"The guy was nervous. Secretive."
What the court heard about Alexei Poltavets, who confessed to journalists to a murder in a Ryazan forest and named one of the defendants in the high-profile criminal case against the terrorist group "Network"* as his accomplice.
- Hello, this is the Ryazan Regional Court, and we cannot see you, — says the judge Natalia Kianovskaya, looking at the monitor screen.
Her assistant is trying to establish a video link with the city's Pervomaisky District Court. Omsk, where Alexey Poltavets's older brother came for questioning on May 22. A worried voice from a girl on the other side of the screen asks him to call back. After a couple of minutes, the image finally appears.
- We've been waiting for you for 15 minutes, our court hearing is open, " Judge Kianovskaya remarks irritably. And waits another four minutes for her Omsk colleagues to confirm the witness's identity.
Only after this do the participants in the process have the opportunity to ask questions. To Vladimir Poltavets, whose brother confessed to the murder to journalists three years ago and broke the wave of protests that took place across the country in support of those involved in the “Network”* case.
"He was afraid that he would be recognized as a terrorist."
Speaking before the court, Vladimir Poltavets He couldn't remember the last time he saw his younger brother. He could only guess it might have been in 2017. In the intervening six years, he had even forgotten what his voice sounded like.
Alexey Poltavets Born in 2000. After ninth grade, he enrolled in the Omsk Culinary College, became fascinated with anarchist ideas, and just a year later, dropped out and left his hometown. At the time, he had just turned 17.
We [my parents and I] didn't know that he had gone to Penza. He said that he had gone to St. Petersburg, - told Vladimir Poltavets court.
When did you find out that he was in Penza? — the state prosecutor clarified Oksana Mayakova.
When he and some other guys were detained there on suspicion of allegedly [distributing] drugs, — he replied. — He waited for his mother to come pick him up in Penza. While she was on her way, he ran away.
Alexey Poltavets contacted his brother about six months later, at the end of 2017. He corresponded with him via the encrypted Pidgin messenger, which he had installed on his brother's laptop before leaving Omsk. He said he was in Kyiv, making his living as an industrial mountaineer.
Did he explain why he left for Kyiv? — the lawyer asked. Konstantin Kartashov. He is the one defending the defendant in the Network* case. Maxim Ivankin, who, according to Alexei Poltavets, was an accomplice to a double murder in the Ryazan forest and is now in the dock.
Because he was tortured [at the Penza police station after being arrested on drug charges], and he considered the prosecution against him illegal. He was afraid he would be labeled a terrorist, and so on. — the witness answered.
According to him, the younger brother did not specify with whom he fled or how exactly he crossed the border with Ukraine.
Because he was a very nervous guy. Secretive, — Vladimir Poltavets explained.
Main material evidence
A journalist from the online publication Meduza provided investigators with a recording of an interview in which Alexei Poltavets spoke about the murder in the Ryazan forest. Kristina Safonova.
Poltavets' voice on the audio recording was identified by his older brother, mother, school teacher, and culinary college instructor. Furthermore, it matches the voice in an interview Poltavets gave about torture at the Penza police station. gave To Ukrainian Radio in July 2018.
As follows from the interrogation protocols of Safonova, read out in court, Poltavets called her and her colleague Maxim Solopov via an encrypted internet messenger. The conversation took place on the night of February 25-26, 2020, when the journalists were in Ryazan. By that time, they had already been together for two weeks. worked over the investigation into the possible involvement of the defendants in the "Network"* case in the murder of Artem Dorofeev and Ekaterina Levchenko.
I made the audio recording, — Kristina Safonova told the investigator. — But I want to clarify that I fell asleep while the audio recording was in progress, and when I woke up, the interview was over.
Furthermore, during the conversation with Alexey Poltavets, the audio recording suddenly stopped. According to Safonova, this was due to the recorder running out of memory or the batteries dying.
Kristina actually fell asleep at the very end of the conversation with Poltavets, when we were talking about clarifying questions on my part, — journalist Maxim Solopov confirmed to NeMoskva. — The interview was recorded late in the evening, after nearly two weeks of immense and emotionally challenging work researching all the known facts and evidence about this story. Christina and I hadn't slept much in those days, and we were both quite tired.
Kristina Safonova herself declined to comment to NeMoskva.
The transcript of the audio recording, which the state prosecutor read to the jury on May 22, does indeed contain the words "she's gone, she's sleeping."
I think I passed out. I didn't notice at some point, and I don't know what knocked me out. — explains the absence of his colleague Solopov in a conversation with Poltavets.
I understand, maybe it’s good, — his interlocutor answers him.
