestler. In the 1980s he then founded the Dynamo Sports Club and later the 21st Century Association, an organisation ostensibly dedicated to funding sports but was widely regarded as a front for racketeering.[2] During the chaotic transition to capitalism in the early 1990s, Kvantrishvili became something of a public face for the mafia, befriending politicians and celebrities such as Joseph Kobzon while also acting as a mediator between various underworld factions, including the thieves in law and Slavic and Chechen mobsters.[3]
The Podolskaya OPG (Russian: Подольская организованная преступная группировка (ОПГ)) were close to Kvantrishvili.[4][5][6][7]
In late 1993, Kvantrishvili publicly announced his intention to enter politics through a new party, the Party of Sportsmen, at a conference attended by many well-known athletes.
At 5:45 pm on 5 April 1994, he was shot dead by a sniper while leaving a Krasnopresnensky bathhouse in Moscow.[8][9][10][11][12] He was buried at Vagankovskoye.[8]
At the time of his death, Kvantrishvili was actively removing the Cherny brothers from the aluminium industry in Russia who controlled 75% of the aluminum exported from Russia to the West.[13]
Kvantrishvili was in open conflict with Moscow City Police General Vladimir Rushailo (Russian: Вадим Рушайло) in the Moscow RUOP.[14]
On September 29, 2008, four members of the Orekhovo-Medvedkovo gang were convicted, among other things, for organizing Kvantrishvili's murder. Oleg Pylev was sentenced to life in prison, Aleksei Sherstobitov received 23 years of imprisonment, Pavel Makarov – 13 years and Sergei Yelizarov – 11 years. Sherstobitov was the one who actually killed Kvantrishvili. He received a Lada car as payment for Kvantrishvili's murder.[15]
