A ONE-ARMED multi-millionaire, who is alleged to be the last of the Russian crime bosses of the 1990s to stay in business, has gone on trial in Moscow, accused of ordering a botched attempt to murder a rival in his silver Rolls-Royce.

Vladimir Barsukov, 53, who is rumoured to have had links in the past to Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, is also charged with setting up a crime syndicate once seen as the most powerful mafia gang in St Petersburg, the country’s crime capital in the years after the fall of communism.

At the height of his power he had 2,000 foot soldiers under his command, security experts say.

Barsukov, who lost his right arm in an assassination attempt by a rival gang in 1994, dominated the courtroom last week from his seat at the back of a bulletproof glass cage. His alleged lieutenants, who shared the cage with him, listened attentively as he whispered to them.

Prosecutors and a panel of judges were equally respectful as he challenged a witness through an intercom.

“I’m innocent and this trial is a farce,” Barsukov told The Sunday Times during the hearing. “I don’t fear this court and I’m far from broken. The only judgment that matters to me is God’s. I’m in very good spirits and when I look back on my life I’ve no regrets whatsoever.”

He is accused of having been responsible for the attempted murder in 2006 of Sergei Vasiliev, a powerful businessman who controlled St Petersburg’s oil terminal.

Two men armed with AK-47 assault rifles raked Vasiliev’s Rolls-Royce with fire as he drove through the city centre. One of his bodyguards died and two were badly injured. Vasiliev, too, was seriously wounded. When he awoke from a coma he accused Barsukov, who faces a life sentence if he is found guilty.

“Barsukov is in a league of his own,” said a St Petersburg businessman who has known him for more than a decade. “The decision to put him away for good is a political one which was taken at the highest level.”

In the early 1990s Barsukov was said to have had dealings with Putin, who had recently resigned from the KGB to become St Petersburg’s deputy mayor.

The two men were said to be linked through Vladimir Smirnov, an associate of Putin’s. In 1994 Putin awarded the Petersburg Fuel Company the right to be the city’s sole supplier of fuel.

At the time Smirnov was a leading shareholder in the company. Local media reported that it was controlled by the Tambov crime syndicate, which Barsukov was alleged to have founded.

The deal triggered a gang war as rivals fought for control of the lucrative oil distribution market. Then, in 1998, Smirnov took over the company and appointed Barsukov as his deputy.

No link between Putin and any criminal activity has ever been proved. Barsukov himself has denied being acquainted with Putin and no connection between the two men has ever been established - but both emerged from the chaos of the 1990s as powerful figures in St Petersburg.

During the mafia wars Barsukov became known as Russia’s Al Capone, after the Chicago gangster whose gang dominated the bootleg liquor business during the prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s.

An attempt to kill Barsukov left him in a coma for a month after he was sprayed with machinegun fire. His right arm was amputated at the shoulder and bullets pierced his stomach, chest and lungs. He still has bullet fragments lodged in his heart.

A friend in St Petersburg described Barsukov as “the last man standing”. He added: “The other mafia bosses are dead, in jail or have become legitimate businessmen. His trial marks the end of the era of Russia’s crime-ridden 1990s.” Barsukov is alleged to have founded the Tambov syndicate in 1989 to run protection rackets in the city during the dying days of the Soviet Union. As the reforms launched by Mikhail Gorbachev opened Russia to capitalism, the gang began to take control of nightclubs and striptease bars. It soon branched out to more mainstream businesses such as oil and petrol distribution.

After Putin became president in 2000, Barsukov set out to clean up his reputation. Deeply religious, he gave generously to the Russian Orthodox church, the arts and charities. He played the French King Louis XIV in a film and used his influence to help secure the release of two young children who had been kidnapped by a gang.

Celebrities and a dozen MPs attended his 50th birthday party in 2006. By then he was so famous that he was recognised in the street. His notoriety is said to have irked the Kremlin.

His downfall is said to have come when former associates sought illegally to take over a firm owned by a friend of Valentina Matviyenko, St Petersburg’s governor, who is close to Putin. Barsukov, according to colleagues, was warned to sell up and leave Russia. He refused and was arrested in a raid by 300 special forces officers sent from Moscow.

“Barsukov was never going to flee,” said a friend. “He’s not that kind of guy. He’s tough and will face whatever’s thrown at him. He has his own principles. There’s no one really like him left in Russia.”

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