Well, I also thought that this could be her defensive reaction, — Solopov suggests.
A voice recording in which Alexey Poltavets recounts the details of the murder for over an hour was added to the criminal case as one of the key pieces of evidence. State prosecutor Oksana Mayakova read the transcript to the jury on May 22.
How the decision to “liquidate” was made
The defendants in the "Network"* case continue to insist that there was no terrorist organization, and that their plans to overthrow the government and attack police officers were merely fantasies of FSB officers.
Alexey Poltavets In his interview, he claims that the "Network"* did indeed exist. And that members of the Penza cell recruited him to sell drugs.
Poltavets left Penza in early April 2017, after police officers detained him while stashing another shipment. He left for Ryazan with Maxim Ivankin, who, according to him, was one of the active participants in the “Network”* community.
A little later to them joined Ekaterina Levchenko и Artem Dorofeev — the so-called "civilians." According to Poltavets, at first, the pair dealt only drugs, but over time, they began visiting the safe house, going on hikes and weapons training, and "getting involved in the action."
“They were initiated into all sorts of these matters,” he clarified. Alexey Poltavets in a conversation with Meduza journalists**.
He emphasized that Levchenko and Dorofeev had no intention of hiding for long. Both they said They wanted to return to Penza, to normal life, and didn't believe the arguments that the police would force them to testify against members of the "Network"* group. This, according to Poltavets, was the main reason for their "liquidation."
The decision to commit murder was made in late April, during an online messaging exchange. Three people who remained in Penza at the time spoke in favor of eliminating witnesses. According to Poltavets, these were Dmitry Pchelintsev, Andrey Chernov и Ilya ShakurskyA few months later, all of them will be arrested as defendants in the "Network"* case. The investigation has not proven that these individuals voted for the murder: all three are witnesses in the criminal case.
In a conversation with Meduza journalists**, Poltavets clarified that Ivankin discussed the location and possible methods of murder together with Pchelintsev.
"So he didn't just vote there and do whatever you want, but he also gave advice on how to do it?" — Maxim Solopov asked again.
"Yes, yes," — Poltavets answered him.
He clarified that he had acted according to a pre-arranged plan outlined to him by Maxim Ivankin: to go to the forest near the village of Lopukhi and commit the murder with knives. Just in case, they had brought two sawed-off shotguns belonging to Ivankin.
It turned out to be easy to lure Levchenko and Dorofeev into the forest.
"Like, you need to change apartments, and until you have another apartment, you need to, like, make do in the woods," — this is how the legend went, according to Poltavets.
All four reached the murder site first by public transportation, then by hitchhiking, and then on foot for several kilometers. They set up camp in the forest just before sunset. There were no tents, so they slept on makeshift bunks made of spruce branches, covered with their belongings.
"Ivankin assumed that everything would happen at night. Well, while they were sleeping, cut the neck, — Poltavets told the journalist. — But they were sleeping, wrapped up. You see, they weren't uncovered... Anyway, I backed out... So, it all went away until the morning. Well, actually, in the morning, he [Ivankin] was like: that's it, anyway, it's time to wait, it's time to act."
Retelling the Murder
According to Alexey PoltavetsThe murder occurred early in the morning, just as the sun rose. Under the pretext of collecting firewood, Maxim Ivankin led Ekaterina Levchenko a hundred meters away—out of Artem Dorofeyev's line of sight. Poltavets remained close to Dorofeyev, keeping close to the loaded sawed-off shotgun.
“After a while, someone shouted, — Poltavets described the scene of the murder. — Well, not just anyone, I mean Levchenko. At first, there was just a small cry: "Help." And they immediately silenced the man. We [Artem Dorofeyev and I] kind of jumped up, stood there, looking at each other, not understanding what was going on. Literally 20 seconds passed, and then Ivankin came running. You could see blood on his hands, up close. But from a distance, you couldn't see it. And then I actually took [the safety off the sawed-off shotgun and fired]. Artem fell to his knees, still making some noise. And I immediately cut the artery [in his neck], and he almost immediately went quiet."
Bodies buried The graves were dug 70 meters apart. They used garden shovels, so the graves were shallow. According to Poltavets, Ivankin buried Kateryna Levchenko himself. He would occasionally come over to help him dig Artem Dorofeyev's grave.
"I said: don't go anywhere, dude, — Poltavets said. — Like, I was scared. Then he was like, "F*ck, we need to get out of here."
They left the camp in the forest after washing off the blood with alcohol and burning the personal belongings and documents of the dead.
According to Poltavets, before leaving, they remembered that Kateryna Levchenko had one or two thousand rubles left in her jacket pocket. Maxim Ivankin decided to dig up the grave to retrieve the money.
