pipe. The other victim, 20-year-old Poland-based dancer Sveta Golovach, an acquaintance of the criminals, was strangled with a belt. The gold was then shared between the two. 2002 Pugachev and Burdenko would regularly travel from Polotsk to the Lepiel-Polotsk Highway, bordering with the Russian town of Opochka. They would install spikes on the road, camouflage themselves and their guns, binoculars and radios, and wait for victims. On the night of April 21, 2002, they were unlucky, and drove home in a bad mood. While passing through the village of Kolektivniyi, the duo noticed a lone Mitsubishi Galant along the road. The car belonged to Russian car enthusiast Nikolay Petrachkov, from Slantsy, who had lost contact with his friends near the village of Kingisepp. Burdenko shot the sleeping Petrachkov through the glass, and at Pugachev's request, finished him off with a headshot. The victim's money and cellphone were taken, and his blood-soaked Galant was burned in a forest in the Rossony District. A few months later, a similar event was repeated, when Pugachev shot and killed another car enthusiast from Slantsy named Georgy Romanov. His corpse was also buried in the forest, with his Volkswagen Passat also being burned. Spring 2002 to November 2003 Several raids were carried out by the quartet on companies, enterprises, apartments and villas of wealthy people in the Vitebsk Region and Brest Region, with the loot amounting to around 130 million rubles. The criminals stole computer equipment, car batteries, washing machines, gas stoves and gold jewelry, all of which would be sold in their native Polotsk. 2003 The quartet prepared for at least a week to kidnap the Novopolotsk-based Kovalevich family, who were currency traders, for a ransom worth $30,000. Burdenko was tasked with watching the victims. On June 26, 2003, in broad daylight, he informed his accomplices that the spouses were entering the apartment. When they exited the elevator, the husband and wife were shot with the Makarov and an improvised revolver. Although severely injured, Mr. Kovalevich managed to fight off the criminals with a fishing pole, while his wife hanged back with a bullet in her stomach. The elevator doors then miraculously closed, with the spouses managing to crawl out in the street and call for help. They were later transported to a hospital and saved by the doctors. However, the gang had escaped through a pre-planned route: through the roof. Undated Among their