Akhat (Alexander) Khafizovich (Sergeevich) Bragin (, , ; 1953 — 15 October 1995) was a Ukrainian businessman of Volga Tatar descent. He was a mafia figure of the

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

and later the president of the football club Shakhtar Donetsk until his death.

Biography

Akhat Hafizovich Bragin was born in 1953 in the Kuibyshevskyi District of

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

city,

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

. Before he became the president of Shakhtar Donetsk, he was also a

butcher A butcher is a person who may Animal slaughter, slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale ...

at a local market in Oktyabrsky Raion.

Education

Donetsk Soviet Trade Institute (today Donetsk National University of Economy and Trade), dropped out.

Convictions

* 24 November 1971 – convicted (the Criminal Code of Ukraine) by the Kuibyshev District Court of Donetsk to a conditional year of imprisonment with correctional term of 2 years without confiscation of property

Personal life

Bragin had a wife and two children.

Assassination and attempts

An attempt to kill Bragin took place on 19 March 1994 at Pisky (Bragin's hometown). Pisky, Yasynuvata Raion is a rural settlement of Yasynuvata Raion, just to the west from the Donetsk International Airport. A group of bandits from the Ryabin-Kushnir gang (run by Yevhen Kushnir and Anatoliy Ryabi) opened fire on Bragin's pigeon coop while Bragin was visiting his birds. Bragin survived the attempt. Bragin died in a bomb attack on Sunday 15 October 1995 at the Shakhtar Stadium in Donetsk. After this event, Rinat Akhmetov became president and chairman of Shaktar Donetsk. The reason for Akhat's murder was his business dealings. Known in the criminal underworld as 'Alik the Greek', his organization got into conflicts with several others. The investigation into his death made little progress until the confession of a rival gangster, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of former policeman Vyacheslav Synenko.

Legacy

In honor of Akhat Bragin, the mosque of Donetsk is called Ahat Jami.

References

External links

Criminal Donetsk: a travel guide of the most notorious criminal locations of the city in the 90s

The name of Bragin is still remembered in Donetsk

Akhat Bragin on the website genshtab

"Panorama weekly". 2002-06-12. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bragin, Akhat 1953 births 1995 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian businesspeople FC Shakhtar Donetsk non-playing staff Businesspeople from Donetsk People murdered by Russian-speaking organized crime People murdered in Ukraine Ukrainian gangsters Ukrainian murder victims Ukrainian people of Tatar descent Unsolved murders in Ukraine Volga Tatar people Deaths by explosive device