Being not yet strong enough to operate independently, the gang merged into the large criminal group Velikolukskaya (from Velikie Luki, Pskov region) and was engaged mostly in commercial racketeering.
[2] During the mid-1990s Kumarin attempted to legalize the criminal earnings of his gang using extensive contacts with the government of the City of St. Petersburg headed by mayor Anatoly Sobchak (1991–1996), to whom the current Russian president Vladimir Putin served as assistant.
[1] Since the late 1990s a few senior members of Kumarin's structures as well as of its adversaries were killed and a list of investigations of his past criminal affairs was published.
[4][5][6][7] The Russian co-owner of the SPAG's joint venture was the government of St. Petersburg, and Vladimir Putin, then the municipal official, was a member of the board from 1992 to 2000.
[10][11] It has been suggested that Kumarin maintained good relations with Russian politicians Mikhail Glushenko and Alexander Filatov.
Allegedly after refusing to back down from a business deal in favour of a politician close to Vladimir Putin, Kumarin was raided and arrested by 300 special forces officers on August 24, 2007.
[1] After the 2007–2009 investigation Kumarin was sentenced to 14 years in prison plus a fine for the episodes of racketeering, fraud, money laundering and a murder attempt.