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- A lesson from a long time ago: the murder of the lyceum director was solved 24 years later
A lesson from a long time ago: the murder of the lyceum director was solved 24 years later
The investigation of a crime committed almost a quarter of a century ago has been completed in the Moscow region. In 2002, Vadim Menis, 62-year-old director of "Gagarin" Lyceum No. 10, Honored Teacher of Russia, was shot dead in Lyubertsy. According to investigators, the reason for the murder was the teacher's refusal to sell his shares in the Lyubertsy Agricultural Machinery Plant. According to the investigation, Alexey Lazutin, the criminal boss of the Taganskaya organized crime group, turned out to be in an unconventional role of an instigator. After 24 years, the investigation has been completed, and the case is being sent to court. How the crime was solved is in the "Izvestia" material.
Murder at the Lyceum
Vadim Menis was killed in October 2002 near the entrance to Lyceum No. 10 named after Yuri Gagarin (now Lyubertsy Technical College. — Ed.), where he worked for almost 40 years. It was no coincidence that the educational institution received the name of the first cosmonaut: from 1949 to 1951, Yuri Gagarin studied at Lyubertsy Vocational School No. 10, on the basis of which a lyceum was later created.
The director was a well-known man in the city: he was elected a deputy to the district council, maintained good relations with businessmen, officials and criminal bosses, many of whom had once been his students.
As the media wrote at the time, it was Menis who turned an ordinary vocational school, which was remembered only in connection with the next "Gagarin" anniversary, into an educational institution where students not only studied, but also earned.
According to the investigation, on October 10, Vadim Menis arrived at the lyceum in his Honda CR-V at about eight in the morning. The perpetrator of the murder, Mikhail Kolosov, armed with a pistol with a silencer, was waiting for him in a car parked about 150 m from the entrance to the building. Andrei Gusev was driving, and he was supposed to tell the killer who to shoot.
After receiving a conditional sign from the driver, Kolosov quickly got out of the car, approached the man and fired at close range. The bullet hit him in the shoulder. Kolosov fired the second, control shot at the teacher's head. Vadim Menis died on the spot.
Alexander Egorov, a plumber, noticed what was happening in the courtyard. He ran out into the street and tried to stop the killer, but was shot in the chest. Vladimir Lavrenkov, who worked as a driver at the lyceum, also tried to detain the criminal, but was shot in the stomach. After the shooting, Kolosov got into a waiting car and hid for several days in the village of Osechenki near Moscow.
The organizers of the murder
The investigation quickly reached a dead end. It received a new impetus only in October 2025, when one of the witnesses spoke up and the Investigative Committee announced the detention of two defendants in the case — Gusev and Kolosov.
At the same time, the name of the alleged customer was mentioned in the media — the Lyubertsy authority Vladimir Kazakov, who protected the installation of trade tents in the city. However, it was no longer possible to bring him to criminal responsibility: the bandit died in an accident five months after Menis' murder.
Later, another surname appeared in the criminal case. According to the investigation, Alexey Lazutin, a 60—year-old businessman, deputy director and co-founder of "Kalisto" LLC, was involved in the murder. The company was incorporated in 2002.
According to the investigation, Lazutin was a member of the Lyubertsy wing of the Taganskaya criminal group. The motive for the murder, according to law enforcement officers, was Vadim Menis' refusal to sell his shares for a song. According to "Izvestia", we are talking about a large package of securities of the Ukhtomsky agricultural machinery plant located in Lyubertsy.
"Annoyed" by Lazutin's refusal, in early October 2002, on the territory of the lyceum's furniture production, he demanded that his friend Vladimir Kazakov kill the teacher, threatening "physical violence" if he did not comply with the "request." Kazakov, realizing who he was dealing with, got scared and contacted his driver Alexei Gusev and a construction worker, Mikhail Kolosov, a native of Donetsk region.
According to the investigation, Kazakov used the same methods to convince the perpetrators: he intimidated and threatened to kill. In addition, he promised to pay $ 10-15 thousand for the execution of the order, but in the end he significantly reduced the amount — the contractor received only $300.
In addition to the murder of Menis, according to the investigation, in December of the same 2002, Kolosov shot a man who, after learning the details of the massacre of the teacher, demanded from his employer, Kazakov, a house in the Ramenskoye district in exchange for silence. The Lyubertsy authority decided otherwise: he invited the man to his place and ordered the murder. Kolosov complied with the order, shooting the guest's companion at the same time.
According to the investigation, the bodies were loaded and dumped into one of the nearest reservoirs. All this time, the couple was considered missing.
The Moscow region prosecutor's office has approved the indictment in the case, after which it will be sent to court. The investigation charges Mikhail Kolosov with murder by prior agreement, Andrei Gusev with complicity in it, and Alexei Lazutin with incitement. The criminal case against Kazakov has been terminated due to his death.
Crimes of the past years
According to the partner of the Pen Bar Association & Paper by Alyona Grishkova, the prosecutor's office is highly likely to request a life sentence for the perpetrator, and a less severe punishment for the accomplice, the driver Gusev.
— The judicial investigation, given the volume and prescription of this case, is likely to take quite a long time. This is due to the need to interrogate many witnesses more than two decades after the events and study all the case materials," Alyona Grishkova notes.
The crimes of the past years, as noted by lawyers, are now being solved quite often. In 2025, according to the TFR, 650 long-standing murders were solved. According to Alyona Grishkova, this result is related to the development of the criminal prosecution system. An important role, according to the lawyer, is played by the federal database of genomic information and the testimony of former members of the organized crime group.
— One of the main areas of work of operational units, especially in the Interior Ministry system, remains the search for information about previously committed crimes. In fact, every detainee is checked to see if he has committed anything before and if he has information about other crimes or their participants. Such work is constantly being carried out and gives results, so even after many years, a crime can be solved thanks to operational information," says Sergey Kolosovsky, head of the "Logard" law group.
According to him, the Investigative Committee has specialized departments investigating crimes of previous years. Their staff systematically review suspended criminal cases and look for leads that might have previously gone unnoticed. The materials may contain testimony or other information that was not checked at one time, as well as physical evidence that previously could not be investigated by technical means.
However, such cases are difficult from a procedural point of view: over the past years, witnesses may die, the memory of eyewitnesses may deteriorate, and physical evidence may lose its original properties, Alyona Grishkova notes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