"Like, he [Ivankin] says: we should get them. And I say: like, no, don't touch anything," — Poltavets clarified.
They didn't reach the Ryazan apartment until evening. There, Ivankin allegedly reported to Pchelintsev on the work he'd completed, sending a message along the lines of "everything's okay."
He told the Poltavets, who was deeply distressed by the murder, “It’s over, calm down.”
A day or two later, both left for Moscow on the morning commuter train. There, they separated. A few days later, Alexey Poltavets illegally left the country, while Maxim Ivankin remained in the capital, where he was arrested in the summer of 2018.
The loss of Poltavets
According to Vladimir PoltavetsThe whole family tried to persuade his younger brother to return home to Russia, but he did not agree and began to communicate less and less.
In March 2019, he made a video call introducing his mother to his girlfriend. Victoria FrolovaHe did not show the contents of the apartment, citing the fact that he could be identified.
“Father was at home, but he didn’t talk to him, — Vladimir Poltavets recalled during an interrogation with an investigator in December 2020. — Alexey said that he had received refugee status."
When Meduza** published his monologue confessing to the murder in March 2020, Vladimir Poltavets tried to contact him through journalists. But this attempt, he says, was unsuccessful.
"My parents and I barely discussed this publication. My father says he doesn't know what to think about it. I don't remember what my mother said." — Vladimir Poltavets clarified to the investigators.
He refused to reproduce this testimony in court, citing Article 51 of the Constitution, which gives the right not to testify against close relatives.
His mother Oksana Poltavets, also summoned to testify on May 22, did not appear in court.
Could you tell the court how to contact her? — the state prosecutor asked Vladimir Poltavets.
I don't know how people usually communicate in such cases, — he replied. — Well, send her some kind of subpoena.
A few days earlier, the defendant's lawyer Konstantin Kartashov reminded the court that the case materials contained interrogation reports of another family member, Father Alexei Poltavets.
For the prosecution, two Poltavtsevs are enough, — the state prosecutor answered him, limiting himself to calling only his mother and older brother.
"He doesn't want to live anymore"
Victoria Frolova, who lived with Alexey Poltavets in Kyiv for almost two years, considers him an unstable person. She stated this in May 2020 during an interview with the online publication "7x7. Horizontal Russia." The journalist provided a video recording of the conversation to investigators. Ekaterina MalyshevaThe state prosecutor read out the transcript during the court hearing on May 15.
According to Frolova’s story, Alexey Poltavets tried to injure himself several times right in her presence.
“He said that he was injecting some kind of medication for his heart, and if he injected too much of it, it would stop, — Frolova explained. — I asked him why he was doing this. He said he didn't want to live anymore. Because everything was bad, he was alone, and he had no one. He cut his hands a lot; once he cut his leg, and then he stitched it up."
One day, while cleaning the apartment, the girl discovered one or two syringes filled with blood under the bathtub. Poltavets explained to her that he "wanted to drain the blood from himself."
According to Frolova, he was extremely jealous of her interest in the fate of the defendants in the "Network"* case, whom she knew. She believes this jealousy could have been due to the fact that before meeting Poltavets, she had dated Ilya Shakursky, a defendant in the case.
“When I read some news about the ‘Network’* case under him [Alexey Poltavets], everything ended with cutting off hands, feet, lips, and so on,” — Frolova told journalists.
She heard the story of the murder in the Ryazan forest from Poltavets back in late 2017. However, the version then differed greatly from the one published in Meduza**.
"In the version Poltavets told me, Ivankin wasn't there at all. He was the one doing everything there, — Frolova clarified. — "First, he apparently called Katya for firewood and slit her throat, then approached Dorofeev and slit his throat. In both cases, he used a knife. He said he killed them for safety, to prevent them from going to Penza and telling anyone."
When asked by journalists to clarify whose safety they were talking about, Victoria Frolova replied: “Someone’s.”
"Could it be that when Poltavets spoke about the murder in the fall of 2017, he simply didn't mention Ivankin in order to shield him?" — journalist Evgeny Malyshev asked her again.
"Anything could have happened," - she said.
Victoria Frolova has not yet been able to be questioned at the Ryazan Regional Court: subpoenas have not reached her, and her phone is switched off.
The prosecution, by the way, believes that it was she who, on April 4, 2017, drove Maxim Ivankin and Alexei Poltavets, who had fled from Penza, to Ryazan.
* In January 2019, the Moscow District Court designated "The Network" a terrorist organization. The defendants in the case claim that such an organization never existed.
**On January 26, 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation declared the online publication Meduza an undesirable organization whose activities pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security of the Russian Federation.