Details of the loudest murder of the 90s - singer Igor Talkov — have been revealed

Composer and performer Igor Talkov was killed with a revolver of the 1895 model, a total of three bullets were fired from the revolver. This is stated in the case file.

"The shot was fired with a 7.62 mm shell bullet from a revolver of the Nagant type of the 1895 model," RIA Novosti quoted the document as saying.

It was established that the bullet shot extracted from the singer's body was not the first of three, but only one hit the artist.

Experts have categorically established that Valery Shlyafman was the only murderer of Igor Talkov.

"In the conclusion of a comprehensive forensic ballistic situational examination, in addition to the detailed sequence of actions of the participants in the conflict that turned into a brawl, the experts made a categorical conclusion that it was Shlyafman who was the only person who caused Talkov's fatal wound from a revolver, probably in his right hand," the materials also say.

Recall, on October 6, 1991, Valery Shlyafman, the concert director of the singer Igor Talkov, and Igor Malakhov, a representative of one of the artists, had a conflict over the order of the artists' performances at the concert, which escalated into a brawl in the corridor. Taking advantage of the fact that Malakhov was beaten and held by three people, including Igor Talkov, Shlyafman grabbed a revolver from Malakhov's hands, fired a shot, causing Igor Talkov a fatal wound, from which he died on the spot.

As EADaily reported, in April 2025, the court in St. Petersburg found producer Shlyafman guilty of the murder of Talkov, as well as the attempted murder of the singer's guard Aziza Igor Malakhov. He was sentenced in absentia to 13 years of imprisonment in a correctional colony of general regime,

In 1992, Shlyafman left for Ukraine, where he received a foreign passport and fled to Israel, where he is still.

In January 2022, the court in St. Petersburg arrested Shlyafman in absentia. A request for legal assistance was sent to the Israeli authorities.

Last fall, it became known that St. Petersburg investigators in Israel interrogated Shlyafman, who continued to deny his involvement in one of the most high-profile murders of the 90s.

As part of the investigation of the criminal case, more than 150 witnesses were questioned throughout Russia, and one of the experts who conducted the examinations in 1991-1992 removed cutouts from Shlyafman's shirt with traces of blood, which are important for establishing his involvement in the murder.

In addition, the testimony in this case was given by the Honored Artist of Russia Natasha Koroleva. Singer and composer Mikhail Muromov, as well as producer Alexander Tolmatsky, were to appear in court to testify. Both artists were duly notified by the court, but they did not appear. People's Artist of Russia Oleg Gazmanov was also summoned to court several times for consideration of the case on the merits.