The Death of a Beauty Queen at the Hands of the Mob

Miss Russia beauty pageant finalist Svetlana Kotova was found dead and dismembered in a suitcase

In May 1997, Greek police dug up a shallow grave underneath an olive tree near Athens and discovered a suitcase with body parts. The body had been dismembered and stuffed into the suitcase.

The victim was identified as 21-year-old Svetlana Kotova. Police had already been looking for her whereabouts for months.

Svetlana was a Russian beauty queen. She was a finalist in the 1996 Miss Russia beauty pageant.

How did a young and beautiful woman end up in pieces in a shallow grave far away from her home? This is her story.

Friends with the Mob

The Miss Russia pageant is the most famous national beauty pageant in Russia. Winners of the pageant would get to represent Russia in the Miss World and Miss Universe beauty pageants.

Svetlana did not win the 1996 Miss Russia pageant but her modeling and career in beauty were on the rise. As a finalist in the pageant, she had gained enough clout to sign with Moscow’s top modeling agency called the Red Stars.

As it was, Svetlana’s youth, beauty, and popularity attracted the attention of all sorts of characters including a rich and charming 36-year-old man called Alexander Solonik.

Alexander and Svetlana met at a nightclub in Moscow. The two hit it off and Svetlana was immediately taken with the relationship.

Shortly after, Alexander invited Svetlana to spend time with him in Greece so she traveled there at his request and was treated like a queen upon arrival.

As soon as she arrived at the airport, she was met with armloads of flowers. She was given her own chauffeur and driven around in a Mercedes. She stayed with Alexander in a beautiful and expensive villa.

It is not known if Svetlana was aware of Alexander’s dealings but he wasn’t just any rich and charming guy. He was Russia’s most notorious hitman in the criminal underworld.

Alexander was a legendary Russian mobster who was given the nicknames, the Macedonian, and the Superkiller. He was of Greek descent and could shoot a handgun with both hands. He was on Russia’s 10 Most Wanted List.

He worked as a hitman in Kurgan, Soviet Union. Alexander became famous in the criminal underworld because he murdered and extorted money from other Russian mobsters. He was also extremely violent, had been charged with rape and being a cop killer, and had been sent to prison a few times. However, he managed to escape from prison and moved to Greece to hide out from the authorities.

When he met Svetlana, he had already been married twice, had kids, and had divorced. He had been living in Greece with a fake passport which he had obtained from the Greek consulate. He also had his own network of 50 men who dealt with drug smuggling and contract killings. He was an extremely dangerous man but Svetlana was happy with him for those few days.

The Mob Murders

Svetlana was living the high life and she knew it. She called her mother up every day while she was in Greece to describe her luxurious lifestyle and state that life was a miracle.

There was no mention of any disagreements or discord in her relationship with Alexander.

Alexander actually treated Svetlana very well. It was not him she had to worry about at that point. Besides, their relationship was only a few months old and they were still in the honeymoon phase.

On January 31, 1997, Svetlana was supposed to have called her mother up as usual but there was no word from her. She had most likely been murdered by then.

On the day of the murders, a group of gangsters from the Kurgan criminal organization visited Alexander’s villa in Greece. Alexander had previously worked in this organization and was familiar with the gangsters. They were old colleagues. It is not known if he knew whether they had a hit on him or not. They had come because they wanted to settle a score with him.

When the men were talking to Alexander, someone threw a thin cord around his neck and strangled him. Svetlana was a witness to the murder. Naturally, they had to dispose of her too.

Alexander’s body was found by the police and identified. They also found a large number of weapons in his villa and car. Alexander was supposed to have carried out another hit in Italy but he was murdered before that could happen.

Four months later, the police found Svetlana’s dismembered body in the suitcase in a shallow grave near Athens.

The gangsters who murdered Alexander and Svetlana have not been caught to date.

Conclusion

The murder of Svetlana was a big deal in Russia. She was headlined on almost every Russian newspaper. Her modeling and beauty pageant pictures were shown on newspaper spreads. Most people wondered how she could have gotten involved with the mob. Svetlana became a symbol for Russia which was undergoing reforms and having to deal with poverty and crime during the late 1990s.

It is also ironic that she was not murdered by Alexander who was also a very dangerous mob hitman. Instead, she got murdered by other mobsters because of her association with him. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Some rumors have gone around that Alexander may still be alive. It is said that he may have used a double. Although the authorities did identify the body to be Alexander’s, they had no conclusive evidence because his fingerprints were never on record. The authorities believe that Alexander had all the power to fake his own death.

Svetlana is not the only beauty queen to become a victim of murder. There are others too but the takeaway here is that no matter how beautiful or rich you are, life can take a turn for the worse at any time. Svetlana dreamed of having a beautiful life. For a few days before her murder, she lived in luxury and thought she had it all until she was brutally murdered.

Sources: hoover.org, rbth.com, timenote.info, teplogi.ru, Murderpedia, Wikipedia

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