A Russian court has handed down a 9.5-year prison sentence for the 1994 killing of a prominent organised crime figure in a Tula casino. It’s the kind of case that’s been hanging over the country for three decades, finally put to rest.

A Crime That Defined an Era

Sergei Puchkov was gunned down at a casino on Oktyabrskaya Street in Tula on 23 May 1994. A dispute had erupted among patrons. The shooter, identified in court only as S (born 1969), walked in carrying an automatic rifle and fired at least 15 rounds into Puchkov as he sat at a poker table. A casino employee caught some of those rounds too, but lived.

This wasn’t some isolated incident. It was symptomatic of Russia’s absolutely wild early 1990s, when Soviet authority collapsed and the gambling sector fell into total chaos. Criminal syndicates ran the show. Puchkov himself, according to prosecutors, headed a mafia-style gang operating in the region.

Three Decades to Justice

The initial investigation fell apart pretty quickly. Police spent months chasing leads on the gunman’s identity, but the trail ran cold. The case got shelved.

Then 2024 happened. Forensic experts working with Tula police finally uncovered fresh evidence that pointed to S. Investigators reopened the file, reconstructed what went down, and arrested the suspect.

The trial was largely conducted behind closed doors at Zarechensky District Court. The judge ordered media to protect the shooter’s identity at the request of one of the victims. Proceedings began in April 2025 and have now concluded with sentencing.

The Wider Crackdown

This conviction lands as Moscow tightens the screws on gambling across the board. Online casinos are banned outright. Land-based gambling is confined to six designated zones. Last month, the Federal Security Service and the Investigative Committee coordinated raids on a domestic payments platform handling illegal transactions for online operators including Pin-Up, Pinco, and FreshCasino. They arrested 24 people and seized serious amounts of cash.

Some officials want to go further still. They’re talking about fining Russian citizens who use overseas betting platforms. Compare that to the early 1990s, when anything went and cases like Puchkov’s were almost inevitable.